Day 2 of the WSOP Hybrid Main Event was an epic one. Both in terms of the sheer time it took to whittle 179 surviving players from the three Day 1 flights to just nine finalists and in respect of the drama that played out.  

The GGPoker WSOP Main Event has been an exciting tournament, although whether it is judged to be as big as the ‘Main Event’ that was won back in the summer when Stoyan Madanzhiev banked $3.9 million for the win compared to the $1.5 million the winner of this event will receive is questionable, and not just to the Bulgarian himself.  

After a mammoth 10 hours at the felt, the dust settled to leave Brazilian player Brunno Botteon at the top of the chipcounts with 10,317,743 chips, more than double the stack of six of the players who made the final nine. Botteon was followed in the counts by online poker player and Portuguese youngster Manuel Ruivo (6,213,759) and the more experienced Damian Salas (5,653,528). 

Botteon will go into the showdown on December 15th as the man to beat, however and will be an entertaining chip leader if his recent play is anything to go by. Just three weeks ago, Botteon won a comical pot against Dan Bilzerian online, which is worth revisiting if only for the reveal and accompanying laugh.