While the $2k may be the largest event in the Amazon Room today, there are several others running at the same time.  Both the $2K Limit Hold Em and the $1.5K PLO are playing out their final tables today and should have bracelet winners determined within a few hours.  In the $2K LHE event, Daniel Negreanu is towards the top of the chip counts with 8 players remaining.

The $1.5K PLO is already down to four players and Vanessa Selbst has a substantial chip lead over the rest of the field.  In fact, she currently holds more chips than the remaining players’ chip stacks combined total.  Pocket Fives’ Jamie “The New” Robbins (pictured at left) was eliminated in 8th place and will be taking home $28,490. 

The $5K NLHE event has only been playing for around two hours, but several notable players have already been eliminated including Jason Gray, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Ben Grundy, Gavin Smith, and Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf.  Amit “amak316″ Makhija appeared to be in good shape after winning a big pot when he eliminated Gavin Smith with pocket queens to Smith’s K-J.  However, a few hands later, he got it all-in with pocket tens against the pocket aces of Adam Geyer after the flop came 744.  The turn and river were no help and he was eliminated.

Less than 90 players remain including Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, and Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, who recently doubled up to 60K through Blake Caihil.

The $3K HORSE event has also begun play for Day 2 and the new table draw has been less than kind to Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at right), who is sandwiched in between Todd Brunson and Marcel Luske.  Saul remains in good spirits though and joked with us about what a soft table he ended up at.  The stiff competition doesn’t seem to be deterring him though—he is currently 2nd in chips with 51K.  Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, James “mig.com” Mackey, and Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich are also still in the event.

• June 12, 2008 -- All’s Quiet On the Amazon Front
• June 13, 2008 -- The Cooler
• June 13, 2008 -- Money Makr
• June 12, 2008 -- Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Stack

Ben “MilkyBarKid” Grundy’s (pictured at right)stack is now a bit healthier in Event #21, the $5k NLHE tournament. With the blinds at 400/800 with a 100 ante, Grundy raised under the gun to 2.3k and was called by one player in late postion. The flop came with the A82, Grundy checked, and his opponent bet 2.5k. Grundy called and they saw the 4 come on the turn.

Both players checked and then the river came with the K. Grundy bet out 5.4k and his opponent folded. One of the other players at the table asked “Aces?” and Grundy flipped over his AA. Even though he might not have disguised his hand perfectly he still gained a few more chips and is looking to build his stack even higher before play ceases for the evening. Players are currently on a 20-minute break and when they come back they will play two more levels before they call it a night.

Ryan “macker21″ McClean isn’t having quite as much luck as Grundy when it comes to big pairs. After a player raised it to 2.1k, McClean reraised to 5.5k. The original raiser called and they saw the flop come 8-6-6. Ryan bet out 10k into the pot and the other player moved all in. Ryan called putting himself all in and showed KK only to be devastated to see his opponent held K6 for flopped trips. Ryan couldn’t catch the case K and was sent to the rail.

Though Vanessa Selbst holds more than half the chips in play in the Pot Limit Omaha tournament, Jamie “The New” Robbins managed to hold on until the end of the evening. Jamie held strong for the last hours of Day 2, maintaining 68K as the next-to-last short stack. His final table appearance guarantees him at least a $20,720 prize as they contend for the bracelet and $227,965. This will be the second cash for Robbins this World Series, as he finished in the money for Event #7 NLHE as well.

• June 11, 2008 -- Repeat Performance?
• June 12, 2008 -- Robbins Takes 8th in PLO
• June 12, 2008 -- All’s Quiet On the Amazon Front
• June 11, 2008 -- Event #19 Final Table Inches Closer

Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan was eliminated in 19th place of the $1.5K Pot-Limit Omaha Event, releasing a collective sigh of relief from several short stacks as the final two tables have been formed. Morgan (pictured right) got involved in a three-way all in with Colin Yorke and Craig Natte. Morgan held Q-T-T-8 (double suited) and was up against the J-J-6-2 of York and A-T-9-5 of Naette. The board revealed KQ597, giving Naette the nut flush and sending Morgan packing.

