I swear Tom Schneider is really starting to piss me off. He knows full well I have little intention of trying to cover the WSOP this year … but damnit, I came up with that strategy kinda-sorta counting on a lackluster performance by our longtime Team Pokerati ambassador — a near certain result as per performance indicators over the past four or so years! But now, like right now, he’s well on his way to taking down trying hard to take down his second bracelet and/or 6-figure score.

With now only five players left, I’m fairly certain he’s gonna win this one, the way he’s barreling through this final table … Greg Mueller, I’d say, is his only threat, as I’ve seen him beat Tom heads-up before with a lot on the line.

You can watch the WSOP live stream here:

http://www.wsop.com/2013/live-video/default.aspx?TID=12827

Though I don’t know the WSOP statistical lore on this one, it would be a rather amazing feat to win a $1,500 HORSE event, and then the $5,000 HORSE, no? And not to get ahead of anyone, but a repeat POY maybe? OK, I’ll cut with the jinxing as Schneider-Mueller have dropped from 1st/2nd in chips to 3rd/4th with four left in the time it has taken me to write this paragraf.

But the important thing to notice, no matter how this event plays out, is that Tom’s hat (Loudmouth Poker, $25) plays well for the live stream:

UPDATE: Now Tom is short, and FBT is chip leader … while the hat tells pretty much the whole story.

UPDATE: Back and forth back and forth … Tom is dominant chip leader now, with hat, um, re-unreversed?

UPDATE: Final four coming back on Tuesday, with Tom in strong position.

Seat Player Chip Count
1 Greg Mueller 140,000
4 Viatcheslav Ortynsiky 680,000
6 Tom Schneider 2,500,000
7 Benjamin Scholl 600,000

Cards have gone in the air, and two of our fellas are threatening to go deep. Today is the big day where they’re both starting in comfortable position but still will have to play to determine if they’ll be hanging on for dear ITM life, or making the big push for real money with a few hundred others.

Two tables we’ll be watching a little closer than others, live, on Twitter, and at WSOP.com:

Brasillia 223 — obviously there’re a couple mistakes on this semi-official list, and we (or WSOP floor staff) will correct accordingly … assuming Tom doesn’t get it all-in with Dario Tosin right from the git-go and come up short:

1. Rose, John 33,800
2. @DonkeyBomber123,700
3. Tosin, Dario 129,000
4. Mannino, Giuseppe 65,800
5. Patrick, Julie 31,100
6. Seiter, John 35,400
7. Phan, Tim 82,400
7. Chaplin, Joseph DNR
8. Jacobsen, Allen 60,800
9. Boudreau, Kevin 72,200
9. Brown, Chad 27,800

And Brasillia 219 — FYI to floor: they’ve got a couple empty seats over here if you don’t want to play BR 223 11-handed:

1. McGowan, Joe 96,800
3. DeGreef, Jeremiah 88,900
4. Fletcher, Todd 116,100
5. O’Malley, Patrick 41,200
6. Mueller, Greg 287,300
8. Lucha, Sven 160,800
9. @TheBigRandy 117,800

TBR starts the day with an M=33, Tom with M=34. Tom’s one of two big stacks amidst a bunch of short-ish-but-not-yet-desperate little guys, while TBR’s table has less of a rich-poor gap in the middle — just one guy close to short, and a 2009 bracelet winner as the biggest threat.

First, an interview with the Commish from SkyPoker’s James Hartigan about Day 1d (Thanks to DesD on 2+2 for the link):

Day 2a concluded with 607 players remaining and Andrew Gaw the chip leader with 386,800 in chips. In an interesting story, Eric Cloutier, who was reported chip leader at the end of day 1a with 150,750 in chips, turned out to have 15,075 to start the day. He ends today in 2nd place with 383,500 in chips. Other notables: Greg Mueller (287,300), Andy Black (215,700), Mike Sexton (169,000), Kara Scott (139,500), Jimmy Fricke (138,300), Tom Schneider (123,700), Greg Raymer (95,900), Jason Alexander (73,700), Sam Farha (67,500), Erik Seidel (55,600) and Roland de Wolfe (21,200). To view the entire list of day 2a survivors, follow this link.

