Day 2A began with 2,490 hopefuls who survived either Day 1B or 1D. The "shuffle up and deal" honor was given to the Caesar's Entertainment dealer of the year winner.

In early going Shannon Elizabeth and Liv Boeree failed to join the 822 survivors from Day 2A who are already on to a combined field Day 3. Cliff Josephy, Todd Terry, Tony Dunst, Joe Sebok, two-time main event final tablist Jeff Shulman and 2011 bracelet winner Eugene Katchalov also saw their Main Event dreams come to an end. At the break we learned that Barry Greenstein and Daniel Alaei also joined the rail.

After the first two levels of the day, blinds will move to 400/800 with a 100 ante as the green 25 chips are raced off. Over 500 players have been eliminated in the first two levels. Kevin Saul is one of the chip leaders with 280,000.

Other notable decent stacks:

Patrik Antonius 220k
Sam Simon 170k
Justin Bonomo 165k
David Chiu 147k
Jeff Madsen 143k
Dan Kelly 135k
Victor Ramdin 130k
Jamie Gold 130k
Phil Laak 126k
Robert Varkonyi 118k
Todd Brunson 115k
David Williams 115k
John Racener 108k
Matt Matros 106k

Ben Lamb continues his torrid run in the 2011 WSOP. He is currently over 300k and applying pressure on a shorter stacked Phil Hellmuth in the Player of the Year leaderboard. For instance, if Lamb finishes better than 138th, and Phil Hellmuth is unable to make the money, Lamb would take the lead in the Player of the Year race.

Overheard at the tables as I walked around "If you ever want to win a prop bet, ask a guy what is the national sport of Canada. It's not what you think. Originally it was lacrosse until in 1994 they added ice hockey over people's objections."

Also overheard at the tables "Why are New Yorkers always so angry? They realize the light at the end of the tunnel is New Jersey."

There seem to be fewer hats and costumes today. I saw that the Santa Claus, one of the cow outfits, one buffalo head, and one squirrel head were still in the field.

Announcers came back after the break to ask if players recognized a player who was lost and didn't know where to find his seat., nothing. Next they asked what tables had an open seat, nothing. Then they asked does anyone have a seat with a black sweater on it. Bingo, the guy is back at his proper seat, looking confused and bemused as the Amazon room broke into applause.

Near the dinner break I walked up to a table in full debate about some poker player. I first heard "that guy likes to start companies that catch flying knives." When I listened a bit more, they were discussing Dan Fleyshman, the entrepreneur, poker player and CEO of the defunct poker room (now affiliate) Victory Poker. Three players were spouting out their opinions, rumours heard, or personal experiences with Dan. Everyone loves to give their two cents regarding well known people. The resulting conversation ranged from "He's a good guy" to "I heard he was a scumbag and crook." I shudder to think what people would say about me if I was well known.

One late level three bust out was Brad "Yukon" Booth. He was featured in a very candid CardPlayer article detailing his struggles the last few years with being cheated, big debts and losses playing poker. He has been trying to pay people back while he remakes his poker career. He had high hopes that he could make a deep run to give a big boost to those efforts. Unfortunately for him, he will need to find poker salvation at another poker tournament.

Players are now on dinner break with the average at over 72k. While the field was larger today, the pace of bustouts was quite a bit quicker too. The blinds will move to 500/1000 with a 100 ante after the dinner break.

As I'm starting to feel the effects of day after day of 14 hours at the Rio, I'm going to tkae off a couple hours tonight. But I wanted to share my observations from the day so far.

One thing that has really ramped up this year from previous year from my daily wanderings amongst the hundreds of tables, is an increased unease with reporters around their table. I have to credit the Partouche Tekingmac incidents of fake blogger/reporters aiding players, but I’ve found many players paranoid when I come around table to watch the action.

A new WSOP champion will be crowned in 2011 as Jonathan Duhamel bust out midway through Day 2A. He was a classy and genuine young representative for the poker world.

This WSOP Main Event has entrants from 85 countries and over the entire series from 105 countries, as a comparison the last Winter Olympics only had athletes from 82 countries.

Carter Gill’s chipstack (no player present) has blinded down to below 20k from 49k to start the day.

I happened to walk up to Scotty Nguyen’s table just as he was all in. With a raise pre-flop, the flop came down J,9,X...and the money went all in. Scotty’s opponent, before calling the all in shove of Scotty, asked if Scotty had the other J. He then flipped over J,J for top set, a semi-slowroll when no hand could beat him. Scotty was a bit disgusted and dejected as he flipped over his J,9 for top two pair, walking away from the table before the turn and river were dealt.

