For every player that gains chips and builds a stack there is another player that those chips had to come from. During the second level of the day both Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld and Jason “JCarver” Somerfield were on the giving out end. Somerfield saw his stack drop all the way down to 12k, but he is still confident he can make a comeback.

Jason (right) lost a huge pot with the nut flush draw against David Chiu who had an open ended straight draw and a smaller flush draw than Somerville. Chiu hit one of his outs to make a straight and Somerfield missed all his flush outs to lose a large pot.

Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg had another tough level and is still hanging on with 8k, but the player to his immediate right ran a 10k stack up considerable in the last level. Peter “Nordberg” Feldman won a flurry of hands to build up a stack well over the average of 60k. In one pot Feldman opened from under the gun for 1,600 and a total of 5 players went to the flop of AT8 and Nordberg bet 5k. One player called and Peter again led out on the 9 turn for 8k. He was again called.

With the 6 river card Feldman (left) said “all in” and the other player went into the tank. Feldman had about 35k left when he went all in and had the other players 17,800 chips easily covered. After wrapping up his iPod and packing his belongings he sat back down and continued to consider the call. Finally another player called the clock and the floorman came over to give the minute countdown. After another 30 seconds of thought the player called and Feldman showed the QJ for a straight.

Another Peter saw his tournament come to an end during the last level. Peter “#1Pen” Neff never really got anything going and was ultimately eliminated when his AK lost a race to pocket tens. Ari Engel also looks to have been eliminated during the second level of day 2 play.

• August 25, 2008 -- First Level Action
• August 24, 2008 -- Legends Of Poker Day 1A Complete
• April 19, 2008 -- Early Action, Big Pots and Basketball
• August 25, 2008 -- Stacking Up

The second flight of day 1 players are at the tables and ready to go at the Bicycle casino. The field for today is definitely larger than yesterdays 161, but by how much is yet to be seen. The field is heavy with well known pros and there are a few interesting table draws right off the bat.

Jared “The WacoKidd” Hamby is sitting two seats to the left of Barry Greenstein, with Layne Flack and Mark Seif also at the table. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman is looking across his table at two of the top players in the game, Phil Ivey and Allen Cunningham. Ari Engel and Matt “Mattg1983″ Graham are at the same table along with Daniel Negreanu to start the day, guaranteeing a lot of attention from spectators and media throughout the day.

Some other faces that popped up early on include Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, Shane “Schaniac” Schleger, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Chad “lilholdem” Batista, Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan, and Peter “#1Pen” Neff.

• August 26, 2008 -- 90 Left
• August 24, 2008 -- Ivey and Freeman Both Busted Early
• August 25, 2008 -- Legends of Poker Day 1B Complete
• June 26, 2008 -- Online Players Looking to Run Deep

Jason “strassa2″ Strasser probably just made the ESPN footage of the main event. With the blinds at 1.2k/2.4k with a 300 ante he raised to 7k from middle position and Men Nguyen pushed all in for 20.8k more. Jason contemplated for awhile before deciding to make the call and Nguyen proudly flipped over his AA while Jason tabled the KT. His chance to bust a well known pro loomed and the flop came 542. Jason would need running cards to best Nguyen’s aces but the turn brought the 8 sealing the deal. The Q fell on the river and the 60k pot was shipped over to Nguyen with the ESPN cameras catching all the action.

Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (pictured right) won a gigantic pot over 200k earlier when he flatted the small blind’s raise with pocket eights in the big blind after it was folded around to the small blind. Thayer promptly flopped a boat when it came 8-4-4, trumping his opponents pocket kings. Rasmussen later got moved to a table playing alongside Brent “astrolux85″ and and Hunter THE_HUNT_D” Frey.  Several other stacked tables are forming that bear mentioning.  Earlier we reported on the table that contained Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert, Owen “ocrowe” Crowe and “Bodog” Ari Engel, but that isn’t the only table where you’ll find PocketFivers duking it out. Just a few tables over, Brian “Like7″ Lamanna, Aditya “intervention” Agarwal and Kush Patel are all seated together as well. Another table to watch out for boasts Tim ‘tmay420″ West, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson, and Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby.

After being merely a spectator for the first few levels, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy’s chip stack started fluctuating in big margins. Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera raised to 5400 under-the-gun and a player in middle position shoved all-in for 20k. Josephy re-raised to 38k and Ferrera moved all-in for a total of 202k. Josephy made the call tabling pocket kings but was trailing Ferrera’s pocket aces. The hand boosted Ferrera’s stack to 409k and Josephy was left with around 60k.

