Justin Bonomo Leads 19 Remaining Players On Day 2

(Las Vegas) – Day 2 of the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl at the ARIA Resort & Casino returned 44 players to action on Memorial Day and after seven levels of play the field was trimmed to 19 remaining players. The entire day’s action was live streamed exclusively on PokerGO and topping the leader board is Justin Bonomo after finishing the day with 2.6 million.

“I just had a lot of fortunate situations – my bluffs worked, my value bets worked,” Bonomo said. “A lot of people think you’re lucky if you win an all in and you’re behind – yes, you’re lucky, but there’s other forms of luck too. When I made a big hand my opponents had a big hand too – there’s a lot of luck in that.”

Bonomo took a couple of decisive pots off 2016 SHR Bowl winner Rainer Kempe late in the day. He first doubled up holding 8h 7h on a Ac 7c 7d flop and Kempe mucked his cards. Then in one of the final hands of the night Bonomo won a pot of around 700,000 after forcing a fold from Kempe with a large bet.

Bryon Kaverman was the chip leader for most of the day and was the only other player to cross the 2 million-mark. Then there’s a huge gap for the chase pack of Dan Shak (1.4 million), Bill Klein (1.4 million), Christoph Vogelsang (1.3 million) and Leon Tsoukernik (1.3 million).

The rest of the remaining players are led by Pratyush Buddiga with 716,000. Cary Katz, Jason Koon and David Einhorn round out the top ten. Both former champions, Brian Rast and Kempe, are still in the field and they finished 13th and 14th in the counts. 

Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier, arguably the two most popular players remaining, are also the shortest returning stacks with 225,000 and 243,000 respectively. Andrew Lichtenberger is near the bottom with 444,000 and Koray Aldemir rallied from nearly felted to 356,000 to end the day.

Kevin Hart was a force on Day 2, spending the entire time on the Feature Table. He doubled up through Fedor Holz and an hour later eliminated him tailormade for broadcast. Holz opened, Hart three-bet, Holz moved all in and Hart called with pocket aces. Holz tabled pocket queens, an ace hit on flop and Holz never improved. 

Two hours later Hart’s chip stack dwindled and he moved all in preflop holding Ac Js. 2015 SHR Bowl champion Brian Rast called holding pocket kings and Hart pleaded with the dealer for an ace. The board ran 8c 8d 6c 9s Qh, Hart was animated, pleading with the dealer as the board ran out but didn’t improve and was eliminated.

Day 2 was a day of attrition with over half the field eliminated in play. Dan Colman, Bryn Kenney, Erik Seidel, Hart, Antonio Esfandiari, Matt Berkey and Dan Smith were among those eliminated.

Day 3 resumes on Tuesday at 1 pm PT and the field is scheduled to play either seven levels or until eight players remain, whichever should happen first. Fans can watch all the action from the time the first card is dealt until play ends on PokerGO. Live hand reports are also available on PokerNews.com.

Complete Day 2 Chip Counts

1. Justin Bonomo – 2,628,000
2. Byron Kaverman – 2,063,000
3. Dan Shak – 1,482,000
4. Bill Klein – 1,466,000
5. Christoph Vogelsang – 1,391,000
6. Leon Tsoukernik – 1,335,000
7. Pratyush Buddiga – 716,000
8. Cary Katz – 701,000
9. Jason Koon – 696,000
10. David Einhorn – 685,000
11. Jake Schindler – 567,000
12. Stefan Schillhabel – 530,000
13. Brian Rast – 526,000
14. Rainer Kempe – 487,000
15. Andrew Lichtenberger – 444,000
16. Koray Aldemir – 356,000
17. Zach Hyman – 267,000
18. Jason Mercier 243,000
19. Daniel Negreanu – 225,000