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

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