There's nine more hands tonight. Tomorrow is flight two of day one. Again, you can still register until 1 pm tomorrow.

I'll have chip counts later tonight when they are available. If anything happens in the next nine hands worth talking about, hopefully I'll report it here before then.

Two players limp for 600 and Deeb makes it 3k. Both limpers call. The flop is 3 5 7 . Both limpers check, and Deeb bets 6k. The first limper calls. The turn is the 4 . Both players check. The river is the 9 . The first limper bets 25k. Deeb mucks A 3 face up and his opponent shows the 5 . Deeb asks to see the other card (a new rule implimented within the last year at most casinos). The dealer shows the A . More than a few eyes at the table roll.

Freddy Deeb 150k
Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy 110k
James "KrazyKanuck" Worth 115k
Tim Phan 11k
Jeff Shulman 90k
Jesse Jones 28k
JC Tran 18k
Phil Ivey 30k
Isabelle Mercier 27k

With over 20k in the pot, and the board reading Q T 4 4 3 , David Daneshgar checks. Freddy Deeb bets enough to put him all in. After a few minutes thought, Daneshgar calls. Deeb shows J 9 . Daneshgar taps the table, mucks, and walks away from his seat.

17 tables still are playing here tonight. There's just under an hour left.

If you want to play, you still have until 1 pm tomorrow afternoon to register. Single tables are running all night. I believe there might be a super at one point as well between now and tomorrow (call the poker room and find out for sure).

The Grinder has around 140k now. I also saw Phil Hellmuth walking away muttering "That #$()ing guy bluffed his chips off over and over and then busted me." He was referring to James "KrazyKanuck" Worth.

David Singer has also been eliminated.

With the board showing K Q 6 7, and over 30k already in the pot, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi bets 30k. Jon "PearlJammer" Turner check-raises all in and Grinder instantly calls for 48k total with pocket queens. Turner is visibly upset and mucks face down. He claims to have held AK.

To all of my loyal readers, I apologize again for the lack of content in my updates today. I don't know what I ate yesterday but something has me feeling very sick. I think I'm okay now. There's just 90 minutes left of play tonight, and the players are now on break. The next level is a 75 ante with 300-600 blinds.

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi 110k
Nick Binger 29k
John Hoang 15k
Joe Hachem 45k
David Sklansky 50k
Prahlad Friedman 50k
Lee Watkinson 20k
David Singer 10k
Mimi Tran 65k
Nenad Medic 55k
Young Phan 20k
Kristy Gazes 140k
Hoyt Corkins 25k

I overheard Jack McLelland telling TJ Cloutier that they had around 500 entrants as of now. They are still running single tables and accepting entries until 1 pm tomorrow. We should hopefully eclipse last year's prize pool.

I apologize for the lack of updates, but I've been feeling sick to my stomach. Hopefully I can make it through the day. 40 minutes left @ this level.

Haralabos Voulgaris 28k
Tony Cousineau 30k
Doyle Brunson 25k
Webber Kang 35k
JJ Lieu 30k
Tim Phan 8k
Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy 40k
Alex Jacob 5k
Phil Hellmuth 27k
John Cernuto 45k
Eli Elezra 27k
Amnon Filippi 70k
Liz Lieu 40k
Jon "PearlJammer" Turner 65k
Lyle Berman 30k
Carmel Petresca 45k
Marcel Luske 75k
Barney Boatman 38k
Bob Stupak 34k
Mihn Ly 75k
JC Tran 30k
Chau Giang 6k
Joe Awada 55k
Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo 75k
Young Phan 30k
Isabelle Mercier 32k

There's another 84 minutes at this level, then players will be on a 15-minute break. After that they will play one final level before play ends for the night.

There's just seven minutes left at this level. Players will go on break at that point, then return to a 50 ante with 200-400 blinds.

Phil Ivey is cruising, sitting around 85k. New chip leader of the tournament.

