$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 18:  6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante
Players Remaining:  14 of 261

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 18:  6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante
Players Remaining:  15 of 261

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 18:  6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante
Players Remaining:  16 of 261

Players returned from the last break of the day. They will play out Level 18 and survivors will bag their chips for the final day tomorrow at noon.

Table 13
Seat 1: Ricardo Rodriguez – 493,000 (41 bb)
Seat 2: Miguel Hernandez – 850,000 (71 bb)
Seat 3: Peter Walsworth – 178,000 (15 bb)
Seat 4: Justin Swilling – 690,000 (58 bb)
Seat 5: Jason Spry – 216,000 (18 bb)
Seat 6: Mike Ahmad – 398,000 (33 bb)
Seat 7: Bill Camp – 980,000 (82 bb)
Seat 8: Brian Ray – 734,000 (61 bb)

Table 21 – ( bb)
Seat 1: Mark Zhang – 1,299,000 (108 bb)
Seat 2: Reese Combs – 670,000 (56 bb)
Seat 3: Thomas Shepard – 1,135,000 (95 bb)
Seat 4: Jeff Trudeau Jr – 429,000 (36 bb)
Seat 5: Rusty Wadsworth – 527,000 (44 bb)
Seat 6: Doug Marro – 243,000 (20 bb)
Seat 7: Michael Medina – 992,000 (83 bb)
Seat 8: Farhad Kamali – 967,000 (81 bb)

1st: $128,540 + SPS Trophy
2nd: $85,450
3rd: $62,330
4th: $46,040
5th: $34,450
6th: $26,100
7th: $20,020
8th: $15,560
9th-10th: $12,240
11th-12th: $10,030
13th-14th: $8,380
15th-16th: $7,160

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 17:  5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante
Players Remaining:  16 of 261

“Warren G” Gheen was eliminated in 17th place to put the field down to its last two tables. Here’s a look at the lineup, we will update with counts when they go on break in 12 minutes.

Table 13
Seat 1: Ricardo Rodriguez
Seat 2: Miguel Hernandez
Seat 3: Peter Walsworth
Seat 4: Justin Swilling
Seat 5: Jason Spry
Seat 6: Mike Ahmad
Seat 7: Bill Camp
Seat 8: Brian Ray

Table 21
Seat 1: Mark Zhang
Seat 2: Reese Combs
Seat 3: Thomas Shepard
Seat 4: Jeff Trudeau Jr
Seat 5: Rusty Wadsworth
Seat 6: Doug Marro
Seat 7: Michael Medina
Seat 8: Farhad Kamali

17th: Warren Gheen – $6,250
18th: Hyndi Khomutetsky – $6,250
19th: Alex Ziskin – $6,250
20th: Igor Pinheiro – $6,250

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 17:  5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante
Players Remaining:  20 of 261

Level 17 rolled around and the field is down to the last 21 players trying to make a big stack while making it through to Day 3 tomorrow.

They will play out this level, take a 15-minute break, and return to play one more 60-minute level before bags come out.

21st: Billy Burdick – $5,590
22nd: John O’Neal – $5,590
23rd: Don Mathews – $5,590
24th: Huicun Qiao – $5,590

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 16:  4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Players Remaining:  24 of 261

When Stephen Brite was eliminated in 25th place, tournament staff paused the clock and the last 24 players redrew seats at the last three tables.

John Dolan made it into the money but went out in 32nd place while padding his lead atop the SPS Tournament Leaderboard.

25th: Stephen Brite – $5,120
26th: Francisco Gomez – $5,120
27th: Alan Taylor – $5,120
28th: Ken O’Donnell – $5,120
29th: Fabio Chavez – $5,120
30th: RJ Sullivan – $5,120
31st: Onder Ekinci – $5,120
32nd: John Dolan – $5,120
33rd: Bart O’Connell – $4,820

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 16:  4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Players Remaining:  26 of 261

Players returned from another break with 26 players remaining and a three-table redraw set when they reach 24.

Ricardo Rodriguez leads the field late with 1,130,000 and the only player over one million. Brian Ray is second with 720,000 followed by Thomas Shepard with 610,000.

Blinds are up to 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante and the average stack is about 400,000 (50 bb) so still plenty of play.

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 15:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Players Remaining:  33 of 261

The logjam in the Championship broke open and quickly. On Table 21, Wil Mercado was eliminated in 35th place when his could not catch up to .

While waiting for action to finish to start hand-for-hand on the money bubble, John Kennedy was all in for 24,000 against Peter Walsworth.

They were racing with Kennedy needing to improve his against Walsworth’s . The board ran out , no help to Kennedy, and he was eliminated on the money bubble.

The remaining 33 players were in the money and guaranteed at least $4,820.

1st: $128,540 + SPS Trophy
2nd: $85,450
3rd: $62,330
4th: $46,040
5th: $34,450
6th: $26,100
7th: $20,020
8th: $15,560
9th-10th: $12,240
11th-12th: $10,030
13th-14th: $8,380
15th-16th: $7,160
17th-20th: $6,250
21st-24th: $5,590
25th-32nd: $5,120
33rd: $4,820

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 15:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Players Remaining:  36 of 261

Blinds are up but the player count is remaining the same, sitting at 36 players for half of the previous level. They will go into hand-for-hand mode when 34 remain so they are all sweating the bubble.

With blinds at 3,000/6,000/6,000, the average stack is about 290,000 (48 bb) so there’s still plenty of play to get to the money.

$2,500 SPS Championship
Prize Pool: $587,250  |  Structure
Level 14:  3,000/5,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining:  41 of 261

Players returned to action after the second break with the money bubble on the horizon and no change in our top stacks. And it’s not really close.

Reese Combs is out front with 857,000, closely followed by Ricard Rodriguez with 804,000. Third-place Warren Gheen is a good distance back with 473,000 and the closest to either of our leaders.

But everyone still has a long day ahead of them to get to the top.