The Mystery of Amazon Green 156

The day 2 situation brings up this interesting case, especially since it’s the very last table in the Amazon Room. As I mentioned to Pauly, there were 4 players on the day 1d entrants list who were seated in the 10 seat, all of them in the Amazon Green section:

Jeppe Nielsen – Amazon Green 143/10
Joe Reitman – Amazon Green 144/10
Marco Bertaccini – Amazon Green 145/10
Dale Poynter – Amazon Green 146/10

To be fair, only Poynter’s table was actually 10-handed, although in Reitman’s case, that table only seated 7 players (according to the list). Another interesting table is Amazon Green 156, which is seated as follows:

LANDAU, MICHAEL
ERNA, SALVATORE
GASPARD, JEAN
HACHEM, TONY
MICHNIK, MICHAEL
HARRISON, AUDLEY
SEED, HUCK
MORRISON, KIRK
ODONNELL, KEVIN

Gaspard and Seed both had been guaranteed a seat, for winning WSOP-C New Orleans and the NBC Heads-Up event respectively, as noted by the Commish in the above video. Audley Harrison is a known British boxer who has played a few events this year at the WSOP. Some of the rumors that were flying around the Rio yesterday were about some players getting preferential treatment. I’ll leave it to the reader to guess which names on the above list fit that role. Another name worth mentioning is Kevin O’Donnell, who apparently was shut out, according to Gary Wise’s article on ESPN.com:

Frustration was boiling over among those who felt their dreams of championship glory moving beyond reach, many feeling betrayed by what they saw as insufficient warning of what might be going down.

“I think that Harrah’s communications was awful,” said Kevin O’Donnell, a professional circuit regular who’d gone home to Arizona for Independence Day. “If they’d warned us better about this possibility, we’d have made the needed adjustments. There are a lot of things they’re going to say that are true, but ultimately the communications broke down. As a business person, I understand you can only fit in so many people, but they should have done a better job of letting people know they were going to have these space issues.”

Meanwhile, Palansky was sending out a follow up e-mail at 12:08 p.m. entitled “WSOP Main Event – Flight 1D is a SELLOUT.”

Yet O’Donnell did get a seat — at Amazon Green 156 — and returns today with more than 72,000 in chips.

Day 2b gets underway at noon today, playing 4 two-hour levels. A not exact list of chip counts and where they’ll be sitting can be found here. If you’re in the Amazon Room and poker room, you’ll be playing 9-handed. Buzio’s and any of the other tournament rooms will mostly start 10-handed, although they’ll be breaking tables as fast as they can to get to 9-handed as quickly as possible. One of the tables not in use at the moment, Amazon Green 156.

Follow the live updates at www.wsop.com and other updates from Pokerati about other goings on at the WSOP.

The day 2a field has returned from dinner break with less than 900 players remaining from the starting field of 1,476. Notable eliminations include: Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Mike Caro, Tony G, Jennifer Tilly, Shaun Deeb, Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein and Mel Judah.

The current chip leader is Samer Rahman with 325,000 in chips. Other notables: Greg Mueller (223,000), Andy Black (164,000), Tom Schneider (140,000), Vitaly Lunkin (120,500), Jimmy Fricke (105,000), Joe Sebok (94,000), Sam Farha (70,000) and Amarillo Slim (48,000). More chip counts and updates can be found at www.wsop.com here.

Recapping Sunday night’s action:

Bracelet Winners go 1-2-4 in Limit Shootout

Greg Mueller becomes the fourth double bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP, taking down the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout, good for $194,854 as he denied Marc Naalden his second bracelet this year. The only year where more players have won more at least two bracelets was 2003 (Ivey, Juanda, Men Nguyen, Ferguson, Chan and Flack) . Millie Shiu finished in 3rd, tied for the highest placing woman in an open WSOP event this year(Ming Reslock in the $1,500 Omaha-8 and Laurence Grondin in the $2,000 NL Holdem). David Williams finished in thirdfourth..

