JohnnyBax Wins 2nd Bracelet, Clements Charging

It was another busy day of action at the Rio with a total of five events on tap, with two playing to a bracelet.

Josephy, who along with Eric “Sheets” Haber, runs one of the most well-known backing operations in poker took down $299k for his performance in Event 9 $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout.

The New Jersey-native had to get past Steve “Zugwat” Silverman, Tim West, David “Bakes” Baker and Chris Klodnicki to claim his second WSOP title. Josephy’s last bracelet came way back in 2005 in a Seven-Card Stud event.

Here’s a look at the final-table payouts:

1. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - $299,486 2. Evan Silverstein - $185,487 3. Steve Silverman - $123,202 4. Tim West - $91,428 5. Alessandro Longobardi - $68,613 6. David “Bakes” Baker - $51,997 7. Max Steinberg - $39,756 8. Chris Klodnicki - $30,641 9. Ryan Hughes - $23,791

Clements, Sabat, Le Make Final 14 of $2.5k NLHE 6-Max

Scott Clements, Tuan Le and Eddy Sabat are all in the final 14 of Event 11 $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max but they’re all looking up to chip leader Levi Berger.

Berger amassed 1.4 million chips, which gives him nearly twice as many chips as his nearest competitor.

Action resumes at 1 p.m. today. Follow along live on PokerListings. Here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts at the end of Day 2:

1. Levi Berger – 1,420,000 2. Tuan Le – 873,000 3. Scott Clements – 842,000 4. Eddy Sabat – 694,000 5. Jacob Bazeley – 638,000 6. Tamara Tibbles – 418,000 7. David Gonia – 405,000 8. Peter Turmezey – 397,000 9. Clifford Goldkind – 318,000 10. Luke Vrabel – 226,000

Mercier, Cunningham Charging in $1.5k Pot-Limit Hold’em

Jason Mercier and Allen Cunningham are among the chip leaders after an intense Day 1 of Event 12 $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em that saw the field cut down from 535 to just 62 players.

Event 12 drew a ton of big names including Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad and Gavin Smith. All of the aforementioned names busted, however.

Meanwhile Adam Geyer, Matt Stout, Martin Staszko, Melanie Weisner and Griffin Benger are among the survivors. Action continues at 1 p.m. today.

Here are the top 10 chip counts:

1. Robert Corcione – 144,600 2. Mike Carson – 111,000 3. Eric Crain – 76,000 4. Pim de Goede – 74,500 5. Timothy Reilly – 66,600 6. Yorane Kerignard – 64,000 7. Grzegorz Derhowshi – 61,000 8. Jason Mercier – 55,200 9. Allen Cunningham – 52,100 10. Jean-Nicholas Fortin – 49,000

Woodward on Top of Pro-Heavy $5k Stud Hi-Lo

Poker pro Matt Woodward built a stack of 59,700 chips to take the overnight chip lead on Day 1 of Event 13 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Eight-or-Better.

To say the event is pro heavy would be an understatement as Yuval Bronshtein, Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow and Maria Ho are among the many, many big names who made it to Day 2.

After one day of play the field was only cut from 191 to 160. Action resumes at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Here are the top 10 chip counts:

1. Matt Woodward – 59,700 2. Yuval Bronshtein – 57,200 3. Ilya Gorodetskiy – 56,300 4. Gavin Smith – 51,900 5. Matt Lefkowitz – 50,300 6. David Bach – 49,700 7. Toby Hausen – 49,300 8. Sanjay Pandya – 49,000 9. Kevin Vo – 48,500 10. Mike Leah – 46,900

Wheeler Outlasts Froehlich, Takes $1,500 Limit Hold'em Crown

Experienced poker pro Brent Wheeler finally broke with a bracelet win in Event 10 $1,500 Limit Hold'em.

Well-established on the circuit, Wheeler already had to two WSOP final tables on his resume but was finally able to break through in Event 10 and take home a $191,605 first-place prize.

Eric Froehlich was a threat to win his third WSOP bracelet at the final table but ended up falling out of contention in ninth place.

Here are the complete final-table results:

1. Brent Wheeler – $191,605 2. Mark Mierkalns – $118,300 3. Malissia Zapata – $76,904 4. Chiduziem Obi – $56,485 5. Grayson Scoggin – $42,704 6. William James – $31,747 7. Brian Nichols – $24,232 8. Alex Queen – $18,703 9. Eric Froehlich – $14,585

Visit www.pokerlistings.com