Go Team Pokerati!

As action gets underway on day 2B, we\’ve got a few players you may or may not know that we\’ll be paying a little extra attention to. Be sure to check in with CSR for some chip reports from and about:

Whit Blanton — He\’s a wannabe semi-pro from Dallas, who\’s almost made enough money in poker to quit his job. He sat at the same table as Pokerati teammate (P-mates?) Tom Schneider on Day 1, and took a little extra pleasure in reclaiming the chips that Tom had given to Mark Newhouse … particularly doing so by cracking Newhizzle\’s aces with a skillfully played 68s. Whit starts the day in strong chip position with 101,450. The question to him on Day 2 is how he will wield it, especially when fueled by the boost of confidence a near-double-up at the end of Day 1 provided.

Pat Poels — He\’s a two-time bracelet-winner and host at Casino Arizona who\’s had an \”OK\” WSOP. He\’s made more money than most of his buddies this year, but hasn\’t yet had the big score to make his 2008 WSOP highly profitable. He had some stretches of really good cards in Day 1, which forced him to make some really big/frustrating/difficult laydowns. He goes into Day 2 with 64,650 chips.

Jerry Randack — Jerry\’s a well-rounded player who burst onto the scene with a strong 2nd-place finish in the 2007 Pokerati Invitational, and has since found much success at the small-tourney tables. He cashed in a NLH event at the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge III, took 2nd in Triple-Draw Lowball in the Oklahoma State Poker Championship, and final tabled earlier this summer in a Binion\’s Poker Classic PLO event. We\’ll find out how he handles the Day 2 pressure of a short-ish stack — 29,700 — with blinds beginning to rise.

The Big Randy — TBR played comfortably throughout Day 1, and though he starts with a below-average stack — 27,100 — the self-proclaimed top-ranked all-around Batface (cash-game and tournament results) really likes the structure and recognizes the deep-stack nature of this tourney is still in play. \”Feels like \’05,\” he says, referring to his first main event where he nursed a much shorter stack for four day before cashing for $40k.

Robert Goldfarb — After \”Goldfarbing\” his way into the main event, he sits with 21,025 chips and has just been playing his game … though the cards haven\’t yet come and he hasn\’t yet gained any real traction. How the start of Day 2 goes for him, I think will be critical.