Lunkin Looking to Make it Five in $50k HORSE

Vitaly Lunkin, winner of the first open bracelet ($40,000 NL Holdem) leads the remaining 19 players in the $50,000 HORSE event going into day 4. Three players will make zero on their investment, as they play down to the final table today starting around 2pm. Here’s how the remaining players will be seated:

(Table 58)
Seat 1: Erik Sagstrom – 1315000
Seat 2: Erik Seidel – 464000
Seat 3: Steve Billirakis – 576000
Seat 5: David Chiu – 397000
Seat 6: Mike Wattel – 779000
Seat 7: Chau Giang – 616000

(Table 60)
Seat 1: Huck Seed – 672000
Seat 2: Ray Dehkharghani – 262000
Seat 4: Brett Richey – 671000
Seat 6: Todd Brunson – 145000
Seat 7: Vitaly Lunkin – 1527000
Seat 8: Frank Kassela – 499000

(Table 62)
Seat 1: Tony G – 642000
Seat 2: David Bach – 1265000
Seat 3: John Hanson – 815000
Seat 5: Ville Wahlbeck – 842000
Seat 6: John Kabbaj – 678000
Seat 7: Freddy Deeb – 1300000
Seat 8: Gus Hansen – 801000

Durand Looking for Durability in $1,500 NL Holdem

Day 3 of the $1,500 NL Holdem starts with 30 players remaining, with Thibaut Durand (1,650,000) holding the chip lead when play resumes around 1pm PT. Owen Crowe (1,025,000), Josh Schlein (875,000), and Alex Jacob (274,000) are the most recognizable names remaining. When the final table is eventually reached, bluffmagazine.com and wsop.pkr.com will stream all the action.

Australians go 1-2 in Triple Chance

Day 1 of the $3,000 Triple Chance NL Holdem ended with 149 players remaining and it’s two Australians who hold the top spots when play resumes around 2pm today. Tim Horan is the chip leader (149,000), followed by Harris Pavlou (137,300). Notables returning on day 2 include Jeff Lisandro, Antonio Esfandiari, Shane Schleger, Nick Binger, Mike Caro, Noah Schwartz and Praz Bansi.

Prescott Gives Field Allie Can Handle in Stud 8

Day 2 of the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Betterevent resumes around 2pm with 146 players remaining, with Allie Prescott leading the field with 52,500 in chips. Notables returning include Jim Geary, Annie Duke, Marcel Luske, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Jon Turner, Matt Savage and Norman Chad.

Monday’s Tournaments

The 12pm $1,500 NL Holdem Donkament is already sold out, although there’s always the slim chance they’ll open a few more seats during the day. This is the seventh event of the $1,500 NL Holdem of this year’s WSOP, so it’s a “new” event, not having a winner last year. The 5pm (if it starts on time) event is the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event, won last year by John Phan for just over $150,000 in a field of 238. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 262 entries.

Today and tomorrow will both be extremely busy with six tournaments going on at the same time, so check out www.wsop.com for live updates, and Pokerati for other stuff during the day.

It really couldn’t be much more clear … this will probably be good evidence for poker as a game of skill:

· Multiple Gold Bracelet Winners at the 2009 WSOP:

Jeffrey Lisandro — 1st, 1st, 1st
Brock Parker — 1st, 1st
Phil Ivey — 1st, 1st
Greg “FBT” Mueller — 1st, 1st (+7th)

· Gold Bracelet Plus 2nd-Place Finishers at the 2009 WSOP:

Ville Wahlbeck — 1st, 2nd (+ 3rd)
James Van Alstyne — 1st, 2nd (+ 6th)
Pete “The Greek” Vilandos — 1st, 2nd
Angel Guillen — 1st, 2nd
Vitaly Lunkin — 1st, 2nd
Brandon Cantu –- 1st, 2nd
Marc Naalden — 1st, 2nd

· Multiple Top-Three Finishers at the 2009 WSOP:

Ville Wahlbeck — 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Eric Baldwin — 1st, 3rd
Steve Sung — 1st, 3rd
Scott Clements — 2nd, 3rd

Recapping Sunday afternoon’s activities:

Mueller Muscling His Way to Bracelet #2

The final table of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout has 6 players remaining after returning from their dinner break. Greg Mueller is the current chip leader (950,000), followed by Marc Naalden, Millie Shiu, David Williams, Flaminio Malaguti and Matt Sterling.