Tuan Le 34k
Clonie Gowen 37k
Dutch Boyd 36.7k
Patrick Antonius 40k
David Daneshgar 46k
Shannon Shorr 27k
Gioi Luong 37k
Doyle Brunson 38k
TJ Cloutier 26k
Mimi Tran 25k
Prahlad Friedman 50k
David Sklansky 28k
Joe Hachem 38k
David Singer 30k
Jeff Shulman 45k
Gavin Smith 70k
Freddy Deeb 40k
Nam Le 19k

I'll call Gavin Smith the "unnoficial" chip leader. It's tough to get a guage for who is leading when you have to visually count chips of 300+ players.

With over 20k already in the pot, seat eight checks to Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who bets his last 11,875. The board reads Q 2 4 6 . Seat eight studies the Grinder, counts out the chips (a small kink in his stack if he were to call, as he holds over 50k in chips). I love watching players try and get a "read" off of players like the Grinder, who give almost nothing away (especially to an ameteur). Seat eight finally calls with K J , and says "I'm drawing dead" when Grinder shows black aces. "Drawing dead?" Grinder asks. The river is a red brick and The Grinder doubles up.

After that comical post I just made, I totally forgot the reason I went to Hellmuth's table... to get chip counts. I saw JohnnyBax had built up some chips so I wanted to get a glance at the noteable stacks there.

Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy 55k
Phil Hellmuth 26k
Tim Phan 9k
Alex Jacob 27k

Anytime you're lacking material to write about... find Hellmuth's table.

I walk up and he's bouncing around listening to music on his iPod. He's chatting with Tim Phan when someone from CardPlayer (I believe) approaches him. Whatever he asks of Phil, it visibly upsets him. "It's so unprofessional," Phil says. "All I want you to do is say 'Phil, I was wrong, I am sorry.'"

Everyone is getting a good chuckle out of everything Phil is saying. "It's amazing how many times I'm wrong at the table. I always apologize when I'm wrong. If I piss anyone off I always apologize, right guys?" Phil says.

Then, as he is dealt his hand, he stands up and says "Make it 3,000," raising 15-times the large blind. Everyone folds. "You see how upset you have me?" he asks the guy who approached him. "I made it three dimes with this hand, I can't even play my hands!" He opens up A K .

The comedy never stops here at the Bellagio.

Players have returned from break.

Players are now on a 15-minute break. When they return, there will be a 25 ante and 100-200 blinds.

So, trying to count chips is tough as is, but it's damn near impossible right now. The Bellagio put new chips in play for this event, and the 500 & 1,000 chips look nearly the same. On top of that, all players have quarters, 100 chips, 500, 1,000 & 5,000. So, it's extremely tough to count.

As a result, I've been watching a lot of hands. Besides the straight flush against Williams, there has been little action. So, I wandered down to the gellato shop. I don't even know if I spelled it right. I don't even know what it is, but it's damn good. It's just like ice cream only, not quite the same. If you have $8 to burn, visit the Bellagio Gellato shop. Or whatever it's called.

With the board showing 6 A 4 5 6 , David Williams check-raises his opponents 2200 bet. He raises to 7200. His opponent then reraises and Williams moves in. Williams shows 6 5 for a full house... but his opponent has 7 8 for a straight flush. Williams has been eliminated.

All of the tables in the main poker room have been broken. All the players are now in the Fontana Lounge. 26 minutes remain at this level. Next up is the 25 ante, 100-200 level.

Phil Hellmuth still has yet to arrive. But I found his seat... on the feature table, to the left of Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy. Should make for an already interesting table, with James "KrazyKanuck" Worth & Alex Jacob already seated.

And right as I get done writing that, Phil arrives.

Just so you have an idea of what to expect for the prize pool... here is last year's tournament information.

555 entries
$8.075m total pool

1st - $2,078,185
2nd - 1.046m
3rd - 563k
4th - 362k
5th - 241k
6th - 160k

On an A 6 6 flop, Daneshgar bets 625. Gowen raises to 2k. Daneshgar reraises, making it 5,125 more. Gowen calls the bet. The turn is another A, making the board A 6 6 A. Daneshgar bets 10,500. Gowen quickly folds.

