We have come to the point in the $1.5K NLHE where players need to double up or go home.  Nearly 2/3 of the field has already hit the rail and only 940 of the initial 2,447 players remain.  While some, like Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski, are trying to make up some of the ground they lost, others are just trying to hang on.

JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado (pictured at left) was down to two green 25 chips, enough for two antes, but he is slowly starting to build his stack back up.  Most recently, he got it all-in preflop for 675 with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25 with 78 against his opponent’s AK.  When the board ran out 7-6-3-9-Q and JC’s pair of sevens were deemd the winner he called out, “I might be the best player in the world.”  As he counted and stacked his chips, he added, “I may have ten big blinds now.  I went from two antes to ten big blinds.  What can I say?  I play great 2-ante stack poker.”

Dimitri “skanky980″ Valouev had a similar story to Alvarado.  During the first level of play, Valouev got it all in on the flop with a set of deuces versus an open-ended straight flush draw.  The flush hit on the river and he was left with only 300 chips.  He has since rebounded and added even more to his now large chip stack when the following hand occurred:

On a flop of J33 Dimitri led out for 600 and the other player in the hand raised to 1200.  Dimitri made the call and then checked when the 2 came on the turn.  The other player bet out 1.5K and Valouev then check-raised him for an additional 2.5K.  His opponent thought for a minute before showing A-J and folding.  Dimitri then turned over pocket sixes and rake in the large pot.  He now has 13K.

Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton also doubled up when he raised to 625 in late position and the small blind reraised enough to put him all-in for his remaining 2.1K and Eaton called with AJ.  He was in a race situation against 99 and when the board ran out J6353 Eaton doubled up to over 5K.

Sarvesh “serbie” Pershad continued the trend of doubling up when he moved all-in for 2.7K in late position with A9 and got called by a player in the blinds who held A-K.  Sarvesh took the lead in the hand when the flop came QQ9.  The turn and river were no help to the other player and now Pershad has a much healthier stack going into break.

Meanwhile, Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right) started Day 2 of event #35, the $1.5k Stud, with less than 13k in chips and is now up to nearly 35k putting him near the top of the current chip counts.

A lot of those chips came in a big hand against a single opponent. After the bring in, a player showing the 8 completed and Bryan raised showing the J. The bring in folded and the other player called. There was lots of action on every street and after 7th was dealt Bryan bet and his opponent called. Bryan showed (JJ5)J277 for Jacks full and his opponent who was showing 8T45 mucked.

• June 19, 2008 -- Bowker Goes Busto
• July 6, 2008 -- BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
• June 2, 2008 -- Event #2 is Hand-For-Hand
• June 20, 2008 -- Rough Day at the Office

More than a dozen online stars have cashed in the $1K rebuy, but a handful found themselves short and in desperation mode as soon as the money bubble collapsed. Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton, Jason Gray and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi busted within 20 minutes of making the money and earned just over $8K.

Mizzi (pictured left) had nearly 60K while play was hand-for-hand but was crippled when his KJ failed to improve against A4 on the board of 4AT66 after all the money got in on the turn. Mizzi’s hard luck continued minutes later when he shoved his last 7.7K with KK and was outdrawn by Bill Baxter’s K8 when Baxter flopped a flush.

The 68 players still in the tournament are currently on a 20-minute break with the next blinds level at 1500/3000 and the average stack 146,716.

Here are the unofficial chip counts of the P5ers in the field:

Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet - 220K
Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams - 180K
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 180K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 176K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 142K
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 75K
Dan “Stainley88″ Adams - 72K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 70K
Justin “jurollo” Rollo - 70K
Carl “colson10″ Colson - 60K

• June 4, 2008 -- Action Continues in Event #5
• June 3, 2008 -- Mizzi Accumulates Big Stack at Manic Table
• June 3, 2008 -- Hamby and Goldin Double Early
• October 14, 2008 -- Mizzi and Sebok Hit the Road