Erik Looking to put the 123 on the HORSE Field

Erik Sagstrom, an early Internet poker sensation, is the current chip leader (1,280,000) of the $50,000 HORSE with 31 players remaining. Ville Wahlbeck (775,000) is in 2nd place, followed by Vitaly Lunkin (735,000) in 3rd as the players take their dinner break. Day 2 chip leader Gus Hansen (670,000) is still in the top 10, along with Todd Brunson (610,000) and Freddy Deeb (560,000).

Hedler Ahead of the Field in $1,500 NL

Jason Helder (440,000) is the current chip leader in the $1,500 NL Holdem with about 120 players remaining as they try to play down to 9 before the 3am deadline. Notables with chips left include Men Nguyen, Cody Slaubaugh, Jason Potter, Owen Crowe and Vinny Pahuja.

Triple Chance NL Holdem

A field of 854 started today’s debut of the $3,000 NL Holdem Triple Chance event, with a field of approximately 400 remaining. No chip leader has been named yet, but the updates say that there’s a few players with stacks of 70,000 from their starting stacks of 9,000.

Stud 8 or Better

A field of 467 showed up for the $1,500 Stud 8 or Better event that started at 5pm, they have eight levels of play today, with the only notable casualty so far being Perry Friedman.

Check out www.wsop.com for more updates, and some stuff overnight from Pokerati.

Recapping the rest of Saturday’s action:

Cantu Wins Bracelet #2

In a battle of bracelet winners, Brandon Cantu defeated Lee Watkinson heads-up to win his second career bracelet in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, good for $228,867.

Hansen HORSE Honcho

Day 3 of the $50,000 HORSE resumes at 2pm Sunday with 53 players remaining and Gus Hansen (686,000) the chip leader. Other notables close behind include Erik Sagstrom (560,000), Scotty Nguyen (463,000), and Tony G (433,000) in the top 10. The entire list can be found here.

Limit Shootout Final Table

Unfortunately, Tom Schneider won’t be there, but there will be three WSOP bracelet winners at the final table of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout, each starting with 450,000 chips when play resumes at 2pm:

Seat 1: David Williams
Seat 2: Flaminio Malaguti
Seat 3: Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller
Seat 4: Joep Van Den Bijgaart
Seat 5: Jose Barbero
Seat 6: Marc Naalden
Seat 7: Matthew Sterling
Seat 8: Millie Shiu

Bonita Benefits with Donkament Lead

Christopher Bonita (131,700) will start day 2 of the $1,500 NL Holdem event when play resumes at 2pm. Other notables include: Cody Slaubaugh (125,900), Jason Potter (100,100), Amnon Filippi (77,700), Men Nguyen (71,200) and Joe Reitman (41,200).

Sunday’s Tournaments

The noon tournament is the debut of the $3,000 NL Holdem Triple Chance event. With no rebuy tournaments this year, the twist is that players start with 3,000 in tournament chips. They’re also given two “add-on” chips, each good for an additional 3,000 in chips. These can be used any time within the first three levels and any players who still have the chips will have it added to their stack at the end of level three. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 700 for this event. The 5pm tournament today is the $1,500 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better event, which was won last year by Ryan Hughes for over $180,000 in a field of 543. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 598.

More stuff during the day from Pokerati and over at www.wsop.com

Tom Schneider (front) may have been the crowd favorite, but FBT (far table) is still having a better 2009 and shut down Schneider’s hopes for redemption as the DonkeyBomber fan base looks on.

So close … but in the end, Tom missed the final table in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event — losing heads-up in a hard-fought battle to Greg FBT Mueller. So rough, too … he played so well, fought so hard … so much money not won.

(Swear it wasn’t my fault, despite what others are saying.)

NOTE: Tom says things turned on the first dealer error he’s encountered the whole Series (which sounds like a lot of clean cards for a long time, but not really when you go out around dinner break in most of your 19 events).

Tom got dealt 3-3 … Mueller had 7-7 … but one of the 7s got exposed, so his new card was 3s. They were at 8k/16k, and a 3 and two spades came on the flop, giving Tom a set, and FBT a pair with a flush draw. Tom bet, Mueller called. Blank on the turn; Tom bet, Mueller called. Spade on the river = flush for FBT, compliments of his burn-card 3.

After a valiant 0-for-18 start, with only one Day 2 in the mix, everybody’s favorite @DonkeyBomber has finally made the money — winning his first-round table in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout, an event he finished 5th in back in 2006.

