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