One candidate for questionable choice of costume arrived on Day 1A in normal attire, only to return after the dinner break dressed as Snow White. One media member scoffed it off saying he had seen the guy dressed in a dress a couple weeks, it was just his thing. Well, for his Day 2A follow-up Richard Wyrick he dressed up as Wonder Woman. He has just bust out before the dinner break and now must do the walk of shame up the crowded Rio hallways.

Daniel Negreanu continues to hold court at “the mothership” featured table, after his double early to 70k, he had a rough level before the dinner break and finds himself back down to 46,200 with blinds 500/1000 after dinner. Sorel Mizzi is also at the featured table.

In a story depicting the roller coaster nature of the WSOP, Lee Childs of 2007 WSOP final table fame  began the day with 8,450. He shoved his first hand of the day with A,10 under the gun that was uncalled. A few hands later he got A,K and doubled up against a player with K,Q with a flush draw on the low flop. From there he steadily built his stack throughout the day to a peak of 100k, before losing several hands to fall back to average around 75k. Then right before the dinner break he played a massive pot where his J’s were bested by 4’s that flopped a set leaving him with just 3600. He doubled his next hand with 3’s that won the race against A,J. One last all in with no call left him with 9900 at the dinner break with an ambitious agenda ahead of him after dinner if he is to make Day 3.

Recent bustouts on Day 2A include Phil Gordon, Soi Nguyen, Andrew Robl, Gavin SMith, Shane Schleger, DJ Blanchard, Jimmy Fricke, Gavin Smith and Jay "SEABEAST" Kinkade.

After three levels, the average chip stack is around 77k with 1203 players remaining. The blinds will move to 500/1000 with a 100 ante after dinner. The current chip leader is Aleksandr Mozhnyako with 277,100 in chips.

Day 1A and Day 1C survivors combined to play Day 2A on Monday. There are 2,031 players hoping to make it one day further into the 2011 WSOP Main Event. Players still have a long way to go as only 693 players will make the money on Day 4 sometime and reach the initial payout of $19,359. The eventual winner will need to accumulate 205,950,000 chips in order to claim $8.7 million prize.

The average age of the 6,865 Main Event entrants is 37.  96.5% of the field is male. 242 women entered this year.

Reigning champion Jonathan Duhamel gave the traditional introduction indicating “it was nice back” and “if you have a chance to win this tournament, it’s going to change your life.”

Daniel Negreanu is at “the mothership” featured table and just received a big ovation when he essentially doubled up to 70k. As Daniel tweeted “Over 70k now! AJ vs AhKh flop AJT two hearts. I needed to fade a K Q or a heart. Came 3d then 4c. Ya baby! Let's do this!”

There are a couple lingering stories from yesterday playing out on Day 2A. Carter Gill became all the buzz within the press corps when we heard that he had been barred from all Harrah’s properties for an incident at Harrah’s that seemingly involved his throwing out clothes out the window of a “special friend” who ultimately called her friend in security who grilled and then barred Gill from Harah’s properties. That includes the Rio where Gill had qualified for Day 2 with 49,000 chips which are now being blinded off while Gill attempts to find someone to appeal his barring.

I spoke to Brian “Stinger” Hastings today. He’s had a good summer at the high stakes cash tables in Vegas, but his Main Event run came to an end early on Day 2. He made a couple misplays early that diminished his stack and he shipped A,K against a very loose aggressive opponent who had been opening around 40% of his hands only to run into AA.

Hastings added that he had another successful night last night at the Bellagio and was likely headed back there now where he has often been winning five times the Main Event buy-in during his sessions. Just before he left, he remarked at Dan “Jungleman12” Cates’ frustrations at the tables last night. He lost some pots early and got frustrated and started steaming and losing more and more. It must have affected his desire to play today because he has yet to show up as his 30k stack is being blinded off similarly to Carter Gill.

In the hat and costume department, the inflatable orange crowned gentleman is back. So is the guy that likes to wear ladies stuffed bras over his manly clothing. His first day’s choice was red, today is slightly less stuffed and pink. The vivid red robed man with the matching red silk lined top hat is back too. I also noticed one big USA cat-in- the-hat style hat and one guy with a hoodie with big ski goggles on receiving a vigorous massage.