Yep, it’s a guaranteed $4,350 payday ($2,850 net). We know he’s got a long way to go against a bunch of other tough pros to stop the bankroll-bleeding … but c’mon, golf-clap … baby steps. Now all he needs is a third-place finish (or maybe second) to get him pretty close to even for 2009 WSOP tourneys.

Click here to follow.

Other notable players advancing include:

David Williams
David Plastik
Juha Helppi
Humberto Brenes
John-Robert Bellande
Brock Parker
Nick Binger
Diego Cordovez
Greg Mueller
Ray Henson

… and a lot of others that have 2-4 WSOP cashes under their belts.

Here’s Tom’s 2nd Round table:

Tom Schneider – 45000
Juha Helppi – 45000
Mike Thorpe – 45000
Daniel Kraus – 45000
Michael Byrne – 45000
Brock Parker – 45000
Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller – 45000
Mike Beasley – 45000

If you tally up Hendon Mob Results and WSOP hardware for all the players still left (64 out of 572), this table represents the 1st most difficult out of 8. Must-win.

Recapping the rest of Friday night’s WSOP, and paying respect to the passing of Lee Munzer (1943-2009).

Habib Holds High HORSE Hierarchy

Day 1 of the $50,000 HORSE has 91 of the 95 original entrants remaining, with Hasan Habib holding the chip lead. The list of notables with chips is too many to mention, but you can see who else is remaining by checking out this link. Day 2 will begin around 2pm4pm with another sixfive levels of play scheduled.

Cantu Leads PLO 8 Final Table

The final table of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better has been established and Brandon Cantu has maintained his lead, with the final table seated as follows when play resumes at 2pm:

Seat 1: Lee Watkinson – 412000
Seat 2: Steve Jelinek – 260000
Seat 3: William McMahan – 168000
Seat 4: Brandon Cantu – 1025000
Seat 5: Ted Weinstock – 250000
Seat 6: Aaron Sias – 353000
Seat 7: Jacqmin Mathieu – 552000
Seat 8: Ronnie Hofman – 76000
Seat 9: Tommy Vedes – 334000

Day 2 of Limit Holdem Shootout

64 players remain from the starting field of 571 in the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout. Among the first round winners: Jean-Robert Bellande, Nick Binger, Humberto Brenes, Dan Heimiller, Juha Helppi, Greg Mueller, Marc Naalden, Brock Parker, Tom Schneider, David Williams and Todd Witteles. Eight eight-handed tables will play down to a winner starting around 2pm Saturday, with the eight winners returning Sunday.

Saturday’s Donkament

The only tournament starting today is the penultimate $1,500 NL Donkament, starting at noon today with a projected field size of 2,800 taking the felt, which will surely delay the other three tournaments that are scheduled to start later this afternoon. Last year’s version of this event was won by David Daneshgar in a field of 2,693, taking down over $625,000.

For those who missed it live … here’s yesterday’s Poker Beat podcast to get you through “the grind”, the hump, the “dog days”, whatever you wanna call the Series in mid-June. In this episode, we discuss what a bracelet really means to a guy like Greg Mueller, just how good really is JC Tran, and, in this Year of apparent Multiples, what’s a guy like Roland deWolfe all about? Also … “Full Tilt’s” lawsuit (via Kolyma) vs. an Aruba-Aussie payment processor run by 25-year-old Crocodile D-bag … and “celebrity” tournament director Matt Savage joins us to discuss the TDA Summit — and specifically rule changes related to texting at the table.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Caldwell, Michalski, Nemeth, Wise, Stapleton + Savage
6/18/09

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/upload/radio/23/audio/TPB_06_18_09.mp3]

Sorry for the slowdown in getting podcasts to you. For those who can’t always handle semi-informed snarky banter for more than 2-4 minutes at a time and need more vulgarity and shticked-up grit, Tao of Pokerati (brought to you by Dream Team Poker) will also be back very soon.

Bring it!

