There are just a few tables throughout the Amazon and Brasilia rooms where Round One tables of the $1.5K NLHE Shootout event are taking place. We watched as several P5ers either flourished or floundered in their heads-up match.  Here are some of the big hands from the past hour of play:

Play had been relatively mild and, frankly, kinda dull at Michael “shipitthisway” McNeil’s table and even his rail was starting to get bored watching their friend play.  Mike decided to do us all a favor and get it all-in to end the match in the following hand:  With the blinds at 300/600 ante 75 McNeil completed the small blind and the big blind raised an additional 1.5K, leaving around 10K behind.  McNeil called and the two saw a flop of Q22 and the other player quickly moved all-in and Mike snap called.  The other player showed A8 for ace high while McNeil made Doyle Brunson proud by flipping over 2T for trip deuces.  The trips held, McNeil had his opponent easily covered, and Mike headed over to the floor staff to get his name on the list for Round Two tomorrow.

It looked like Craig “MrCasino” Gray (pictured left)  was also going to take down his heads-up match, especially after this hand we caught up with in the middle of action.  The board read 7544 and Craig checked to his opponent who made roughly a pot-sized bet of 1.6K.  Gray raised to 5K total and the other player called.  The 3 on the river prompted Craig to move all-in for roughly the size of the pot and the other player deliberated long and hard before folding a four face up.  Gray showed 3-6 for a flopped straight and took down a pot that pumped up his stack to 38K.

We’re not sure what happened after that, but Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim and Kyle “dumpingkgb” Brossia, who were sitting at the next table over, said they were fairly certain Craig failed to deliver a final blow to his opponent and was instead knocked out in second place.

Adam “akat11″ Katz found himself in a similar situation.  Adam managed to get heads-up at his table and was in a virtual tie with his opponent when we caught them playing the following hand: With the board reading 7632 the other player bet out 4.5K and Adam called.  The river was the J and the other player asked Katz how much he had left before he moved all-in.  Katz thought for a while, replaying the hand in his head.

“You check-raised the flop…led the turn…,” Katz mumbled to himself.  He finally decided to call with 57 for a pair of sevens and the other player showed 36 for a flopped two pair.  The chips were counted down and the dealer determined they had the exact same amount of chips, thereby eliminating Adam and advancing the other player.

Matt “ch0ppy” Kay suffered a similar fate.  Victor Ramdin rallied from an early heads-up chip deficit to defeat Kay and move on to Round 2.

Hakim and Brossia’s epic heads-up battle continues on.  Kyle told us it has been a back and forth match with several coin flips and 60/40 situations that have kept one of the two of them alive.  At the third break of the day Hakim held the 27K advantage over Brossia’s 18K. 

While most of the events are on dinner break, let’s quickly recap which P5ers will return tomorrow to play down to a final table:

Steve “gboro780″ Gross (pictured right)
Brent “BHanks11″ Hanks
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout
Jared “The Waco Kidd” Hamby
Jason “JCarver” Somerville
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers
Theo “pittrounder” Tran
Tom “titantom32″ Braband
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado
David “Bakes” Baker

All of those players will return tomorrow at 2PM to play down to the final table.

WSOP EVENT #19: $2.5K 6-MAX NLHE

The five remaining players at the $2.5K six-handed no-limit hold’em final table have gone on dinner break and will return around 8 p.m. Las Vegas time. Joe Serock recently reclaimed the chip lead when his pocket tens defeated another player’s pocket fives in dramatic fashion. All the money went in with Serock trailing Jesse Rios’s set of fives on the flop, but a ten came on the turn and doubled up Serock. He now has 2.67 million. Brock “t_soprano” Parker is second in chips with 2.13 million while Russell “rcrane082985″ Crane has moved into third place with 1.4 million.

Play will continue after the break until a winner is determined.

• June 12, 2009 -- An Intervention for Fish?
• June 12, 2009 -- Carving His Competition
• June 12, 2009 -- Divine Intervention
• June 11, 2009 -- Where’d Everybody Go?