Mike 'Timex' McDonald, Tom 'hitthehole' Middleton and Mike 'pipedream17' Dietrich are among the final 16 players battling for a bracelet and $69,248 in WCOOP-52 ($215 NL Hold'em, Big Antes).
Finnish player jobetzu holds a significant lead of 1,924,438, some way ahead of Middleton in second who stacked up 1,210,959 at the end of Day 1. EPT champion McDonald, who has $4,494,663 in live winnings, is yet to win a WCOOP or SCOOP bracelet but is well positioned to final table. McDonald holds a tough-to-beat record of being the youngest EPT champion, taking down EPT Dortmund at the tender age of 18. He's currently in 7th.
The two-day event started yesterday with 2,164 players. Only 16 remain and each has a minimum of $1,731 locked up.
The other players on that chip count list are not simply going to roll over and let McDonald win. Syndrome 1977 is no stranger to big money tournament having finished fifth in the five year anniversary Sunday Million for $799,842.09.
Fellow 'Mike' Dietrich has won more than $3,234,860 in online tournaments at PokerStars and Swedish grinder 'capoch' , who won a Super Tuesday last year and can be found at the $1,000/$2,000 pot-limit triple draw tables.
Alex 'J10BLN' Jobling comes in fresh from runner-up success at UKIPT Newcastle where he won £82,120.
The tournament resumes today at 11:00 ET. Find it by searching for tournament number 2012090052.
Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.