It seems fitting that Greg “FBT” Mueller won his bracelet on “hockey day” — being that he’s a former professional hockey player. I’m sure that will make his win last night in $10k Limit Hold’em all the more memorable. The Stanley Cup’s presence will also make the 2009 WSOP a special one for Mean Gene, who took this fawning pic of the silvery list of hockey champions in front of the silvery wall of poker champions, as well as others with the Cup in the Amazon Room. I do suppose it isn’t often when an inanimate object gets such celebrity treatment.

Recapping the late Wednesday night WSOP activity…

WSOP Bracelet Touched by Angel

Angel Guillen picked up his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,000 NL Holdem event, defeating Mika Paasonen in a marathon heads up match to deny Finland a second WSOP bracelet. Guillen adds over $530,000 for first place, and throws his name into the Player of the Year race, as he had a 2nd place finish in the $2,500 NL Holdem event two weeks ago.

Mueller Musters a Bracelet

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship ended with a 1-2 finish for Canada, as Greg “FBT” Mueller passed Pat Pezzin to win his first WSOP bracelet. Mueller, a former hockey player, mentioned he was inspired by the Stanley Cup making an appearance at the WSOP on Wednesday, saying it was his destiny to win after having made several WSOP final tables, and two second place finishes in previous attempts.

Klausen Claims Day 3 Chip Lead

The $1,500 NL Holdem event heads to its conclusion at 1pm today with 21 players remaining, and Dane Jonas Klausen holding the lead with 939,000 in chips. Swede Martin Jacobson starts in second (806,000) with Roland de Wolfe, (644,000), Eric Baldwin (610,000), Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (414,000) and Young Phan (211,000) among the notables remaining. When they eventually make the final table, it’ll be streamed over the Internet at www.bluffmagazine.com/live and wsop.pkr.com.

Hougaard Adds to Dane Domination

Another Dane, Jesper Hougaard will lead the 64 returning players who resume at 2pm in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event with 208,500 in chips. Sorel Mizzi (177,000), Jeff Lisandro (162,500), Sandra Naujoks (157,000), David “Devilfish” Ulliott (140,000) and John Kabbaj (95,700) are some of the notables looking to make the money, which will be reached when 36 players remain.

Thursday’s Tournaments and Projections

Two tournaments kick off on Thursday, starting with the $2,000 NL Holdem event at 12pm, which was won last year by Alexandre Gomes in a field of 2,317. The $10,000 Stud Eight or Better World Championship commences at 5pm, which was won last year by Sebastian Ruthenberg in a field of 261 when the buyin was $5,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 2,549 for the $2,000 NL (expect a field of 2,100), while the $10,000 Stud 8 World Championship field is projected at 150 (take slightly under, 135).

Come back to Pokerati during the day for more WSOP stories, and follow the live updates at www.wsop.com starting at 12pm today.

Recapping the quartet of tournaments going on this evening at the WSOP.

Mika v Angel for a Bracelet

The $2,000 NL Holdem event is down to headsup play with Finn Mika Paasonen holding a slight chip lead over Angel Guillen. Play resumes shortly in that matchup.

Sextet Left for a Limit Holdem Bracelet

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is down to six players as they take their one-hour dinner break. Pat Pezzin is the current chip leader, followed by Daniel Alaei, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Chad Brown with all four players over 1,000,000 chips. The two Matts, Hawrilenko and Glantz make up the remaining field. For those who like to follow the ladies, Jennifer Harman finished in 12th, while Maria Ho finished in 11th.

Elky Crafting a Star in $1,500 NL

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to under 100 players remaining, trying to get as close to a final table as possible before the 3am deadline. Bertrand “Elky” Grospelier is the current chip leader (470,000) with Day 1 chip leader James Taylor (180,000), Luke Vrabel (150,000), Roland de Wolfe (130,000), Praz Bansi (104,000) and Young Phan (90,000) among the notables remaining. Phil Hellmuth added another cash to his WSOP record with a top-200 finish.

Baron Best in PLO, for Now

The $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event drew a field of 363, with just 139 returning after the level 6 dinner break. Isaac Baron is the current chip leader at 140,000. Other notables returning include Jeff Lisandro (128,000), Nam Le (76,000), Scott Clements (56,000), Hoyt Corkins (49,000) and Greg Raymer (42,000) also make their return shortly as they play four more levels tonight.

For more updates, check out www.wsop.com for more updates and Pokerati for more goings on at the World Series of Poker.