After starting your day off right by reading Pauly’s link dump, here’s the recap of Sunday night at the WSOP:

Dilemma Diverted at Donkament

After all those Tweets, forum posts, and other whinging, Day 1b of the $1,000 NL Donkament were able to finish all ten levels of play with 205 players remaining. The day 1b chip leader is Braxton Dunaway, with 139,000 chips. The full list of survivors is now available over at PokerNews. They’ll join the 276 who survived day 1a at 2:30pm, first bursting the money bubble at 441 players, on their way to a scheduled ten levels of play.

Grinder in Gear at the 50k Players’

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi is the day 3 leader of the $50,000 Players’ Championship with just 21 players remaining when play resumes at 3pm as they play down to the final table, which will consist solely of no-limit holdem for ESPN to broadcast later this summer. Mizrachi, in the news for his issues with the IRS and other financial difficulties, will start day 4 with 1,483,000 in chips. Vladimir Schemelev will start in 2nd with 1,432,000, with David Oppenheim 3rd (1,340,000). The chips for the other 18 names not mentioned are now up over at PokerNews.

Omaha 8

Day 1 of the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better finished with under 300 players remaining. As noted in the comments of the day 3 post, Thang Luu wasn’t able to attend after his incident with a dealer last year. Oleg Shamardin is the chip leader with 70,800 when play resumes at 2:30pm Monday. Top 10 notables: 2009 $50k HORSE winner David Bach (39,700), 2009 double bracelet winner Brock Parker (36,700), and Chau Giang (31,300). The entire list can be found at PokerNews here.

Can the $1,500 draw 1500?

Monday has one tournament starting today, the $1,500 No-Limit holdem at noon. With lower than expected numbers for the 1k over the weekend, will the trend continue? The first $1,500 event of the 2009 WSOP (held on a Tuesday) had a field of nearly 2800.

You can find updates during the day at PokerNews and www.wsop.com Make sure to check out Bluff Magazine, Wicked Chops Poker and PokerListings for more content from the WSOP.

Here’s a recap of the Sunday afternoon activities, with issues regarding the 1k NL event coming to a head early Monday morning.

Problems with Payouts?

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of just 1,744 entrants for a total of 4,345 over the weekend. This means that 441 players will make the money, with first place taking down over $625,000. Day 1a ended with 276 making it through the end of level 10. Updates from the PokerNews and WSOP.com sites report that they will either play down to 170 players or to the end of level 10, whichever comes first. There were around 550 players remaining when the field returned from their 90-minute dinner break, so it’ll be intriguing to see how far they’re able to go tonight. In lieu of chip counts for today’s event, read Michael Craig’s blog for the story of a player banned for life for trying to steal an absent player’s chips during the 1k yesterday.

Kostritsyn in Control of Players’ Championship

Full Tilt pro Alexander Kostritsyn is the current chip leader of the $50,000 Players’ Championship as they head to their dinner break with approximately 35 players remaining. Kostritsyn, known online as “PostFlopAction”, is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack (1,430,000). Another Russian, Vladimir Schmelev, second with 830,000 in chips and Robert Mizrachi third with 810,000. Other notables: Erik Seidel (720,000), Erik Sagstrom (656,000) and Andy Bloch (604,000). Three more levels are scheduled, although that may change if they near the money, at 16 players.

Late Night Omaha 8

Play started this afternoon in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better missing it’s two-time defending champion Thang Luu. There had been talk during last year’s WSOP about Luu being banned for life for injuring a dealer’s hand in a cash game. Reports now indicate that he was banned for one year. A field of 818 signed up for some split-pot action, with eight levels of play scheduled tonight. 81 players will make the money, with the winner pocketing over $237,000. One very early casualty was Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, his third straight early elimination from a tournament.

Here’s some of what’s been happening on Saturday:

Donkament Disappointing?

Day 1a of the Event #3 – $1,000 No-limit Holdem tournament drew a field of 2,601 entries today, a disappointment for those expecting a field of over 7,000 battling for this bracelet over the weekend. The 788 players who made it to the dinner break are returning shortly for another four levels of play. The unofficial chip leader is PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok with 27,000 chips. Other notable chip counts: Amarillo Slim (21,000), Chris Bjorin (20,000) and Bryan Devonshire, (17,500). Track the action for this event over at PokerNews.

