A massive field of 2,720 players began play at the Rio in today’s $1.5k NLHE event but only 350 remain after 8 levels of play. The players are currently on a 20 minute break but after they return eliminations are bound to slow down considerably as the infamous money bubble approaches. 270 players are going to cash in this event and we may well hit that number before play ceases tonight but as we’ve seen with these NLHE tournaments anything can happen so we’ll keep you posted as players continue to hit the rail.

Before the break started Theo Tran eliminated a player when his pocket aces held against his opponents pocket jacks. Tran now has around 45k while P5er Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured right) hit the rail when his pocket deuces couldn’t outdraw his opponents pocket aces.

Garrett ”GBecks” Beckman scooped a few nice pots late in the 400-800-100 level, increasing his stack from 40k to 63k.

The rush started when Beckman busted two short stacks that moved in from late position. The initial raiser went all-in for 4500 and another short stack went all-in as well, shoving in for 8800.

Beckman called with AQ and was way ahead as he was up against A4 and A9. Beckman promptly flopped trip queens and busted the short stacks without much of a sweat.

Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh is still playing heads up with Jesper Hougaard at the final table of event #36’s $1.5k NLHE tournament and while Hougaard has regained the chip lead, Slaubaugh is not far behind. The super agressive play Hougaard used earlier to push the short stacks around seems to be a thing of the past as Hougaard has 4.1 million to Slaubaugh’s 3.1 million in chips.

• June 22, 2008 -- Slaubaugh Takes 2nd
• June 22, 2008 -- Slaubaugh Leading Heads-Up Battle
• June 21, 2008 -- That’s the Way You Need It
• June 28, 2008 -- Seat Open!