Play in the $1.5K Limit Hold Em Shootout event resumed at 2pm and numerous players have been eliminated, including Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke and Ben “bfineman” Fineman.

Another player who saw his day come to a close was Mike “SirWatts” Watson, who shared a table with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo, and Kenna James.  Watson took a big hit to his stack when he and Graham got involved in the following hand:

With the blinds at 1K/2K, Graham raised in middle position and Watson 3-bet out of the small blind.  Matt made the call and after they saw the flop of QJ9.  Watson bet and Graham called.   Mike bet again when the J came on the turn and Graham quickly called again.  When the Q came on the river, Watson bet one more time and Graham raised.  Mike thought briefly before making the call and mucked his cards after Matt showed QT.

After that hand Watson was left with only 10K, which had dwindled down to 6.5K by the time Tamayo and Watson got involved in a blind versus blind confrontation that found Mike all-in and in bad shape with A8 against Jonathan’s AQ.  The board ran out T75A9 and Watson was eliminated.

A short-stacked Jordan “scarface79″ Smith also saw his tournament come to an end when he and another player got it all-in on a T96 flop with Smith holding 89 to the other player’s AT.  The turn and river came K2 and Jordan was sent to the rail.

Robbie “PlayaPlz” Lipkin (pictured at left) managed to get down to 3-handed play at his table, but after losing several chips when he rivered a set to his opponent’s straight, he found himself with less than 10K left.  He raised out of the small blind and the player in the big blind made the call.  The two then proceeded to get it all in after the flop came A74.  Lipkin showed 9T while the other player held A-6.  The pair of aces held and Robbie headed home.

Scott “ssitron” Sitron couldn’t have asked for a better start to his first WSOP final table. Sitron doubled up his 504k when he raised to 60k with QQ and Voitta Rintala went all-in for 544k behind him on the third hand. Sitron immediately called and his queens held up after the board ran out 42JJA. Sitron started the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em final table with the shortest stack and was relieved to get doubled up early.  “It was so nice to get that double-up right away,” Sitron said. “Now i can play poker.”  Sitron admitted to have a lot of jitters at the onset of the final table but added that after a few orbits it became rather normal and felt like any other tournament.

Sitron currently sits with 1.25 million, trailing only chip leader Matt Matros’ 1.4 million. David Daneshgar is the short stack at 430k with eight players left.

Meanwhile, Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert is holding his own in the Ante Up for Africa event with 13K in chips and the rapidly increasing blinds at 800/1,600.

• July 2, 2008 -- Hold Your Fire
• July 3, 2008 -- Sitron Takes 2nd
• July 2, 2008 -- Graham 3-Handed in 1.5k Shootout
• July 2, 2008 -- Sitron Sitting Pretty

The $1.5k LHE Shootout has ceased play for the evening. Only 15 of 90 people were eliminated in the first part of the 2nd round. There are still some notable players left in the field including Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (pictured right), Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith, Ben “bfineman” Fineman, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Sasha “bikocruz” Rosewood and Blair Rodman. Fricke is short stacked with around 14k while all the others have 20k or more.

Fricke had been in even worse shape before he managed to double up when his pocket sixes were up against pocket tens and the turn brought another six to keep him alive.

In the $1.5k NLHE, the final table has now been set. When there were still two tables remaining, Scott “ssitron” Sitron got involved in a big hand. Scott raised from the cutoff and the small blind re-raised. Scott made the call and they saw the flop come AJ6. Both players checked and saw the 3 fall on the turn. The small blind bet 260k and Scott called. When the 4 came on the river the small blind bet 600k sending Scott into the tank. His tournament life would essentially be on the line if he made the call so he was agonizing over the decision. Almost ten mintues passed before another player called a clock. Scott eventually decided to fold his hand and his stack was reduced to a little less than 600k.

The final two players were just eliminated and it looks like Scott will be coming to the final table as 7th of the 9 remaining players in chips with 500k. The chip leader is Corwin Cole who has over 1.6 million in chips. The final table is set to start at 2 pm and we’ll be sure to keep you updated on Scott’s progress.

• July 2, 2008 -- ‘SirWatts’ Runs Out of Power
• July 2, 2008 -- Sitron Sitting Pretty
• July 3, 2008 -- Sitron Takes 2nd
• July 2, 2008 -- Graham 3-Handed in 1.5k Shootout

Jeff “yellowsub” Williams made a move early on in the restart of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. With the blinds at 800/1600, a short-stack moved all in for 9K and Williams made the call with TT, which held against his opponent’s A6 when the board revealed K96QK. After the hand, Jeff received a celebration warning from the dealer for doing an Icky Shuffle-type dance in his seat, and he responded with “Sorry, I’m just doing it for the reporters.” Williams then chipped up again two hands later when he re-shoved a player’s raise and induced a fold and is now up to 33K.
 
Jordan “scarface79″ Smith was one of the first eliminations of the day. Conor Tate raised to 4,100 from the cutoff and Smith re-raised his last 27,000 in from the big blind. Tate deliberated and finally made the call with KQ and had Smith looking for help with KJ. The 75552 board was no help to Jordan and he was eliminated.