Phil Hellmuth had come into Day 2 with just 11,800 chips. He insisted that he would try his best to grind the short stack, but apparently misunderstood which Day 2 he was playing and overslept. It required hotel security, who had been notified by fellow poker players to enter his room, despite the “Do Not Disturb” message to rouse and notify him. By the time he hurriedly showed up at the Rio, his stack was a measly 6,000 at the end for the first level, with the blinds moving from 250/500 with a 50 ante to 300/600 with a 75 ante.

Some non-poker celebrities faring well on Day 2A include Brad Garrett - 93,000 (155 bb), Paul Pierce - 70,000 (116 bb), and Jason Alexander - 61,000 (101 bb).

More later...

Just before the dinner break, the official World Series of Poker numbers were announced for both the Main Event and the entire 58 event series. Day 1D saw 2,809 players players,  which helped created the third-largest WSOP Main Event field ever with 6,865 entrants. The prize pool for the Main Event reached $64,531,000. The winner will take home $8,711,956. Eighth place or better will be guaranteed over a million dollars.

For the overall WSOP series, there were a record 75,672 entries in 58 events creating the largest prize pool in WSOP history, $191,999,010. That total beat the previous record by 3.7 percent in number of entrants and 2.6 percent higher in total prizepool. Over its 42-year WSOP history,  the series has now awarded more than $1.4 billion in prize money.

Former Main Event champions playing on Day 1D included reigning Champ Jonathan Duhamel, Joe Cada, Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth, Bobby Baldwin, Chris Moneymaker and Tom McEvoy.

The day was unkind to a number of notable poker players who busted early in Day 1D including Tom Dwan with two pair to a flush, Prahlad Friedman, Chino Rheem, 2010 Player of the Year Frank Kassela, William Reynolds, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Later in the day Michael Binger, Antonio Esfandiari, David Williams, Shawn Sheikhan, and Jason Senti joined them on the rail. John Juanda, Alex Kravchenko and hip hop superstar Nelly also bust later in the day.

Into level 5, Maynard “Morey” Little is the clear chip leader of Day 1D with 176,000 with several players including Joe Tehan above 130k.

Tom Schneider passed along an overheard comment during the Series. A player in a cash game complaining to a dealer about how badly he deals… Dealer says to player, “If we switched seats, we would both make more money.”

In the funny hat department, I spotted a massive white puffy chef’s hat, a furry buffalo hat with horns, a squirrel hat, and a Santa Claus outfit with his furry red hat with white tip. One massive sumo-looking gentleman was wearing a rice paddy type Japanese hat.

The night crew of seven tournament directors/managers showed up in all white suits and pants.

Sometimes the most interesting stories don’t come from a poker celebrity or someone inside the ropes. Today as I wandered the hundreds of poker tables without finding much to write about, I decided to wander outside the ropes. Yes, those protective barriers that separate the players, staff and media from the general fans. As I approached one featured table in the Amazon, a preppy looking 50ish man approached with a question. Press always have an answer, right? When I politely provided gave him his answer, he eagerly opened up about his good fortune at this year’s World Series of Poker.

He is a divorced guy from Long Island who plays tournaments from Foxwoods down to Borgata in Atlantic City where his mother lives. Last fall he had been asked to join a home game that was playing a several months long points qualifying league for a ticket to the Main Event. It was $800 to enter. He didn’t know the guys, but was urged to join otherwise they wouldn’t have enough players. He said “what the heck.” It turns out he won the points crown easily in 6 weeks and then the seventh week they played it for cash, which he won too for an additional $1,000 to help pay for his Vegas trip.

He played on Day 1C at an interesting table. The table got some media attention because Paul Pritchard was playing at the table. Paul won his Main Event seat by hitting a hole-in-one at some golf tournament. The table also had the distinction of having all 9 players play all day long together with not a single elimination. He advanced to Day 2 with 39k.

Feeling good about his poker prospects, he ventured to play some cash games afterwards. He admitted that historically he’s a big fish in cash games, always losing. But with a few beers in him, he plunked down $200 to see what might happen. His run of good fortune continued as he ran his stack all the way up to $1,600 with a bunch of lucky hands and multiple river suckouts, readily admitting he wasn’t playing that well.

To top it all off, he insisted on telling me he had been corresponding on PlentyofFish, the dating website, with a stewardess. She heard he would be in Vegas and asked her employer for a special route from Houston to L.A. later this week so she could stop through Las Vegas for a couple days to finally meet this lucky gent. His reaction as he left me with his tales of good fortune was a hearty “Booya!”  This man clearly knows how to ride out a heater.

