Chip counts at end of Day 1:

Katja Thater made Aces-up to chip up to almost 17k.

Play continued into Level 8: Ante 100, Bring-in 200, Limits 500/1k.

Al Barbieri made trips to win a pot against a player with two pair. Mike Rocco won a pot with two pair, beating out Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller and two other players who were all-in and busted. Chad Brown made a straight to win a pot and chip up to ~20k.

Al Barbieri and Mike Rocco are on top of the leader-board with 42k each.

More Goners: David Sklansky, Humberto Brenes, Bill Munley, and Jan von Halle.

With just 20 minutes left to play today, only about 75 players remain. When they finish level 8, they will count & bag their chips. When the official counts are available, they will be posted here.

Day 2 action begins at 3pm Thursday.

After a color-up and break, play resumed about 12:20am with Level 7: Ante 100, Bring-in 100, Limits 400/800.

Chip Jett took a pot with two pair, chipping up to 23k.

David Singer got his chips in with a pair of 6s, but ran into a pair of Jacks and was busted. Phil Ivey met a similar fate on another table.

Sam Grizzle ran his flush into a full house, but was cagey enough to avoid the check-raise on the river.

Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller’s rolled-up Aces were good to take down Humberto Brenes’ trip 9s. Humberto’s stack was crippled after that pot. Humberto clawed his way back into the game, then ran into Mike Rocco. Humberto made trip Aces, only to be shown Mike’s full house. Humberto is again left in critical condition.

All-in and facing quad threes, it is a wonder that Chad Brown did not just go running for the door. He held three Aces, but had only one out left in the deck – the case Ace. Well, guess what he squeezed out on the river?? You got it – the case Ace. Chad doubled up.

Chip Jett has taken the chip lead with 21,500.

Rolf Slotboom has been sent to the rail, courtesy of Dewey Tomko.

Other Bustages: Andy Bloch, Paul Darden, Doug ‘Rico’ Carli, ‘Miami’ John Cernuto, Ali Eslami, Keith Sexton, Andreas Krause, and Allen Kessler.

John Hennigan improved his pair of Aces to Aces-up to take a pot and chip up to 15k. Later on he caught his fifth club on the river to make a flush and take another pot.

‘Hollywood’ Dave Stann was all in on fourth street with two pair and caught his full house on fifth to double up – to 1,500 chips.

Sabyl Cohen-Landrum folded to a bet from Humberto Brenes on 5^th street. Humberto was showing four clubs and his sharks were hungry. Humberto is up to 10k.

Men ‘the Master’ went to the river and check-raised his opponent, who then three-bet. Men made the call showing a full house. His opponent had three Queens and Men pulled the pot.

David Sklansky got his chips in on fourth against Phil Ivey and a third player. David had already made a full house and tripled up.

Chip Jett caught a full house to win a nice pot.

Play continued into Level 6: Ante 75, Bring-in 100, Limits 300/600.

John Hennigan is now the chip leader with 22k.

More departures: Huckleberry Seed, Justin Bonomo, Michael Mizrachi, Hoyt Corkins, and Michael Binger.

Allen Kessler made a straight in a three-way pot to chip up to almost 8k.

Amnon started with rolled-up 6s and fired all the way to the river, catching the quad and dragging the pot out from under his opponent, who had boated up.

Phil Hellmuth got his last chips in with Kings but his opponent improved to trips by the river to send him packing.

At the end of level 4, players were sent on a 30-minute dinner break with play resuming about 9:55pm.

After dinner, play continued into Level 5: Ante 50, Bring-in 50, Limits 200/400.

Play continued into Level 4: Ante 25, Bring-in 50, Limits 150/300.

Humberto Brenes made a full house to beat his opponent’s straight and chip up to ~5,700.

Max Pescatori called John Hennigan’s bets all the way to the river. John showed Aces-up and Max mucked, leaving himself with just a few chips. He busted out soon after.

Phil Ivey got his chips in on fourth with three-way action. At the river, his opponents showed one pair and two small pair. Phil came up with fives-up, good enough to take the main pot of 1,500 chips.

Amnon Filippi is still in the chip lead with 10k; Katja Thater is second with 9k.

After the break, play continued into Level 3: Ante 25, Bring-in 25, Limits 100/200.

New WSOP bracelet holder John ‘the Razor’ Phan got his chips in with three-way action, but at the river, he could only produce a pair of 9s. One of his opponent held a pair of Kings and the Razor has been cut.

David Chiu has met a similar fate. He got his chips in with a pair of Aces, but his opponent improved to two pair to send him to the rail.

Amnon Filippi has squeezed into the lead with 6,700 chips. Men ‘the Master’ Nguyen is close behind with 6,500.

Play continued into Level 2: Ante 15, Bring-in 25, Limits 75/150.

Marsha Waggoner made a full house to drag a nice pot. Anna Wroblewski was down to only 400 chips, but has climbed back up to 1,200. She noted that this is her first stud tournament.

David Chiu doubled through Perry Friedman and he’s still short-stacked with less than 1k in chips. Huckleberry Seed made two pair to pull a nice pot.

Outages: Anna Wroblewski and David Williams.

Paul Darden has doubled his starting stack – he’s now up to 6k.

Play began with Level 1: Ante 10, Bring-in 15, Limits 50/100. Players start with 3,000 chips and levels last one hour.

The average age of the crowd gathered for today’s $1,500 Stud event must skew about 20 years higher than the average age of players in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em events. Those No Limit events seem to be jammed full of twenty-somethings who cut their teeth playing poker on the internet and watching it on TV.

The average stud player, however, seems to be closer to forty- or fifty-something. These players cut their teeth playing poker in smoky bars and backroom games before anyone ever heard of poker on the internet.

There are also a lot of players in this event that have busted out of day 2 of the Stud/8 World Championship event, who have crossed the hall and taken a seat in this event. Players like Allen Kessler and David Singer fall into that category.

Phil Ivey already busted out of day 2 of the Stud/8 WC, played in the noon-starting $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/re-buys event, and has busted out of that, so I expect to see him turn up in this event before registration closes.

Early going is a bit slow with such low limits, but I did catch a hand between Barbara Enright and another player. Barbara fired the whole way and he kept calling. Barbara started with a pair of Aces in the hole and had not improved by the river. Her opponent, however, had made to pair to take the pot. Barbara is still the only woman to make the final table of the WSOP Main Event (she finished 5th in 1995) and the only woman in the Poker Hall of Fame.