Six-handed No Limit brought out an aggressive group, and 1,236 became 71 before the day ended. New bracelet winner Erick Lindgren busted early, and the field just kept shrinking from there. Matt Matros survives and sits atop the leader board with around 150,000 in chips. The remaining 71 will return Friday at 2 p.m. PDT to play down to the final nine. The action promises to be a fast and furious.

Official end of Day 1 chip counts:

Chaos On the Leaderboard

It's nuts at the back of the Amazon Room where big stacks keep disappearing. Since the bubble burst, the all ins just keep coming. Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Caroline Cooper, Ted Lawson, Barry Shulman, and Victor Ramdin are all out. 

Matt Matros appears to be the unofficial chip leader, with $1.53 million, but Tom Fuller right behind him with $1.5 million.  Rep Porter, who has played aggressively all day, has around $1.32 million, followed by Super Sytem publisher Avery Cardoza with $1.3 million.

Only 72 players are left to come back tomorrow to fight down to the final table.  The battle begins at 2:00 pm.  Stay tuned for official chip counts.

Bubblicious

Absolutely nothing happened in about 15 minutes of super-tight hand-for-hand play. Then, only one bust away from the money, players went on their 20 minute break as scheduled. I doubt too many of them relaxed though.

As soon as they returned, one more player hit the rails, and the remaining 126 let out celebratory whoops. Now that everyone is guaranteed a minimum payout of $2,277, the blood is likely to run fast and thick for the next level as short stacks bite the dust.

The Bubble Approaches

Six-handed hold'em is down to 132 players, only six away from the money. But play doesn't seem to be noticably tighter. Or maybe it's just been so loose all day that it finally seems normal.

Rep Porter had taken a dominant chip lead, chipping up when he busted Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke. Fricke's Queens were no match for Porter, flying high on American Airlines. Porter continued to carry the competition the the rails, accumulating more than $120k. He gave a bit back when he ran into a nut flush, but he's still $30k ahead of Jared Okun in second place.

Steve Paul-Ambrose just missed the money, doubling through Jared Hambly and then giving both of their chips to an opponent who made two pair out of his Big Slick.

Hand-for-hand play should begin shortly, so dealers might get a brief break from shouting, "Seat open!"

Settling In (Or Not)

Players are just getting settled for an evening of poker after their dinner break. But a few didn't have time to find their strides before being sent on a permanent break.

Lee Markholt ran his pocket Jacks into Caroline Cooper's dominant ladies and earned a trip to the rail. Tim Vance and Nam Le also shipped out. Sadly, JJ Liu and her fabulous feathers have been plucked. She held A-5 for top pair after a 5 3 3 flop and check-raised all in. But her opponent held A-3 for the set and the win.

In the few minutes since play restarted, Mike Gorodinsky boosted his chip stack to share the lead with Thomas Fuller. Both have $50k. Peter Marr and Rep Porter still have $40k, and Ted Lawson is inching his way up with $39k.

Chow Time

Players have left for a ninety minute dinner break. Most of the events are taking a breather now, so the halls are buzzing, and the lines in the Poker Kitchen are so long you'd think the food was good.

Serial-massagee Alexander Kostritsyn left for dinner a few minutes early, as did Mark Bonsack and Eric Stiglets.

At the break, Jan Christophe Von Halle, Peter Marr, and Rep Porter are tied for the chip lead, each holding $40,000 in chips. Brandon Lee and Ben Fineman are on their tails. Play will resume around 8:30 PDT.

Brandon Lee Leeding

Brandon Lee has grabbed the chip lead with almost $42k, but he'll have to work hard to keep it. Jan Christophe Von Halle and Rep Porter are less than $2k behind.

My favorite mad-hatter, JJ Liu, ran into some bad luck. She got rivered to lose a big pot and then lost a race with pocket ducks. Liu's luck turned around when she threw her proverbial hat into the ring with A-A and doubled up to around $10K.