Last chance to play, boys and girls. Day 1D is the final day one and set to break the all time record for single biggest Day 1 field. After a sluggish first couple days, Saturday began to ramp things up with a field of 2,181 bringing to 4,056 the total entrants so far. 2,647 players have already stamped their ticket to move onto Day 2. WSOP has been excitedly predicting the largest single day field for Sunday as everyone who dreamed of being Main Event champion begins the journey. As the registrations mount, 7,000 players seems reasonable, quite a bit higher than expected and close to the 7,319 that played in 2010.

It is quite remarkable that interest has been this strong in the face of a continued weakened economy, a long series where 10% of players cash, and many players unable to play online or access their bankrolls on sites like Full Tilt and UB. The 2011 WSOP will beat the five year average of 6753 players, so if you want to add your name to history, Sunday is the day. In fact, Ty Stewart, WSOP Vice President, just stopped by press row to crow about the bigger than predicted numbers, giving a proverbial and actual finger to those who said the WSOP was dependent on online sites for satelliting in players for their success.

Now some numbers just in from the 2011 WSOP regarding the first 57 events.

$127,468,010 through 57 events
68,807 participants through 57 events

Average Age of Entrants:                37.33
Average Age of Cashers:                36.31
Average Age of Final Tables:         33.61
Average Age of Winners:                31.10

3,637 of 68,807 entrants have been female – or 5.3% (most of that from the Ladies event)

On a personal note, many of the young poker players that I’ve followed and worked with over the years are playing today. I have enjoyed following their careers and definitely get a rush in seeing them do well after all the hard work they have put in. Poker in the short term doesn’t always reward good play, but determination, patience, resolve and a positive attitude on top of good poker skills will take you far in any endeavor.

The “Shuffle Up and Deal” was just announced by Playmate Holly Madison and Player of the Year leader Phil Hellmuth which was followed up by a notorious player the long haired “devil” who crashed his cymbals somewhere in the crowd.

More later...

A new level of enthusiasm was felt in the second half of Saturday's Day 1C as WSOP officials announced that the days field was 2181 players strong and they had already more than that registered for Sunday. Now with 4,056 players having played the first three Day 1's, tournament officials feel even 7,000 total players isn't out of consideration. "We'll handle as many as want to play on Sunday." After the first two sluggish days, that was welcome news.

I received confirmation that my ears had indeed been plugged the first two days. When wandering up the Rio hallway, I heard for the first time this series "that's so sick."

I also earned another merit badge in my poker media ascension when I was asked to charge a lovely poker player's iPhone.

Eric Seidel posted a humorous tweet after announcing at the dinner break that he was cruising along with 57k, "Let's pretend I miscounted on the break. I have 28k now."

As a table was breaking in the Pavilion, two players from opposite sides of the table walked over to each other to congratulate each other and give respect to each other's game, both mutually saying "You're tough to play against, good luck to you at your next table." After the mutual admiration between the heavy-set urban looking African American guy and the smallish dark haired suburban-looking white guy, they felt comfortable enough revealing their online usernames. "I'm XXXXXX on Stars..." "Oh wow, I've played against you a bunch."

Continuing his transition to the poker game from success in other fields, 2002 Scripps National Spelling Bee Winner Praytush Buddiga finds himself sitting on a healthy 60k stack after the fourth level.

In a sign of the times of no longer being sponsored by UB, Phil Hellmuth made his quietest entrance in years by grabbing an ESPN microphone on his way in to play near the end of level 2. He was placed at a side featured table where he has fared poorly all day and now sits at 5,100 with the blinds at 200-400 with a 50 ante.

Katrina Jett will no longer have to worry about her water breaking during her WSOP run as she bust out after nursing a small stack when her J's couldn't hold against A,Q.

There are always some interesting chip protectors, but one I enjoyed today was a 6 inch gold plated railroad tie.

I have new found respect for Howard "Tahoe" Andrew who holds the current record for Main Events played consecutively going all the way back to 1974. He was alert and alive in the last level of the day while a couple tables over some 21 or 22 year old kid was playing the nodding off game, his head dipping then waking, then dipping again. No one at the table chose to rouse him when he remained still for a few minutes.

Kicking off Day 1C was Annie Duke, the lady from Cupcake Wars who made a 1,000 cupcake display and the hilarious duo of Ray Romano and Brad Garrett. As they were keeping to the cupcake theme, Ray piped in that cupcake is his favorite stripper at the Crazy Horse. Brad kept his table and section in hilarity by imitating the iconic deep gravely voiced “Redbull” server who wanders the Amazon.

