Two WSOP Main Event Champs Reach Day 2 of PokerStars Summer Series Finale

The $2,200 buy-in PokerStars Summer Series Event #3, the last of the tournament, is slated to play down to a winner on Sunday, and there's at least a reasonable chance the winner will be a former world champ.

Both Joe McKeehen and Jamie Gold advanced to Day 2 in the $500,000 guaranteed no-limit hold'em tournament. Gold won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 2006 for $12 million, while McKeehen took it down in 2015 for $7.7 million.

The two world champs bagged above average stacks following Day 1. McKeehen busted out to a fast start on Day 1a and finished with 464,000 chips, putting him in fourth place out of the 12 players who bagged from the session. Gold, with 344,000 chips, ended the Day 1b flight in ninth place out of the 17 players who survived the lengthy Friday grind.

Day 1c on Saturday, the final starting flight, produced the biggest field of them all. When registration closed after Level 12, 222 players were registered for the session, bringing the overall prize pool to $873,600, significantly higher than the $500,000 guarantee at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia.

The session won't end until 12.5% of the field remains, or 28 players. When that occurs, the tournament as a whole will be down to 57 players, all of whom will come back at 11:15 a.m. ET on Sunday. Gold and McKeehen are locked in to Day 2. The plan is to play down to a winner on Sunday, but if it runs too long, the tournament staff could decide to push back the final table to Monday.
 
It's interesting to see former WSOP Main Event champs battling it out in tournaments. Both Jamie Gold and Joe McKeehen have demonstrated incredible poker skills to win it all in the biggest event. I'm looking forward to seeing if either of them can add another major trophy to their cabinet this weekend. It should make for an exciting final table if they both make it that far.
 
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