Two quick busts left one table playing four-handed. Deciding it was unfair, Jared Hamby and his three table-mates asked the floor staff to either bring over two new players or break the table. When the dealer was told to keep dealing, they boycotted. After the players refused to act for ten minutes, the floor capitulated and broke the table. Poker union, anyone? Maybe these guys can joing the unhappy folks over at the crazy Mixed Event.

Max Maxed Out

A currently-one-handed Max Pescatori ended his 6-handed Hold'em run, raising all in after seeing a flop of K 7 4. His opponent insta-called holding 8 8. Pescatori's A 6 still had a shot at a flush after the 3 on the turn, but the 4 on the river sent him to the rail.

The remaining players (only about a third of those who started playing five hours ago) took a twenty minute break. Robert Williamson III busted just before the break, running his pocket Tens into Cliff Friend's A-A.

Players have just returned to their seats to continue with Level 5. Blinds are at $150-$300 with a $25 ante.

Rain Out

Hevad "Rain" Khan may have taken out a slew of players on his way out the door, but it was his turn to head for the parking lot in shame when he somehow pushed all of his chips into the middle pre-flop with pocket 6s. Though he was the "reigning" chip leader for a few moments early on, 6-6-lack of 6 ended his day when his opponent showed pocket Tens and the board bricked.

Jennifer Tilly is also out. Maybe I'm jinxing these guys. Not to give myself the same status as, say, an SI cover, but I'm starting to see a pattern here. Tilly called her opponent's raise all in on a 8 4 3 flop holding A-8 for top pair, top kicker. Unfortunately for Tilly, her opponent held the other two 8s in the box. Oops. To add insult to injury, runner-runner Tens gave her opponent a boat.

Humberto Brenes hit the rail when his pocket 7s ran up against a K-Q that found a pair on the flop. Alex Jacob, James Akenhead, and Cliff Josephy also dumped their stacks.

They Just Keep Bustin' (a Move)

They've only been playing for three hours, and the field of 1,236 is already down to 672. Six-handed hold'em seems to be a recipe for fast and furious all ins.

Hevad "Rain" Khan busted David Williams, pairing his 9 on the flop to best Williams' A-T off. The Rain man bragged that Williams was his seventh kill. Jamie Gold was knocked out by Alec Torelli when Gold got his last $2k in with J T but couldn't improve on Torelli's A J. Last year's Main Event champ Jerry Yang was sent to the rail by an opponent holding pocket Queens.

Also spending an afternoon by the pool (or more likely in cash games at the back of the Amazon Room): Freddy Deeb, Vivek Rajkumar, Moto Mabuchi, John Juanda, Justin Bonomo, Huck Seed, Joe Sebok, and Antonio Esfandiari.

Tilly Adds to Her Till

On a K 5 3 flop, Jennifer Tilly got in her whole stack and was called by a player holding AK (top pair, top kicker). Ms. Tilly held pocket 5s for the set and was way ahead. Her set held up and she doubled to just over 10k.

Hevad Khan is leading the field with ~17k. Jimmy 'gobboboy' Fricke is right on his heels with ~15k.

Out: Dutch Boyd, Paul Wasicka, and Jonathan Little.

Cards in the Air, Six at a Table

The 6-handed No Limit Hold'em event got underway at noon, and unlike many other events, this one sold out! Registration was closed almost as soon as the event began. Because all tables are 6-handed, the capacity for this event is much lower. Total number of entries is 1,236 creating a prize pool of $1,687,140.

Players began with 3,000 chips and 25/50 blinds. Levels last one hour.

We're starting to sound repetitive, but this event is jam-packed with name players, as would be expected, including freshly-minted WSOP bracelet holder Erick Lindgren.

Pros love short-handed play as aggression is even more important. It will also get you shown to the rail much faster. Already felted in the first hour of play are Hoyt Corkins, Sorrel Mizzi, Andrew Black, Jeffrey Lisandro, and even Erick Lindgren!  He probably needs a nap anyway after his victory last night in the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em tournament.