Last year’s Main Event winner, Jonathan Duhamel, is at the “mothership” featured table and was quoted by Jack Effel as saying to all competitors to “come and get you some.”

One young player with a training site patch on was making the most of his down time by watching a four tabling poker video on his iPad in between hands.

Two guys in the Pavilion room were seen wearing cow outfits as part a promotion or lost prop bet for a poker information site. One of the cow outfitted players was at Shane Schleger’s table who was off to a fast start. It was nice to formally meet Shane, as we had corresponded online and Twitter previously, and I had tried to recruit the personable pro in the early days of PokerCurious. His cow outfitted table-mate didn’t fare as well and busted in the second level on a classic Q’s vs. A,K confrontation.

On the celebrity front, the Celtic’s Paul Pierce is playing today along with Mr. Elizabeth Hurley (aka Shane Warne), boxer Jeff Fenech, Norway's ski star Petter Northug. Daniel Negreanu is attracting his usual large crowd, especially since he’s located at a table next to the rail. Karina Jett, who finished runner-up in last week’s Ladies Event is playing today and looking close to term in her pregnancy, but hoping for an uninterrupted deep run.

Shaun Deeb’s grandma is playing the Main Event for the very first time, she is 91 and was just announced on the loudspeakers as the oldest entrant saying “you’re all playing for second.” Just before the second break, she busted. It was said that Gramma Deeb got someone to fold a full house before busting with two pair versus a set. On a fun aside, she was patched up with a PokerTracker logo.

After weeks of downplaying alcohol in the tournament area, yesterday the WSOP started an oficial Mill Lite beer concession stand by “the mothership” but when initial sales were quite slack, the WSOP staff has been replaced by “Miller Lite girls.”

During the first level of Day 1C it was announced that the overall 2011 World Series of Poker is the largest in history. Although players are still registering through the end of level 2, the numbers for Day 1C look to be between 2100 and 2200. With over twice as many players today, it wasn’t surprised to see not one, but two surgical masks in use today doubling yesterday’s number.

There were 616 (63%) who advanced to Day 2B from Day 1B, with Ben Lamb falling a bit at the end to 188,925 but still good for that day’s chip lead. Berger from Day 1A had 209k.

One media member just came in soaked from the parking lot walk in from his car, complaining that it has rained four out of the last give days in Vegas. A rarity for this desert city.

We are now at the second break of the day with one more two hour level until the dinner break.

Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi suffered the same fate as the previous day's "shuffle up and deal" announcer and TV featured table player Doyle Brunson, by heading home midway through Day 1B. Mizrachi lost the majority of his stack on one hand earlier with trips and was called when he pushed with K,10 but was outraced by 9's.

Earlier today, I had overlooked another couple with Full Tilt connections in the form of Allen Cunningham and his long time girlfriend Melissa Hayden. Hayden joined Antonius and Mike the Mouth Matusow in receiving a coveted The Micros t-shirts from animator and writer John Wray.

Jean Robert Bellande ran well at his table sitting on 62k at the final break in addition to winning the credit card roulette at dinner with Ben Lamb. Don't feel bad for the 26-year old pro, as he is having the World Series of a lifetime. Despite falling to as low as 17k during level one, he has been smashing players all day and now finds himself the big chip leader with well over 200k in chips, likely to beat the Day1A's chip lead of 209,500 by Fred Berger. Ben Lamb's WSOP run has him sitting in second in the Player of the Year standings behind Phil Hellmuth having won over $1.5 million in earnings after winning his first gold bracelet, a second, a twelfth, and 8th in the $50k Player's Championship. Lamb has only played in eight events, but has been chip leader at some point in five of them. Lamb's success this year isn't a fluke, In 2009, Lamb finished an in 14th in the Main Event and in 2007, he finished deep again in 156th.

Day 1B's entrants numbers came in at 978, which combined with Day 1A's numbers puts the Main Event 28% behind last year. The WSOP's director Ty Stewart is still predicting around 6,500 players will take part (compared to 7,319 last year), which will require well over 2,000 players to play each of the Saturday and Sunday Day 1's.

In the unfinished business department, Event #56 and #57, both of whom his their hard cap and needed to play down from 3-handed and heads-up to determine a winner did so. Hasan Anter won Event #56, the final $1,500 NLHE Championship, outlasting a field of 3,389 players to earn his first ever shiny gold bracelet and $778k while being the first winner this year to win his final hand with a royal flush. He had a fun quote after winning "Now my parents will stop yelling at me to study."