Craig “MrCasino” Gray followed in Smith’s footsteps shortly after. A player in early position raised to 4,500 and Gray (pictured right) re-raised to 15,500 on the button, leaving a little more than 20,000 behind. The original raiser called and immediately shoved his remaining chips in on a Q93 flop. Gray made the call, saying “What did I do to myself,” and saw the bad news when his TT was behind the other player’s AQ. The board bricked for Gray and he was sent to the rail.

Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen took a massive hit to his stack at the 1K/2K level. Stammen raised to 5,100 from under the gun with QQ and a player in late position moved all-in for close to 50K. Action folded back to Stammen, who snap-called and found pleasant news when his opponent flipped up 66. The AT9 flop was kind to Keven, but the 6 on the river was a crushing blow and left Stammen with 25K. “It’s been like this all series,” Stammen said to us as he calmly walked back to his seat.

With 90 players remaining, here’s a look at the unofficial chip counts of some other notable players:

Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 215K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 130K
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 115K
Justin “Looshle” Pechie - 100K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 90K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 80K
Randy “Randers’ Haddox - 80K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 50K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 40K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 40K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 15K

• June 26, 2008 -- Online Players Looking to Run Deep
• June 26, 2008 -- “Whoa! Who Won that Pot?”
• June 25, 2008 -- Welcome to the Madhouse
• June 19, 2008 -- Bowker Goes Busto

After tournament registration closed for the $5k NLHE six-handed event, 805 players had entered the tournament, beating last years total by 77 entries. Even with 10k starting stacks and blinds starting at 25/50, the play has been fast and furious. There are so many notable online players in the field that we can’t even begin to list them all. One of our reporters counted more than 50 notable online players in the field at the start of the tournament so we wouldn’t be surprised if numerous P5ers ran deep in today’s event.

We caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham in a hand with the board reading 632. It appeared that Matt had bet out on the flop only to be raised another 2.3k by his opponent. Matt was obviously stressed about his decision and then decided to fold his pocket tens face-up. Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Hevad “RainKhan” Khan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Shane “Shaniac” Schleger (pictured right), and Alex Jacob are all doing well and have built their stacks up during the first two levels.

Jeff “yellowsub” Williams was seen walking through the field of six-handed players a little before 2 pm, but he isn’t playing in today’s event because he is in day 2 of the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tourney. He is seated at table #13 along with Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left). Another table with a few notable players is #15 with Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich all seated together. 81 of the 115 players that started today will make the money so short stacked players are going to have to make moves soon as the bubble isn’t too far away.

• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
• June 29, 2008 -- Clements Takes an Early Lead
• June 26, 2008 -- “Whoa! Who Won that Pot?”
• June 26, 2008 -- Six-Handed Players Making Moves

Several notable online players returned for Day 2 of the $1.5K NLHE event only to make an early exit shortly after play began.  One such player was Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (pictured at right) who found himself in a race situation pre-flop with pocket jacks versus another player’s A-Q.  The A-Q ended up victorious and Phil busted in 131st place.  Here is a list of notable players who were recently eliminated:

Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 163rd for $3,340
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 140th for $3,340
Phil “USCPhildo” COllins - 131st for $3,340
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 130th for $3,340
Dag Martin “dmikkel” Mikkelson - 128th for $3,340
Justin “jurollo” Rollo - 117th for $4,008
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 114th for $4,008
Jordan “scarface79″ Smith - 112th for $4,008

While those players are now free to roam the halls, as we saw Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad doing earlier today, several other players remain in contention for the bracelet and are continuing to build their already large chip stacks.  Owen “ocrowe” Crowe is still the chip leader with 170K, but Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodniki (100K) and Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaughbaugh (95K) are towards the top of the leaderboard as well.

Over in the Amazon Room, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at left) was among the casualties in Level 3 of today’s $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event.  First, Saul lost the majority of his stack to Dario Minieri.  With the blinds at 75/150, Minieri raised to 700 in a limped pot from middle position and Saul re-raised to 2200 on the button. Action folded around to Minieri, who asked Saul, “You always think I have nothing?,” before moving in for his last 4000.  Saul made the call with JJ, which was way behind the QQ of Dario. The board ran out AK66A and Minieri added “This is the same hand I won my bracelet with” as he raked in a pot worth over 9K.
 
Saul was left with close to 800 chips following the hand and got the rest of it in two hands later. He raised to 450 preflop and got calls from Eli Elezra and another player.  Saul pushed in his last 350 on a flop of 983 and both players called.  By the river, he was holding his cards directly above the muck, waiting for Elezra to turn over his straight, and Saul was eliminated.
 
Others exiting Event #38 during the past level were Jon “FieryJustice” Little, Chris “moorman1″ Moorman and Justin Bonomo.

• June 21, 2008 -- Back from the Break
• June 20, 2008 -- Gary vs. Gray
• June 19, 2008 -- Bowker Goes Busto
• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips