After an explosive first round, the second round of the Limit Shootout definitely had more emphasis on the limit than the shootout. In four levels of play, the 90 Round 1 winners who began Round 2 have only been narrowed to 75. That means the nine second round tables will have their work cut out for them when they return to determine winners and then begin the nine-handed final table. Kenna James, Hoyt Corkins, David Bach, Terrence Chan, Mike Wattel, and Jimmy Fricke will all be back at 2 p.m. PDT to fight for a spot at the final table.

Official chip counts and seat assignments at the end of Day 1 (sorted by table):

Wow, this round of the Limit Shootout has definitely had more emphasis on the Limit than the Shootout. After four rounds of play, the 90 players who began Round 2 have only been narrowed to 75. That means the nine tables will have their work cut out for them when they return tomorrow at 2:00 pm PDT to determine second round winners and then begin the nine-handed final table.

Among those who made it to the second round but didn't survive until Day 2 are Andy Bloch, Allen Le, and J.C. Tran. Kenna James, Hoyt Corkins, David Bach, Terrence Chan, Mike Wattel, and Jimmy Fricke will all be back on Wednesday to fight for a spot at the final table.

The last hour has been a clear reminder that we are back to the early stages of Limit tournament, and not a whole lot is happening. Players began with 30,000 chips and the limits are at 600-1,200. Hopefully the action will pick up soon.

Round 1 is in the books, and 90 players have just begun Round 2. They are at nine ten-handed tables. Each person begins with 30,000 chips, and they will play four levels tonight. The survivors will come back on Wednesday to finish Round 2 and play the final nine-handed table.

Several of the tables look a bit intimidating. Blair Rodman, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Allen Le are sharing the felt. (Ok, Bobby Bellande isn't really that intimidating.) Andy Bloch, J.C. Tran, and Danny Wong are seated in a row. Kenna James and Matt Graham are at table 4, and David Bach and Jimmy Fricke are dominating table 9.

Everyone is guaranteed $5,055, and much to the players' unhappiness, 81 will be taking home that amount. It doesn't matter whether they bust first at their table or make it to heads up. The players are also not thrilled about the announcement the TD just made. According to WSOP rules, all electronics such as headphones and iPods can't be used once the field makes the money. And since they're all in the money, no tunes or text messages for these guys.

After three hours of playing heads up, three epic matches are finally over. Two tables are still at it, and Round 2 is set to begin in half an hour.

Ram Vaswani won this event last year, but after Chuck McCormick defeated him, he won't get a chance at a repeat victory.

Michael Binger couldn't survive any longer against Aliaksandr Dzianisau. In the course of three hours, Dzianisau took all but 900 of the chips. Binger was all in with 7-5 against Dzianisau's pocket Kings, and despite a 7 on the flop, Michael couldn't best Aliaksandr's hand. Dzianisau only gets a few minutes off before returning for the next round.

Allen Le, Nam Le's brother, won an intense battle with Theo Tran. Le had him on the ropes when Tran rivered an Ace to double up. But Le managed to work him back to just 2,200. Tran got it all in with J T against Le's K T. The flop fell 9 4 3, giving Tran a flush draw. The 8 on the turn gave him a straight draw. But the 4 on the river was not one of his outs. Le moves on to Round 2.

The room is getting pretty empty with only a few tables still heads up. Matt Graham defeated his opponent to advance. Graham had him all on in a 7 5 4 2 board, and Graham's A-T was ahead of his tablemate's Q-T. The hand held up with a 4 on the river, leaving one fewer table heads up.

Blair Rodman will also be moving on to Round 2. He and Robert Kockovsky had all the chips in the middle on a 9 8 3 flop. Rodman's 9-5 for top pair was good for the pot when Kockovsky's K-T failed to connect on the turn or the river.

There are only 25 tables still going, and all of them are heads up.