The eliminations have been fast and furious from there. Nine more players have fallen in the span of 45 minutes, but P5er Jamie “The New” Robbins is staying strong, working with a 70K-80K stack for the past few levels by raising in position and not having to commit his entire stack.

Eugene Todd is currently 5/10 in chips and just made a huge laydown to save himself from exiting the tournament. On a board of QJ3, two players moved all of their chips into the pot, forcing Todd to a critical decision. He chose to fold, claiming he had top two pair, and his opponents flipped up bottom set and a wrap draw. The board paired, but it would have been disaster for Todd, who pumped his fist in the air. Todd still has around 150K chips.

One more player to go! Play will end as soon as the final nine are left standing. We’ll keep you updated as play progresses.

• June 11, 2008 -- The New Omaha Champ?
• June 11, 2008 -- Repeat Performance?
• June 10, 2008 -- Smith Busts Out, Morgan Moving Up
• June 19, 2008 -- Patience Pays Off

Jamie “The New” Robbins has been adding chips to his already-sizeable stack in today’s $1.5K Pot-Limit Omaha, and has just eliminated Chau Giang in 34th place to increase his total to over 110K. With the blinds at 1.5K/3K, Robbins (pictured right) raised to 7K preflop with 9876 and Giang and another player called. On a flop of K88, Robbins bet 23K and Chiang moved in for 30K more. Robbins tanked and eventually made the call after nearly three minutes to find that he was in excellent shape against Giang’s AKQT. Robbins’ hand held and he found himself among the chip leaders.

Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan is sitting with over 90K after busting a short stack at his table. Morgan limped in early position, the small blind completd and the big blind raised to 12K with 6K behind. Morgan re-raised 20K more, the small blind folded and big blind pushed his remaining chips in the pot. Morgan held T-T-8-7 and his opponent had A-K-Q-6 (double suited). The board ran out J-T-7-J-5, giving Morgan a full house and increasing his stack to around 95K.

Vanessa Selbst (300K), Eugene Todd (90K), Nam Le (45K) and Carter “devinr12″ Gill (40K) are some of the other notable players left in the dwindling 31-person field. Play will conclude today when the final nine are decided. A bracelet and first-place prize of $227,965 will be awarded tomorrow.

• June 11, 2008 -- Event #19 Final Table Inches Closer
• June 11, 2008 -- Repeat Performance?
• June 10, 2008 -- Smith Busts Out, Morgan Moving Up
• June 19, 2008 -- Patience Pays Off

James “mig.com” Mackey will look to defend his $5K NLHE title when the event kicks off this afternoon. Last year, Mackey (pictured left) weaved his way through 640 players and a final table that included Michael Binger, Tex Barch, Nick Schulman and Mike Gracz to earn $730,740 and become the third-youngest bracelet winner ever. Last year’s final table lasted just 48 hands and two and a half hours — the fastest final table at the World Series since 2003.

So far we’ve seen Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Court Harrington and Scott “gunning4you” Siever filing into the Amazon Room to take their seats in what is certainly one of the most anticipated events of the series.

Also getting underway today will be the $3K HORSE Event at 5:00 PT. It is the first HORSE event of the year and the entry was upped from the $2,500 buy-in last year.

Concluding play this evening will be the $5K No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys Event, which features a loaded final table of Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Jeff Lisandro, Tony G, David Benyamine and Tom Schneider. Only 85 players entered but the first-place prize will be a monstrous $537,857.

The $1.5K PL Omaha Event will also resume today. Forty-six players remain in the field, including P5ers Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan (70K) and Jamie “The New” Robbins (60K), both of whom have healthy stacks.

One-Hundred twenty-five players will continue play in the $2K Limit Event at 3:00 PT and play down to the final nine tonight. Notable players still remaining in that event are Brett “gank” Jungblut, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar and Mike Schneider.

It’s a busy day here at the Rio. Good luck to everyone playing!
 

• June 12, 2008 -- Robbins Takes 8th in PLO
• June 13, 2008 -- Mackey and Saul Eliminated
• June 12, 2008 -- More Fundy for Grundy
• June 11, 2008 -- Event #19 Final Table Inches Closer