It’s a beautiful day here at the Rio as Event #31 the $2.5k NLHE six-handed event gets underway. Fast, agressive play seems to be the norm in these short handed events so today should be filled with some fun and exciting action as the field of over 900 (so far) battles it out. There are quite a few P5ers who are going to be hitting the felt today hoping to run deep in this event.

Play in event #27, the $1.5k NLHE, will resume today at 2 pm with P5er Barry “BarryGS” Schultz sitting near the top of the chip counts with over 850k. The current chip leader has 912k. Jordan ”scarface_79″ Smith is also doing well with 789k in chips. 17 players will return today and will play until one player holds all the chips and claims the bracelet.

The final table of event #28, the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tourney is now set and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is the chip leader of a star studded table that includes John Juanda, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, and Phil Hellmuth. Johnny Chan will be looking to claim bracelet #11 to tie the record set by Hellmuth last year while Hellmuth will himself will be looking to come back from being short stacked to claim his twelfth bracelet. This also makes a record setting 40 final tables for Hellmuth, breaking the tie he held with TJ Cloutier at 39 tables. The final table will be on the ESPN featured table starting at 3 pm and is sure to be as exciting as any final table we’ve witnessed so far this year.

Day 2 of event #29, the $3k NLHE is set to restart at 2 pm with 81 of the original 716 players returning including some P5ers. Only 72 players will make the money so we expect play to be rather slow at the beginning of the restart today.

Lots going on here at the Rio and we’ll keep you posted as the day progresses!

• June 16, 2008 -- Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
• June 16, 2008 -- Froehlich and Parker Leading in LHE
• June 16, 2008 -- Galfond Loses the Chip Lead… OMG!
• June 16, 2008 -- Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner?!

With the elimination of TJ Cloutier the top spot in the chip counts is now even more solidly in the hands of Gus Hansen. Gus (right) was in the big blind and had called a 40k opening bet from Cloutier at the 8k/16k blind level. On the 7-6-3 rainbow flop Gus checked and TJ bet 100k of his roughly 600k stack. Gus thought for a moment while riffling a stack of the red 25k chips before putting out a bet of around 500k, committing himself to the pot and letting TJ know he was willing to go all the way.

Cloutier announced all in and Gus quickly put out more red 25k chips to make the call and turned over his 6-3 offsuit for flopped bottom two pair. Cloutier had the 88 for an overpair and needed to improve to stay alive in the tournament. He did not and was out the door in the 34th place for $65,955 saying “the three six got me.”

Gus is now pushing the 3 million chip mark while his next closest competitors are both right around 2 million. Both Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll are sitting with around 2 million chips and are the chip leaders at their respective tables.

Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis is at the lone table without a 2 million chip stack. He sits with around 460k and is in the bottom third of the chip counts.

With 33 players left in the field the players will continue at their current tables until the next redraw at 27 players. After a short break players will come back to play the 10k / 20k blind level with a 3k ante.

• April 23, 2008 -- Billirakis Busted
• April 23, 2008 -- Redraw at 27
• April 23, 2008 -- Day 3 Complete, Late Eliminations
• April 23, 2008 -- Stalled at 19

The fourth day of play at the WPT Championship will start with the final 55 players spread across 6 tables, but after 1 player busts there will be a complete redraw to 5 full 9 handed tables. There was also a complete redraw after the stop of play last night, raising the question if it is time for another rule change. The logic of redrawing at 54 just before the first money jump is arguable, but redrawing at the end of the day and then coming back to redraw after one player busts seems excessive.

A player could easily be in a situation where they finish up play yesterday as the big and small blinds as their last two hands and then draw the big blind today, play a hand or two in the blinds and then redraw again to the big blind.

All complaints aside, the rule is what it is, and after a hand (or two at a few tables) the first player was out and play was paused for the redraw. After everyone had their new seats the final 54 were back in action and play has dropped down to 49 players and into the next pay level, a $13k bump for everyone that is left. The group of players between 41st and 50th will receive $52,675.

Joe Sebok (left) was able to get an early double up through T.J. Cloutier and is up to 260k. Cloutier opened for 40k (blinds 6k/12k) and Sebok moved in from the small blind. Cloutier instantly called the 87k more and showed his KT. Joe had the AQ and his hand held up on a 7 high board to win the pot.

• April 23, 2008 -- Gus Still At The Top
• April 23, 2008 -- Sebok and Vengrin Eliminated
• August 23, 2008 -- Big Stacks
• August 23, 2008 -- Back At The Bike