Lang claimed the chip lead with 382,000 chips while Clements slid into third with 330,100 and Nguyen was right behind with 329,800.
A total of 283 players started Day 2 but after 10 levels of play only 149 remained. With late registration available the field finally topped out at 413 players after the ninth level.
James Dempsey, Allen Cunningham, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Dewitt, Justin Smith, Dwyte Pilgrim, Will Failla, Annette Obrestad, Erik Seidel, Carlos Mortensen, Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson are among the players who bagged up chips at the end of play.
Defending champion Antonio Esfandiari is still in the hunt with 250,700 chips to his name.
Meanwhile Jeff Madsen, Mark Newhouse, Bob Bounahra, Lisa Hamilton, Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu all hit the rail on Day 2.
Apparently the run-good has finally run out for 2011 WSOP POY Ben Lamb as he busted in the later stages of Day 2. He had the misfortune of smashing pocket kings into Blake Kelso’s pocket aces.
As usual Phil Hellmuth arrived late but quickly doubled his stack. He even won a significant hand off WSOP nemesis Ben Lamb before finally falling down to an average stack of 50,000 chips.
Perhaps the most memorable hand of the day occurred mid-way through Level 8 when Scott Clements got all-in with T-9 for trip nines against Chris Klodnicki who had 8-8 for a full house.
Amazingly Klodnicki hit quad eights on the turn and then Clements hit the case nine on the river for better quads.
Day 3 begins at 12 p.m. tomorrow and the prizepool is set to finally be announced. Expect first place to come at just under the $870,124 that Antonio Esfandiari won last year. Follow along with the WPT live update team.
Here are the top approximate 10 chip counts at the end of play:
1. Grant Lang – 382,000 2. Scott Clements – 330,100 3. Soi Nguyen – 329,800 4. Keith Ferrara – 297,000 5. James Dempsey – 290,000 6. Antonio Esfandiari – 275,000 7. Brent Roberts – 270,000 8. Allen Cunningham – 235,000 9. Ty Reiman – 225,000 10. Ravi Raghavan – 220,000
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