In Event #57, the $5k PLO Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship, Nick Binger outlasted David Bach heads-up after outlasting 350 other players for the $397k first prize and his first bracelet. When asked in a post win interview if this win determined once and for all that he was better than his brother Michael, who finished third overall in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Nick's response was an unequivocal "Yes."

Back to the Main Event, there is one fun story to share. At the end of level four, two brightly colored posters were hoisted by some women on the rail. They were rooting on a player named Logan Deen. Deen just turned 21, and guess what his parents got for him, that's right, they bought him into the Main Event. That's some birthday present.

My 1A day/night lasted until nearly 4 a.m. as I was drawn to see the completion of the heads-up match between Nick Binger and David Bach in the $5k PLO Hi/Low. The atmosphere was quite unique as there were no other tables or staff going in the entire Amazon room. Just the final table staff and press with 25-30 railers. Each and every one of them pulling for the popular Nick Binger. Give David Bach credit as he had a great attitude and table demeanor in the face of overwhelming support and cat calls for his opponent for each blind won or pot halved. The supporters included many pros and industry insiders like Michael Binger, Liv Boeree, Lee Childs, Jeff Madsen, Dan Shak, Kevin McBride, Xuan Liu, Gloria Balding and others I didn’t immediately recognize. The scene was fun and intimate, like a glorified home game with plenty of razzing, but playing for $397k first prize and a gold bracelet. Unfortunately they hit the hard cap of 10 levels and must return to complete their heads-up match at 3 p.m. today.

After my massive 5 hours of sleep, I took an extra 30 minutes to check in with various family members who feel disconnected when I get consumed by my long hours working. I noticed they all had an unfamiliarity with the dynamics of media work at the WSOP so I figured I would give some details to fill it in.

Anyone who wants a World Series of Poker media pass must apply several months in advance, to give the WSOP team time to vet and determine worthy recipients. For instance, I was initially turned down, but upon appeal was granted a pass once they gained further information to supplement the application.

There is a definite hierarchy of media, as ESPN has the video coverage that trumps all others with their crew and staff. PokerNews reporters are the official online informational team delivering chip counts and news. Established media outlets like Bluff magazine have a sizable team that gets preference while there are international teams from multiple European countries reporting for their poker communities. And then there are the smaller and more independent media consisting of bloggers, writers, and poker affiliate sites of one kind or another.

The poker media is typically gathered in one of three areas. There is a media room 100 feet from the Amazon room where you go to get official updates, your credentials and deal with WSOP staff. To me is has a cold and disconnected feeling, but their two big screen TV’s can be handy for watching the occasional sporting event like the World Cup.

Most media occupy one corner of the Amazon room in the L shaped two-tiered guard-railed section that rises above the playing level. It’s crowded, with laptop after laptop lined up, but tens of reporters and writers come and go on their various business like bees in a hive. A select few media have stations around the “mothership” main stage or areas that support the ESPN video coverage.

The media pass allows access behind all roped areas, except some limitations for final tables. This year the WSOP initiated rules to limit lingering reporters at a single table or engaging players in conversation of any significant duration, although enforcement has been pretty lax so far.

For Day 2, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi set things in motion giving the traditional “shuffle up and deal” along with personalizing the send off with “It’s time grind” and that he felt sorry for whoever was to his right today. Unfortunately for Mizrachi, he promptly lost ⅔ of his starting stack with J-10 on a board like A,10,7,10, 6 to a guy who had A,10. Time to grind it back.

Interestingly, Erick Lindgren was seated next to Patrik Antonius, the fellow married Full Tilt Poker pros weren’t wearing any Full Tilt gear when I saw them. Their wives were also playing across the room at different tables. When Erick and Patrik’s table broke early, Erick got the more advantageous position across the aisle from the lovely and pregnant Erica Schoenberg.

Jean Robert Bellande is playing today decked out in his Rise sponsorship gear. He is a remarkable study of a player defying the paucity of his cash game or tournament results to be a big personality and draw who consistently finds backers to fund his playing.

I also found out the #1 chess player in the U.S. and currently ranked 6th in the world, H. Nakamura is playing today, giving poker a go for his analytical skills.

Into the second level of Day 1B, there isn’t much to report yet. There were 560 players that advance to Day 2A from Day 1A’s 897 entrants (62%).

The numbers of entrants for Day 1B appear to be similar to Day 1A, although tournament officials are expecting bumper crowds for Saturday and Sunday.

More later...