First bracelet winner to be determined tonight

Just 18 players remain in the first WSOP bracelet event the $500 Casino Employees Event have returned from their dinner break, with Kent Washington maintaining the chip lead at 332,000 in chips. You can follow the action for this event over at PokerNews.com.

Players’ Championship Day 2

The $50,000 Players’ Championship field is currently on their one-hour dinner break at the conclusion of level eight with 90 players remaining. The current chip leader appears to be Steve Zolotow, with 420,000 in chips. Some of the fallen who may be looking to watch UFC 114 include: Phil Galfond, Tony G, and Todd Brunson. When play resumes, the field will play another three levels before the bag up their chips, sign their name, and hopefully don’t be recorded as busted when they decided not to report their chip counts. To catch the action of this event over at PokerNews, head here.

Saturday at noon is the first of six $1,000 No-limit holdem events, each having two day 1′s and fields of at least 5,000 expected. Last year’s “Stimulus Special”, won by Steve Sung for over $770,000, drew out all kinds of people, as Pauly noted in his Nostrum Donkulus post. After reading that, check out his morning link dump.

Time for some Friday recapping:

Casino Employees Cashing

The first bracelet event, $500 Casino Employees , finished play at the end of level 10 with 53 players remaining. The chip leader is Kent Washington, from Oakland, California with 168,300 in chips. Jonathan Kotula, who won this event in 2008, is in 2nd (108,700). The only other recognizable name remaining is Bellagio tournament director Jack McClleland (19,700). The tournament is scheduled to resume at 2:30pm today, although the 1k donkament may delay that start. The schedule notes they’re playing down to a winner today, but circumstances may prevent that. If they play down to a winner today, it may put a damper on the plans looking to take part in Bluff’s Streak 2 Seven contest to win a 2010 or 2011 WSOP me seat, as mentioned on this week’s episode of the award-winning Poker Beat.

Players’ Championship Moves to Day 2

Day 1 of the $50,000 Players’ Championship concluded earlier this morning with 105 of the 116 players remaining. Chip counts haven’t been finalized, but it appears Erik Sagstrom will be the chip leader at 329,100. Other notables in the top 10: David Oppenheim (313,800), “Miami John” Cernuto and Joe Serock (265,000), Justin Bonomo (255,000), Barry Greenstein (240,100), and early chip leader Daniel Kelly (223,000). Tom Dwan, Brian Townsend, and 2009 dual bracelet winner Greg Mueller started off down $50,000 at the WSOP, eliminated on Friday. The remaining field will return at 3pm today as the field is scheduled to play six 90-minute levels.

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

For those who get eliminated early enough, you can watch guys trying to beat the shit out of each other at the MGM Grand Garden area for UFC 114 tonight. The highly anticipated main event features Rashad Evans v Quinton “Rampage” Jackson topping an 11-fight card. For those looking for a preview of the fights, or looking for some good betting tips, check out www.mmafix.com and www.rawvegas.tv.

More later today, but in the meantime be sure to check Pokerati, on Twitter and hit up the official WSOP site over at www.wsop.com

The first bracelet event, the $500 Casino Employees NL Holdem event drew a field of 721 entrants, with the final 72 hitting the pay window, the winner getting just over $70,000. Although Team Pokerati’s John Harris was unable to take part, Shaun Harris from Las Vegas is the current chip leader (105,200) with about 90 players remaining. At the time of posting, they’re currently at level 9 and play will conclude at the end of level 10 or the final table, whichever comes first.

The $50,000 Players’ Championship drew a smaller than expected field of 116 players. First place will get about $1,560,000. The early chip leader is Daniel “djk123″ Kelly (285,000) eliminated Dan Shak. You can follow the action in both events over at www.wsop.com, where the full entrant list should be online shortly.

I’ll be back in the morning with the preview of tomorrow’s first 1k NL event, with over 3,000 players registered already. And for those with Twitter, be sure to follow @pokerati, @taopauly, @wsop, and @pokernews_live for updates.

After a delay when an original schedule was “leaked”, the 2010 WSOP Schedule is now online with 57 bracelet events. The WSOP starts with a doubleheader on Friday, May 28th with the $500 Casino Employees Event starting at 12 noon, followed by the $50,000 Players’ Championship, which will be an 8-game mix (HORSE, NL Holdem, Pot-limit Omaha and 2-7 Triple Draw). The final table will consist of No-Limit holdem only.

The full schedule, with structure sheets are now online at the wsop.com site.

For other details regarding the 2010 WSOP:

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