Luckily for Josephy, a table change helped move his stack north. In his first orbit at his new table, Josephy raised under-the-gun only to have a player in the blind put him all-in for his last 57k. Josephy made the call and tabled pocket kings again but this time was ahead of his opponents pocket jacks. The board ran true for Josephy, although his friend Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul, watching from about 40 feet away from the rail, had thought Josephy lost given his demeanor.

“Tell him to smile next time he doubles through,” Saul said to Pocketfives. A few minutes later Saul came over to congratulate Josephy on his double up and gave him a hard time about looking glum. Given Josephy’s last level, who can blame him?

“I had a lot more,” Josephy told Saul in response to his ribbing.

There are currently only 801 of the 1307 players that started the day which means we are only 135 spots away from the money. Play has been fast and furious all day but will likely slow down as the bubble approaches.

Here are some of our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 465K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 350K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 330K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 320K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 305K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 270K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 265K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 225K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 220K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 220K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 200K
David “Raptor157″ Benefield - 195K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 165K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 160K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 155K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 145K
David “Bakes” Baker - 140K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 135K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 135K
Jason Gray - 120K
Kush Patel - 115K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 110K
Bruce “Cornellxc11″ Hyde - 105K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 95K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 94K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 90K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 89K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 86K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 75K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 70K
Cody “shankingyou” Shedd - 43K

• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 11, 2008 -- Olly Olly Oxen Free!
• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away

Adam “Roothlus” Levy’s (pictured left) resurrection from a short stack last night to 230k at the start of Day 3 of the Main Event has continued escalate. Levy scooped a 280k in the last level in a cutoff vs blind battle when Levy raised in late position and got reraised by his opponent out of the blind. Levy put in another raise, resulting in the massive all-in pot with his AK trailing his opponents pocket jacks. Levy clipped a pair and currently sits with 400k.

Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen has also been on an enormous tear today, starting with the second hand of the day.  A player opened for 4K and Jensen raised to 14K out of the big blind with A-K with the king of clubs.  The flop came out {ac]72 and Matt led for 20K.  The other player raised to 55K and Jensen moved all-in.  The other player then folded and Matt picked up a nice sized pot. 

Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert has been treading water all day but has managed to keep his 160k starting stack intact. Increasing that stack will be much more difficult after Wolpert drew an extremely tough table with Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (300k) and “Bodog” Ari Engel (130k).

Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury continues to ride the roller coaster he boarded last night as his stack continues to fluctuate in six-figure swings. Steury started the Day 3 with 121k after getting up to 250k late in Day 2. Steury ran his starting stack up to 250k again but got back down to 185k after losing a big pot post-flop with pocket jacks.

Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez continues to build a big stack and recently just busted a player in an all-in preflop confrontation. Ramirez re-raised a 10k open to 25k out of the blind with blinds at 1k-2k-300. Ramirez’s opponent went all-in for an additional 40k and Ramirez called with his AK way ahead of his opponents A-10. The board ran true for Ramirez, who has 225k.

Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania was fighting the deck most of the day and eventually hit the exit when his kings ran into pocket aces on a ten high flop. Charania started the day with 65k and was able to get up to 125k before his bustout.  Others eliminated recently include Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson, Mike “RunScreamin” Herder, Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano, Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert, and Darren Elias.

• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away
• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)

“BodogAri” Engel has doubled his chip stack to nearly 4K — just short of the average — in Level 3 of the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event. With the blinds at 75/150, Engel (pictured right) raised to 525 preflop with AK82 and a player in late position called. The flop came J85 and Engel quickly moved his last 1300 chips in and was called. We didn’t catch the hand of the other player, but Ari’s hand held when the Q and J filled the board and Engel was given new life. Eric “Rizen” Lynch is also seated at Engel’s table and has 5,000 chips.

Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, kyle “kwob20″ Bowker and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski were all eliminated in the past hour. Unfortunately for Bogdanski, the new haircut apparently did not do the trick for him today. Gary and his opponent were all-in on a board reading Q-3-2-9 and Bogdanski turned up his A-Q-4-7 and quickly learned he was behind the other player’s A-A-2-5. Another 9 on the river failed to bring a qualifying low for Gary to get half the pot and the other player won with his pair of aces.

More than 200 players have already exited Event #43. Here are some unofficial chip counts coming back from break:

Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 9K
Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik - 6.5K
Chris “SKOAL” Falconer - 5.5K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 5.5K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 3K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 3K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 3K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 1.2K

• June 24, 2008 -- “You Know You Have a Good Table When…”
• June 19, 2008 -- Bowker Goes Busto
• July 9, 2008 -- Dreams Dashed or Doubled Up?
• July 9, 2008 -- Martin Handed DisGusting Beat