By the fifth level of play in the $10K heads-up only a handful of matches continued play.  On one side of the Amazon Room, Cliff “Johnnybax” Josephy (pictured at right) was tangling with European pro Johannes Strassmann while Josephy provided some live action PokerXFactor-style commentary for both his opponent and the crowd on the rail.  Bax’s analysis of heads up play was cut short when he moved all in on the button for just shy of 10K with the blinds at 500/1K and Strassmann made the call with 66.  Josephy held KQ and failed to improve, eliminating him after nearly two hours of play.

Scott “BigRiskky” Clements also fought a lengthy battle with his opponent before suffering a pretty brutal beat to knock him out of the event.  The two players got it all in pre-flop with Clements holding KK to his opponent’s AJ.  Clements looked in good shape to double up and take a substantial chip lead after the flop and turn, with his opponent drawing dead to an ace.  However, the A peeled off on the river and the other player advanced to Round Two.

More Eliminations:
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Taylor Caby, last year’s champ Daniel Schreiber, Sorel Mizzi, and Daniel Alaei

Headed to Round 2:
Cole “cts” South, Dario Minieri, and JC Tran

Day Two of play in the $2K NLHE is underway and several players have already hit the rail as well as doubled up.  Court Harrington was the benefactor of an early Day 2 double up and now sits at 23K.

The final table of the $5K NLHE also began at 2pm and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman has already been eliminated in 9th place on the second hand of the day when his AK was no match for Scott Seiver’s QQ.  He will take home $69,714.

• June 26, 2008 -- Online Players Looking to Run Deep
• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
• June 13, 2008 -- Mano a Mano
• June 11, 2008 -- Take It to the Limit