Today’s attendance at day 1c of the Main Event was a vast improvement over the past two days, as 1,928 laid their money down to participate in the Main Event. Rumors are circulating that Sunday will have a complete sellout of 2,700 which would take them near the 7,000 figure that seemed improbable on Thursday. Among those whose dream is already over, such notables as: Huck Seed, Larry Flynt, Sean Buchanan, Gavin Griffin, Mimi Tran, Justin Bonomo, David Chiu, Bart Hanson, and Marco Traniello.

The leader at the dinner break appears to be Michael Martin, who is just under 100,000 in chips. More familiar names near the top: Jeff Madsen, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Matusow, TJ Cloutier, and the lovely and talented Liz Lieu, Clonie Gowen, Evelyn Ng, Kara Scott, and Isabelle Mercier. More updates can be found at the WSOP update site here.

The returning horde of about 1,500 will return shortly to play two more two-hour levels, with those survivors returning to play on Wednesday, July 9.

More updates during the evening…

It has taken over three hours to see three players hit the door in the $50K HORSE. It has seemed slow at times, but the intensity at the table dictates that this could be a long night.

8th place - Patrick Bueno - $230,880
He was the short stack with less than 700K upon sitting down today, so it was only a matter of time before he would make a move. He did it against Lyle Berman and lost. The French businessman bid adieu to the table.

7th place - Huck Seed - $284,160
Huck never has much to say, and neither do I.

6th place - Barry Greenstein - $355,200
Though he’s not the kind of guy most people would want at a fun dinner party, Barry’s story at the WSOP, especially in this event, would have been a great one. He is the only player to have cashed in each of the three years that the $50K HORSE has been played, and this was his second year in a row for a final table in it. He already won a WSOP bracelet a few weeks ago in seven-card razz, but he couldn’t pull of the big one with his short stack. (That just sounded wrong, I know.) He did earn his sixth cash of the WSOP, though. Not a bad showing for the Bear this year so far.

After 75 hands, Michael DeMichele has taken the chip lead. Lookie here for the PokerNews chip counts:

Michael DeMichele - 3,700,000
Erick Lindgren - 3,400,000
Scotty Nguyen - 3,300,000
Lyle Berman - 2,200,000
Matt Glantz - 2,150,000

Finishing the action from last night, with the Sunday preview that’s not really a preview:

The HORSE final table is now set for 3pm to be under the really hot lights of the ESPN cameras. Here’s how this stacked lineup will be seated at that table:

Seat 1: Matt Glantz (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno (Paris, France) — 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman (Minneapolis, Minnesota) — 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,535,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) — 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,680,000

The other final table for today the $2,000 NL Holdem event, will be held in some corner of the Amazon room at 3pm, but here’s what that final table will look like:

Seat 1: Dan Rome 650,000
Seat 2: Ryan D’Angelo 520,000
Seat 3: Marco Johnson 2,135,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 1,145,000
Seat 5: Robert Brewer 1,050,000
Seat 6: Gabe Costner 1,475,000
Seat 7: Alan Cutter 535,000
Seat 8: Alexandre Gomes 1,075,000
Seat 9: Sverre Sundbo 685,000

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed final table finally ended after 6 hours of heads up play when Joe Commisso finally eliminated Richard Lyndaker to take down the bracelet and just over $911,000. Commisso had to be wondering if he’d ever win after having Lyndaker dominated 7-1 on 3 separate occasions, only for Lyndaker to claw back into contention and take the chip lead. Between the two of them there was almost a dozen all in confrontations where the smaller stack would win, which turned out to be a one in 600-something possibility.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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Andy Bloch caught an ace on the river to best Huck Seed … so he moves on to what is theoretically his second-biggest heads-up match of his career (the first being the 2006 $50k HORSE finals against Chip Reese) vs. his longtime poker pal and Full Tilt cronie Chris Ferguson.

This matchup is also an East Coast vs. West Coast thing … pitting Dr. Ferguson’s game-theory upbringing and Ph.D. in computer science from UCLA against Bloch’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT and JD from Harvard Law … so let’s hope no one gets shot.

The Final Four is set … and PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and Bodog have all been fully eliminated. The upcoming matches:

Phil Ivey vs. Chris Ferguson
Huck Seed vs. Andy Bloch

Holy crap, it looks like it will be some actual hardcore competition amongst four notably accomplished players. Who woulda thunk it?

Also totally shocking commendable is that CardPlayer’s coverage is kicking butt …

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Though I’m not sure how official these are, some odds on who’s gonna win the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (Feb. 29) are out … and Tom Schneider is listed in the middle of the pack at 45:1 — the same as David Williams, Jennifer Harman, Huck seed, and TJ Cloutier. Duuude. Not bad. Clonie, after all, is 80:1, which is almost as good as Jerry Yang’s 60:1.

Click below to see the full list … and while doing that, think how funny it is that this sorta poker ink comes from marijuana.com. (And Tom says I do nothing for him …)

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LAS VEGAS - Spiderman is out but Huckleberry is in and looking confident and happy at his table.

I was disappointed to read David Levi busted but on the contrary found him on break holding 360k in chips. I watched him lay down AK yesterday against JJ and 8c 6c. The 86er turned a straight and David’s lay down allowed him to return today.

Speaking of jacks, Neil “Bad Beat” Channing just picked them up and cracked aces giving him a hefty stack of about 550k.

Others - Gary Friedlander from Houston is still in the game with around 350k. And finally, Germany’s Andreas Krause (the guy that Dan refers to as “Michele’s Swede”) is holding his own as well as Gus Hansen.

Things are getting exciting as camera’s are on almost every table waiting to find this year’s champ.

Familiar faces left in Day 2a are few and far between. John Duthie (one of my favorites) is among the chip leaders with Huck Seed not too far behind and David Levi working a short stack. On break Levi said he wasn’t too excited about 50k after a big loss but since he started the day with only 15k…then he shrugged his shoulders. John Duthie said he was up and down but thought he should be okay if he made it through tonight. I should say so…Duthie is looking good with a stack over 300k

Other notables are Houston’s Ted Leva, Bobby Baldwin (see photo), Bruno Fitoussi, Neil Channing, Robert Mizrachi and Tobey Maguire. They are down to 386 players and will play down to 350 tonight “no matter what.”

BTW - I announced Liger in the media room and someone from not America said “Did you say Liger? I didn’t know anyone knew they existed, I know a lot about Ligers!”