WSOP: Bryn Kenney Leads $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Frank Kassela claimed the Player of the Year lead when John Juanda bubbled the $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event last night. (Photo: PokerWire)

Day 2 of the $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em is officially in the books, and the wait was well worth it. There was more than enough action to go around as the field was narrowed from 69 at the start of the day to just 18 as the night finished up.

Ending the day in the top spot was Bryn Kenney. He benefited relatively early in the day from a perfect river card that allowed him to crack Phil Ivey’s pocket kings with A-K, and from there he rarely had to look over his shoulder, finishing with a stack worth 2,425,000, nearly one million chips more than his nearest competitor, Brian Hodhod (1,484,000). 

Fan favorite Daniel Negreanu jumped up over the one-million-chip mark early in the day but eventually hit a spot where he just hovered around the same stack size. He ended the day in sixth place with 860,000, still plenty of room to work with blinds at 10,000/20,000 and a 3,000 ante. Regardless of where he finishes, Negreanu is guaranteed his best finish of the 2010 WSOP so far.

Just ahead of Negreanu at the end of the night was double-bracelet winner Frank Kassela (978,000), who entered the day dueling with John Juanda to take the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year race. Both men roller-coastered across the chip counts all day, but when crunch time came around Juanda actually became the tournament’s bubble boy, running 2-2 into Mikael Thuritz’s Q-Q and then busting one hand later. That finish in 19th place for Juanda gave Kassela a guaranteed five-point lead, one which he can expand significantly by making a big run today.

Also still alive and guaranteed a payday when Day 3 of the $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em begins are Sam Trickett (1,123,000), Abe Mosseri (1,035,000), Jason Somerville (859,000), Isaac Haxton (835,000), Shawn Buchanan (772,000), Eugene Katchalov (600,000), Justin Bonomo (576,000), Carlos Mortensen (484,000), Vadim Trincher (425,000), Mikael Thuritz (388,000), Heather Sue Mercer (349,000) and Dan Kelly (260,000). All of them will be chasing the top prize of $1,315,518.

The day should be a relatively short one, as only 12 players need to be eliminated to reach the final table and take one final break until Saturday afternoon. Action in this last big WSOP hold’em event prior to the Main Event gets back underway at 3:00 p.m. PT this afternoon.