Event 56: $1,600 No-Limit Hold’em $2,000,000 Guarantee
Level 17
Blinds: 2,500/5,000/500
Total Entrants: 2,216
Players Remaining: 200
Chip Average: 222,000
As cries of “payout” echo across the Venetian Poker Room, the field is rapidly decreasing in size and the cream is starting to rise toward the top. Two players who have made the money and are fighting for a much larger prize each hold the same piece of poker history as Colossus runner-up finishers but have first place in mind this time around.
Taylor Black earned his WSOP silver medal at the start of the summer when he took second in a field of 18,000. Black started Day 2 of that journey with only 10 big blinds and has managed to hit the “spin” button in a similar fashion today. Black surged at the start of the new level and is playing 550,000 from the 107,500 he pulled from the plastic.
Jiri Horak made it through a sewer pipe of 21,000 players to take second in Colossus last year and was paid handsomely to the tune of $618,000 for his efforts. Unlike Black, Horak is trending below the chip average in post-money bubble play but the Czech player has fought through much worse and knows what it takes to start climbing.