Ben Yu was the player to collect the largest chip stack at the end of Day 2 of the ongoing WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship. The player, a WPT regular, bagged and tagged 1.382 million last night to top the chip counts leaderboard heading into Day 3.

Yu has more than $2.2 million in live tournament earnings. His portfolio of career accomplishments includes two WSOP gold bracelets, the second of which the player won last summer. He topped the field of the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship for $232,738. The player captured his first WSOP piece of gold in 2015, when he won another $10,000 buy-in tournament – the Limit Hold’em Championship.

Yu has not won a WPT title yet, but this was not due to lack of trying, the player once came very close to capturing one. During the 2015 edition of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Yu finished third in the $10,400 Championship. He scooped a $607,433 payout from the prize pool, which actually became his largest ever cash collected from a live tournament.

Yu is leading all 53 survivors from Day 2 into the tournament’s next day of play. Building his stack, the player eliminated quite some notables. Sean Winter was one of the players to fall victims to Yu on his way to the chip lead.

Joseph Couden, who started Day 2 of the event as the chip leader, ended the day second in chips. The player is following Yu closely with 1.339 million. Qasem Jamhour (1.284 million), former WPT Main Tour Main Event winner Andjelko Andrejevic (1.023 million), Mike Chiappetta (1.021 million), and Nick Schwarmann (1.017 million) were the other players who passed the one million mark on Sunday.

Former WPT champions Matas Cimbolas, Jason Brin, and Mohsin Charania also made it through the day. Other notables who will return at the host venue, Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, include former WPT Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger, German poker star Rainer Kempe, and Sam DeSilva.

This year’s WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 Main Event attracted a field of 911 entries. Day 2 of the event began with 343 survivors and they were reduced to just 53 hopefuls by the end of Day 2 action on Sunday. The Championship featured a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million, which was exceeded to reach $2,915,200. Day 2 of the event saw the bubble burst. Mark Cole, who was eliminated in 114th place, was the first player to leave the tournament with a payout.

Each of the 53 survivors is guaranteed a minimum cash of $10,006, when they return for Day 3 action a the host casino. Play is set to resume today at noon local time.

The tournament is set to be completed on January 24, when the official six-handed final table will be played. Each of the six finalists is guaranteed a six-figure payout. However, they will all certainly vie for the first-place prize of $511,604.

Brian Altman won the latest edition of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship. The event took place back in 2015. Altman beat a field of 1,027 entries to scoop a first-place prize of $723,008 for his victory.

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