WSOP Day 2 Update

The field will finally be combined today at the World Series of Poker, as we have finally reached Day 2. With 1,867 players remaining, "only" 1,300 need to be eliminated until they reach the money. Check back here for updates throughout the day.

Play will start 25 minutes into Level 8, with 300/600 blinds and a $75 ante.

Haakon Waerstad of Oslo, Norway, is the chip leader with $169,200. For complete tournament standings as of the end of all the flights of Day 1, click here.

1:50pm
This update would have come earlier, but the press room is a travesty. There’s no where to sit now that all the rest of the media have come in for the main event, there’s nowhere to plug in a computer, and for whatever reason, nobody can pick up after themselves.

The most entertaining thing about the poker so far is that all of the short-stacks have been going all-in. Walking through the room, the cry of, “All-in and call Table [fill in the blank]!” can be heard echoing almost once a second. The dealers do this so the ESPN cameras can get over to the table if they need to, but it is fun to hear, as it makes it sound like there is tons of action.

One of the short stacks who bowed out early today was 2003 champ, Chris Moneymaker. It was nice to see him get a rousing ovation as he walked out.

If You’ve Got ‘Em, Flaunt ‘Em

Walking by Table 88, it was…interesting…to see a woman with a feather placed strategically in her cleavage. Perhaps this is a shrewd move on her part to distract the male players at the table. Or, it could just be tickly.

More notables who showed up, lost all their chips, and left: Peter Costa, Toto Leonidas, Marcel Luske, David Sklansky, Shannon Elizabeth.

7:00pm
Before you say anything, I realize that the updates have been few and far between. The big reason for this is because I had to console a couple players who got knocked out. Drowning one’s sorrows in greasy deli food is a decent way to cope.

In the meantime, several big time players have been shown the door: Dan Harrington, Robert Mizrachi, Liz Lieu, Amir Vahedi, Huck Seed.

Mizrachi got up and walked away before the river card even fell on his last hand. With 9-8-7-Q on the board, his opponent showed J-10 for the nut straight. Mizrachi got up, flashed A-Q, shook his neighbor’s hand, and that was it.

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, on the other hand, while vocal as always, has been building up his stack. At one point, the whole room could hear him scream, “That was a hundred thousand dollar pot!” Sure enough, he had won a big one and his stack is now over $100K.

While a chip count is not readily available, one interesting success story so far has been that of Olga Varkonyi, wife of 2002 Main Event Champion, Robert Varkonyi. Olga came into today in the top fifty chip leaders, with $80,700. She has continued to impress and is looking like she could make a run deep into the tournament. In the meantime, her husband was knocked out on the first day, but appears to thoroughly enjoy watching his wife pile up the chips.

The players are currently on dinner break and will return at 8:30pm, when the blinds will be at 600/1200 with a $200 ante.

2:30am
Play is done for the night with a whopping 1,300 players eliminated today. With 566 entrants remaining, play will begin on Monday in hand-for-hand mode, as there are only 6 spots until the money.