It’s a beautiful day here at the Rio as Event #31 the $2.5k NLHE six-handed event gets underway. Fast, agressive play seems to be the norm in these short handed events so today should be filled with some fun and exciting action as the field of over 900 (so far) battles it out. There are quite a few P5ers who are going to be hitting the felt today hoping to run deep in this event.

Play in event #27, the $1.5k NLHE, will resume today at 2 pm with P5er Barry “BarryGS” Schultz sitting near the top of the chip counts with over 850k. The current chip leader has 912k. Jordan ”scarface_79″ Smith is also doing well with 789k in chips. 17 players will return today and will play until one player holds all the chips and claims the bracelet.

The final table of event #28, the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tourney is now set and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is the chip leader of a star studded table that includes John Juanda, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, and Phil Hellmuth. Johnny Chan will be looking to claim bracelet #11 to tie the record set by Hellmuth last year while Hellmuth will himself will be looking to come back from being short stacked to claim his twelfth bracelet. This also makes a record setting 40 final tables for Hellmuth, breaking the tie he held with TJ Cloutier at 39 tables. The final table will be on the ESPN featured table starting at 3 pm and is sure to be as exciting as any final table we’ve witnessed so far this year.

Day 2 of event #29, the $3k NLHE is set to restart at 2 pm with 81 of the original 716 players returning including some P5ers. Only 72 players will make the money so we expect play to be rather slow at the beginning of the restart today.

Lots going on here at the Rio and we’ll keep you posted as the day progresses!

• June 16, 2008 -- Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
• June 16, 2008 -- Froehlich and Parker Leading in LHE
• June 16, 2008 -- Galfond Loses the Chip Lead… OMG!
• June 16, 2008 -- Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner?!