Nguyen then came back with repeated double-ups to hold a healthy stack again and make it to three-handed play before finally being eliminated by Murray. The WSOP bracelet winner couldn’t recover from that hand and fell in 11th place.Īnother incredible comeback story was brewing at the final table as Day 2 chip leader Toan Nguyen, who came into the day with more chips than the second and third largest stacks combined lost all but half a big blind worth of his stack to David Ong when five-handed. However, he would lose a critical pot to Arthur Tanimoto after correctly calling off with top pair on the turn versus Tanimoto’s flush draw, but Tanimoto would hit his flush to take a sizeable chunk from Song’s rebuilt stack. The day began with 32 remaining contenders, and for a while, it looked as though an improbable comeback story could be the highlight of the day as Stephen Song, who started the day with just five big blinds made an improbable run to the chip lead.

Be sure to check out the live reporting portal for more tournament action.Stephen Song A Day of Near-Comeback Stories That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team's coverage of the RGPS Thunder Valley Golden Ticket $575 Main Event. Villaneuva was next out after getting his stack in the middle in a flush-versus-flush hand against Men. Sabbaghian, who has been playing poker for around a decade, said the five-figure score isn't his biggest ever, but 'it's close.'ĭay 2 action lasted around 12 hours and all three of the Day 1 chip leaders made deep runs, including Day 1a chip leader Randy Gil, who was eliminated in sixth place when he ran pocket sevens into the pocket kings of Day 1c leader Victor Villaneuva. He laughed thinking about how he almost busted on his first orbit of the tournament when he ran pocket fours into pocket kings and got there. Sabbaghian added that winning small pots and getting re-jams through helped him get through the final table. 'Honestly, that was like the only big one,' Sabbaghian said when asked what hands helped him to his victory. Sabbaghian, who told PokerNews he is mainly a cash grinder but takes the occasional stab at tournaments, was propelled to the victory by a massive hand where he sent Shahin Shojaeyan out in fourth place when Sabbaghian's pocket nines made a straight against the set of tens of Shojaeyan.

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