Unlucky Sevens

David Bach won his spot in the next round when his A-4 connected with the board to beat his opponent's pocket 7s. Kenna James also earned a Round 2 bid by defeating 7-7. James called his opponent's all in with T-8 and caught an 8 on the flop to end the match.

Andy Bloch defeated Jon Friedberg heads up and will be moving on as well.

Heads up matches are finishing all over the Amazon room. Mike Wattel had his opponent, Darren Brandes, down to 25 chips. Then Brandes doubled up on seven of eight hands. But Wattel wore him down again and will move on.

Hoyt Corkins had his heads-up opponent all in pre-flop, and Corkins' A-8 was ahead of the short stack's K-2. The flop fell T 8 8, giving Corkins trip 8s and a trip to Round 2.

The day after picking up his first bracelet, J.C. Tran knocked out his table with ease. Tran's A-Q turned into trip Aces to send home his heads-up opponent in style.

Terrence Chan and Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke also defeated their tables.

David Benyamine was not so lucky. He was all in against Marc Klecan, and Benyamine's Q-J was ahead of Klecan's J-5. But the 6 5 5 flop put Benyamine in bad shape, and with no runner-runner Queens, he was eliminated. Klecan moves on to the next round.

Barry Greenstein will have to join Benyamine as a spectator for Round 2. Greenstein was all in with J-T on a J J 6 flop. His opponent, Richard Walter, held pocket 7s, and a 7 on the river filled his boat and bounced Barry. Walter earned a spot in the second round and a signed copy of the Bear's book.

Also eliminated: Greg "FBT" Mueller, Dustin "Neverwin" Woolfe, Antonio Esfandiari, and Cyndy Violette.

Tables are beginning to empty as six have already produced winners and at least 15 are heads up. Ben Fineman beat James Gorham to advance to the next round, and Jacob Petersen defeated Elizabeth Grey-Pardo to move on. Eric Rivken and Zvi Stern also demolished their tables.

Primoz Adamio was heads up against Gavin Smith. Smith got all his chip in the middle on a J 5 3 6 board. Gavin tabled A-3 for bottom pair/top kicker, but it was far behind Adamio's J-6 for top two pair. The 2 on the river wasn't one of Smith's five outs, and we'll Adamio in Round 2.

Plenty of others are joining Smith on the rail, including: David "The Dragon" Pham, Jeff Madsen, Bruno Fitoussi, Amnon Filippi, Erik Seidel, Humberto Brenes, Jennifer Harman, and Robert Williamson III.

Where did everybody go? Most tables are now four or five-handed, and a whole lot of pros had to bust in the process.

Alex Kravchenko got it all in on a 7 6 2 K board holding A-J. His opponent showed J-7 for top pair. A Queen on the river didn't help Kravchenko, and he hit as expressionless as always.

The deck has continued to give Joe Sebok the cold shoulder. The board brought Sebok a set of 6s only to give Mark Seif a set of Jacks at the same time. After that hand, Joe was down to 800 chips. On the next hand, Sebok thought the deck might have changed its mind when he looked down at pocket Kings. But the hope was dashed when Matt Graham called Sebok's all in with Q-J and rivered a straight on an A T 9 J 8 board. The poker gods must be saving their Sebok love for the Main Event.

Joining the long list of assasinated shootout players: Daniel Negreanu, Tom Schneider, David Chiu, David Levi, Josh Arieh, Eric "E-Fro" Froelich, Dutch Boyd, Todd Witteles, Roland de Wolfe, Sabyl Landrum, Sam Grizzle, Liz Lieu, Thor Hansen, and Al Barbieri. Nikolay Evdakov is out as well, meaning that he has only the Main Event left to improve his record 10 2008 WSOP cashes to 11.

Robert Lipkin is the first person to secure a spot in the second round, eliminating the rest of his table in record time.  Lipkin is guaranteed $5,055.

Death Toll Rising

It hasn't taken long for many of the stacked tables to get a little less intimidating. Erick Lindgren was extremely short stacked when he doubled through Justin Bonomo. But even that wasn't enough, and he hit the rail a few minutes later.

