Day Two of the Caesars Palace Classic

It may be lacking the bright lights and cameras of the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker, but the Caesars Palace Classic has proven to be one of the more successful $10,000 buy-in tournaments of the year. Despite playing opposite the U.S. PokerBowl across the strip, the CPC's field rivaled the star power of any major tournament, and tomorrow's final table is no exception. But before revealing who they are and how many chips they have, let's take a look at how they got there.

Ninety-four players returned to play day two, and action wouldn't stop until only the final nine remained. Vivek "Psyduck" Rajkumar made a strong push early in the day when he was hit in the face with the deck, flopping set after set and eliminating nearly a dozen players to build his stack up to $300,000. At one point, his tower of chips was so large that Rajkumar himself had no idea what it was worth. Tournament officials wanted him to reveal his larger chips at the bottom of the pile but there simply wasn't room on the table.

Justin Bonomo started his day by busting out of the PokerBowl at the Palm's Casino and quickly making his way to Caesars Palace for the start of day two. Bonomo came into the day with about $65,000, but quickly increased his stack to just under $300,000 by relentlessly punishing his table and hitting more than his fair share of flops. Things were going smoothly for the young professional, and he hadn't faced anyone with a large enough stack to hurt him until he was moved to Rajkumar's table.

Rajkumar had built his stack to almost $400,000 when the biggest hand of the day came down. Bonomo raised to $11,000 from the hijack and Rajkumar called from the small blind. The flop came 10 9 2 and Bonomo bet $16,000. Rajkumar called and the turn was the J. Bonomo took a few seconds and then fired in $35,000. Rajkumar counted out his enormous stack and then raised to $110,000. Bonomo put his head down and then announced all in for an additional $157,000. Rajkumar shook his head and then started to replay the hand out loud. He kept saying over and over again how he didn't think he could fold. He counted out his chips and realized he would be left with $91,000 if he lost. After several minutes and with a crowd around him, Rajkumar reluctantly called, showing J10. Bonomo turned over K Q for the nut straight. The river was the 8 and it took a few minutes to ship the massive pot to Bonomo, who moved up to $605,000. Rajkumar was left with just $91,000 but he fought back to end the day strong.

The money bubble came and went surprisingly quickly due to the sometimes hilarious antics of Ivan Freitez. Freitez was extremely short-stacked for about an hour, and he would go to great lengths to stall every time he was dealt a hand. Because of his lighthearted and jovial demeanor, nobody at his table ever called the clock on him. During one particularly long stall, Freitez hemmed and hawed over his cards for several minutes before finally asking the big stack Lee Watkinson how much he had left. The table burst into laughter, and after a bit, Freitez again mucked his cards, presumably without ever looking at them. As a result of his play, or lack thereof, Freitez was forced to move in with pocket fours on the first hand of hand-for-hand play and was counterfeited on the river to be sent home as the bubble boy.

Once the players hit the money, the action was much faster than usual, as players who had been folding to cash finally opened up their games and were subsequently eliminated. Along the way, we lost more than a few big-name professionals.

With the elimination of Jordan Siegel, the final 10 players consolidated to play down one last spot to the final returning table of nine. The last hand of the night came when Alan Jaffray raised to $40,000 from under the gun and was called by David Singer in middle position and Tony Cousineau in the big blind. The flop came down Q 9 3 and Cousineau checked. Jaffray moved all in for his last $225,000, and Singer folded. Cousineau immediately called and showed A Q and Jaffray was drawing with J 10, but the turn and river came 3 and A, eliminating him in 10th place.

Here are the final nine and their chip counts heading into tomorrow's 3 p.m. final table, where the winner will take home $1 million and the title.

Seat No. 1 - Alex Bolotin - $222,000

Seat No. 2 - David Singer - $304,000

Seat No. 3 - Justin Bonomo - $702,000

Seat No. 4 - Jose Valdes - $182,000

Seat No. 5 - Vivek "Psyduck" Rajkumar - $248,000

Seat No. 6 - George Unich - $168,000

Seat No. 7 - Scott Fischman - $733,000

Seat No. 8 - Tony Cousineau - $816,000

Seat No. 9 - "Kido" Pham - $913,000

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