The players in the $1.5k Stud H/L event aren’t craving the astronaut’s orange-flavored drink, rather they’re wanting more chips like those held by chip leader Ben Tang. Tang comes into day 2 with nearly 40k in chips. Among the 117 players who will return today are Brett “Gank” Jungblut (5.3k) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray (11.5k) (pictured right) who will both need to win some hands early to build their stacks up if they want to be one of the 56 players who will cash in this event. The players will hit the felt again at 2 pm today without Brian “Devo” Devonshire and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements who both busted last night before play concluded.

Day 3 of the monumental $50k HORSE event will kick off at 3 pm today with only 67 of the original 148 players left to battle it out. Lyle Berman is the current chip leader with 507k in chips but the field is still filled with well known live pros and a few online players looking to make their mark. Among those are Justin Bonomo (384k), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (195k), Dario Mineri (50k), Barry Greenstein (473k), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (138k), and James “mig.com” Mackey (175k).

• June 27, 2008 -- A Player Makes a “FatalError”
• June 13, 2008 -- Wolpert and Gray Get Coolered in 10k Heads-Up
• June 26, 2008 -- Online Kids Get on Their HORSE
• June 28, 2008 -- CrazyMarco, Roothlus Chip Up

Day 2 of event #31, the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament, is set to restart at 2:30 pm today with Dario Mineri (pictured left) 2nd in chips with over 191k. Only 73 out of the original 1012 players are left and they will play down to the final 9 tonight before play concludes for the evening. Other players still in the hunt include Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (78k), Billy Westom (70k), and Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (46k). Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant was eliminated last night in 80th place for a payday of $4,189.

Also starting at 2 pm is the final table event #29 the $3k NLHE with Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin coming in as the chip leader with over 1 million in chips. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst is also at the final table with 333k which is good enough for 8th out of the 9 remaining players but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him build that stack up and finish even higher once play begins.

In the Amazon room event #32 has just taken an unscheduled 30 minute break to accomodate for the estimated 400 people that are still trying to register for the event. This seems to be the first time the WSOP has had any trouble with registrations this year. We’ve heard from one of the players who registered late for the event that the computer system was registering players as alternates rather than at empty tables and then the entire system actually crashed. We imagine this may be the cause of the backup in registrations today but if we find out otherwise we’ll let you know.

Before the break began, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan was short stacked after losing a few hands but was then able to double up back to around 2.5k when he turned a king high flush against his opponents top pair. Other P5ers spotted in the field include Court Harrington, Adam “adam_mc” McGregor, and Phil “USCphildo” Collins.

• June 17, 2008 -- Business as Usual for Riskky
• June 17, 2008 -- OMGClay Wins!
• June 17, 2008 -- Hanks Having a Drink on Scotty
• June 17, 2008 -- Shorr Doubles, Dario Ascending

Dario Mineri (pictured at right) is trying to climb his way back up the leaderboard of the $10k Stud event after his stack fell to a mere 6.5k. He had called a player’s all in bet on 4th street and Dario showed the (JJ)KJ while his opponent held only a pair of aces. Unfortunately for Dario, his opponent caught another ace and Dario failed to improve, allowing the other player to double up. He’s now built his stack back to a much healthier 38k at the beginning of today’s first break and seems to be picking his spots well. Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich was eliminated earlier today from this event along with pros Doyle Brunson, Greg Raymer, and Bill Chen. There are currently 58 players remaining but only 16 will cash in this event.

With 13 players remaining, John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien has taken a couple of big hits over in the $1.5k LHE event. He lost a pot when his KQ wasn’t good enough to best the A8 of his opponent on a J837T board and then he flopped a set of 8s when the same player from the previous hand flopped a set of 9s and took another chunk of O’Brien’s chips. He is now down to around 140k in chips which is good for 8th out of 13 remaining as the players go on a 20 minute break. We still believe that the PocketFives.com t-shirt John has been religiously wearing to this event will bring him good luck and help him make the final table!

In the $5K NLHE Shootout Event, play commenced nearly three hours ago with Tim “tmay420″ West and former Quizbowl champ Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert facing Philip Tom, Thomas Roupe, former hockey pro Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Sirous Jamshidi. No one has been eliminated yet in the play, but several tense moments have occurred in the last hour of play.

Sirous Jamshidi managed to double up through West, flopping two pair to West’s JJ. Three hands later, Wolpert checked the flop from the big blind after calling a 70K preflop raise. Wolpert’s pocket eights were good enough to hold up, winning him about 300K in chips. His fans on the rail went nuts; other news sites are labeling them “raucous” and “wild” — only to be expected by the PocketFives crowd.

Later, West doubled through Tom Roupe when West held 88 to Roupe’s 77. West now holds a stack of over 1M in chips, yet after more than 90 hands of play, all six original players at the final table remained.

• June 8, 2008 -- Devin Porter Takes 3rd; Limit Bubble Bursts
• June 17, 2008 -- Parker Taking it to the Limit
• June 8, 2008 -- O’Brien Feels the Chill
• June 8, 2008 -- Babes in Pokerland