Mark Vos didn't improve his A-3 against pocket 9s and was finished for the day. Kathy Liebert ran into a Broadway straight to make her departure. Maria Ho was all in when she rivered a Ten-high straight. Too bad the same card gave her opponent a Jack-high one.

Also on vacation until the start of the Main Event: David Singer, Chau Giang, Alex Jacob, Barny Boatman, Joe Tehan, Isabelle Mercier, Todd Brunson, David Sklansky, Nam Le, Dan Alspach, and Rob Hollink.

Bullets to the Head

The final number of entrants is 823, though despite the fact that this is a limit game, a few players have made their exits already. Sorel Mizzi was all in with K-J when he was done in by an opponent with pocket Aces. Layne Flack was in even worse shape when his pocket Tens were up against the American Airlines and another Ace appeared on the flop. No quad Tens for Flack, and he won't be back-to-back today.

Mats Gavatin, Michael Craig, and Tex Barch are gone as well.

Draws of Death

This is a pretty morbid post for 2:00 in the afternoon, but the event is called a shootout for a reason. Table draws are extremely important here, as only one player from each table goes on to the next round. Intimidated players at stacked tables can't just bide their time and wait for their table to break. And boy are there some stacked tables today.

Perhaps the scariest table, or at the least the one on the biggest rush, is B11. Thor Hansen is sitting between John "Razor" Pham, the only person to win two bracelets this year, and J.C. Tran, who finally picked up his first WSOP bracelet yesterday. Tran looks exhausted while getting a massage. Must have been a pretty awesome party.

It's female power at Blue 7. And some male power too. Sabyl Cohen-Landrum and Sarah Bilney are seated with another woman, certainly the only table to have three. And if they're not tough enough, Berry Johnston and Rolf Slotboom are sharing the felt as well.

Blue 35 is super stacked too. It's also right next to the rail, so a big crowd has gathered to watch Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and tablemates Joe Sebok, Mark Seif, and Matt Graham.

On Blue 21, Mark Vos, James Gorham, and Roland de Wolfe are sharing the felt.

Erick Lindgren and Justin Bonomo are neighbors on Blue 46, right next to Blue 16 where Noah Boeken and Jeff Madsen are seated.

Over at table 4 in the Green section, Jennifer Harman is sitting next to new bracelet winners David Singer and Scott Seiver.

At Green 5, players have to contend with Mats Rahmn, Chau Giang, and Al "Sugarbear" Barbieri.

Cards are in the air for the start of the very last tournament before the Main Event! The field was supposed to be capped at 729 players, so they could play two rounds at nine-handed tables today and the final table tomorrow. However, interest was so high that the field is currently listed at 817 and rising, meaning that some tables are ten-handed.

Since the rounds of Limit Hold'em will take awhile, tournament staff announced that they will play the first round to completion, and the second round will begin at 10:00 pm PDT. Rather than play the entire round all night long, they will play four levels and call it a night, then come back on Wednesday afternoon to play to a final table. The final table will be later that night.

The hallways are also packed with people who are here to check out the scene and register for the Main Event. Various sites are setting up their lounges and booths, and the excitement is definitely on the rise.

Even with all of the energy in the air, this is a Limit game, and there isn't too much action yet.

Gavin Smith jumped out to an early lead, doubling his 3,000 to 6,000.  Those spotted on my first pass through the tournament room include: Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, Humberto Brenes, Kathy Liebert, Kenna James, Maria Ho, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.

The $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout tournament begins Tuesday at noon.  It is only a two day event and the Shootout format means you have to beat your table to move on to the next round.  Ram Vaswani beat the field of 720 players in 2007 to win $217,438 and his first WSOP bracelet.  Live coverage begins at noon PDT!

Live coverage of Event #53 Day 1, $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout, begins Tuesday, July 1st.