I've officially found the worst possible table to be seated at. In seat one, Clonie Gowen (the only sight for sore eyes at the table). Then we have Tuan Le, Patrick Antonious, Gioi Luong, David Daneshgar, Thor Hansen, and Shannon Shorr. That's some stiff competition.

Players are returning from break. The blinds are up to 100-200.

On breaks, most players lounge around on the patio outside the tournament room. Here's the view from the patio (normally complimented at night by a beautiful fountain show).

Dutch wanted to say hi to all of our readers.

By the way, I wanted to say that I'm not the only one having trouble staying awake. It appears as though Justin Bonomo is having trouble staying alert, along with many other players. Noon is pretty damn early to us poker players.

I have to admit. I have a hard time staying awake during the first level.

Thankfully this one is over. Just five minutes left and then we are playing 100-200.

I'm not sure why Patrick chose his robe to wear today. I did however have to snap at least one photo of the two weirdest dressed today. The other weirdest dressed award goes to Brandi Hawbaker, who was prancing around in what appears to be a Santa-themed dress. Pretty revealing. She disappeared before I could get a photo... but knowing my colleagues I'm sure you'll find photos out there. I'm not sure if she's playing, but who cares, she can walk around by my desk in that dress anytime!

Not much to report on at the moment. The first day is always the worst day. The action will pick up later, so for the time being I'll just snap some good photos for your enjoyment. I snapped this one a few minutes ago of Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy & Alex Jacob.

This was too good of a photo opportunity to pass up. Tony Cousineau, Doyle Brunson & TJ Cloutier all seated in a row.

Todd Brunson just took a seat next to Dutch Boyd. Also Young Phan has taken a seat in the lounge.

Joe Hachem & Patrick Antonious are also here in the lounge. I walked to the main room only to find one table with players. Amir Vahedi and Gavin Smith were back there. There was another four or five tables set up with chips but no players.

Jack McLelland said the 500 on the board is an arbitrary number. There will still be entrants coming in tonight and tomorrow. We'll know the final tally late tomorrow afternoon.

Players are still filing in... I have seen the following players (arranged by table) in the Fontana Lounge:

Alan Ghoering
John Hoang
Shawn McCabe
Eric Frolich
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi
Casey Kastle

David Williams
Dutch Boyd
Alan Goehring

Amnon Filippi
Abe Mosseri

Justin Bonomo

Peter Gould

Joe Sebok
Webber Kang
Jeff Shulman
Gabe Thaler
John Cernuto

Carmel Petresco

Vanessa Rousso
Nick Binger
Steve Brecher

Liz Lieu
Jon "PearlJammer" Turner

Ted Lawson
David Pham

Chad Brown

Tim Phan
Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy

Doyle Brunson
TJ Cloutier
Tony Cousineau
Haralbos Voulgaris

Hoyt Corkins
Kristy Gazes
Nenad Medic

Clonie Gowen
Tuan Le
David Daneshgar
Shannon Shorr

Kido Pham
Chad Layne

JJ Lieu

Phil Ivey
Mihn Ly
Joe Awada

Mimi Tran
Lee Watkinson
Prahlad Friedman
David Sklansky
Isabelle Mercier

Chris Bigler

Marcel Luske
"Yukon" Brad Booth
John Juanda
Barney Boatman

Jesse Jones
Jason Lester
Paul Magriel

James Van Alstyne
Steve Zolotow
Freddy Deeb

I've also seen Nam Le wandering around. I'm going to go venture into the main poker room and see who I can find there.

The first of five levels is underway. 90-minute rounds, 30k chips, 50-100 blinds to begin. The board reads 490 players, I am not sure if that's accurate. I'm going to make rounds and figure out who is here today.

Play is about to begin. Jack McLelland is making rules announcements. Blinds will begin at 50-100 and players will have 30,000 chips to play with. Stay tuned for live coverage of the second-largest buy-in poker tournament on the circuit!