Today is a decidedly non-hold em kind of day here at the WSOP.  Neither of the two new events kicking off this afternoon involve No Limit Hold Em and we will also see Day 2 of the $5K Stud Hi/Lo event starting at 3pm.

Event #34, a $1.5K PLO w/ rebuys, was the first event to get going today when it kicked off just a few ago minutes at 12pm.  Players we spotted filing in with their rebuy chips (pictured at left) in tow include Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve Saul, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jamie “TheNew” Robbins and  Matt “mattg1983″ Graham. The other new event for today is Event #35, a $1.5K Stud will get underway at 5pm.

Those of you hankering for a hold em fix, never fear.  The final table of the $2.5K 6-handed, which features Dario Minieri, Justin “fluffdog” Flitz, and Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer will be underway at 2pm today.  Plus, the remaining 166 from yesterday’s $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event will return today at 2pm as well.  Michael “wrldsgrtst” Banducci, Scott “ssitron” Sitron, and Court Harrington are among some the chip leaders vying to make the final table tonight.

• June 18, 2008 -- Let the Belittling Begin
• June 19, 2008 -- All Night Grind in Stud Event
• June 19, 2008 -- An Evening of Studs
• June 18, 2008 -- BigRiskky Business as Usual

As play went on into the late hours of the night in the $5K Stud Hi/Lo tempers began to flare.  As the last hand of the night was dealt out Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich (pictured at left) and Max Pescatori began to exchange some less than friendly words.  While Pocket Fives was not present when the confrontation began, it appeared as though Rich had called the clock on Pescatori in a prior hand after what Pescatori believed was a very brief period of time. 

As they exchanged words the duo, along with two other players, got invovled in a hand.  On 4th street a player showing a pair of 9s bet and Pescatori folded his hand with his up cards reading K-Q.  Jordan and the two other players got invovled in a betting and raising war through all streets until 7th st was dealt out face down.  The player showing a pair of 9s and a possible straight checked, as did Rich, who showed a possible 7-6 low, and the third player, who showed possible low and straight possibilities, bet.  The player with the nines then raised and Jordan was left with a tough decision. 

As Rich deliberated the decision, Pescatori attempted to call the clock on him, prompting Rich to respond, “are you in the hand?” and remind him that three minutes needs to pass before the clock can be called.  Max reminded him that at one point he was involved in the hand and then appealed to the floor person standing nearby who confirmed Jordan’s response that he needed to wait at least a couple of minutes before he could call the clock.

After much thought, Jordan made the call and showed a 7-6-5-3-A low and a busted flush draw.  The player with the 9s up turned over a straight to the 10 and the third player showed a straight to the 7 and a 7-6-5-4-2 low for second best all-around.  Rich took half of the giant pot and ended the night with 27.5K.  Play will resume tomorrow at 3pm.

Other notable chip counts as the day came to a close include:
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 32K
Justin Bonomo - 25K
Thayer “Thay3r” Rasmussen - 16K

Elminations since we last posted on the event include: Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, James “mig.com” Mackey, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Scott Fischman, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements

• June 18, 2008 -- Minieri and Rusnak Closing in on Final Table
• June 17, 2008 -- Parker Taking it to the Limit
• June 6, 2008 -- “Worldsgrtest?” World’s Greatest!
• June 5, 2008 -- Falconer and Clements Hanging In There

A trio of online players are making a final table run at the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31 with 18 players left. Dario Minieri (pictured right) has position on Scotty Nguyen and has Nguyen outchipped by a small margin at 300k to Nguyen’s 275k. 
P5er Frank “Round42″ Rusnak has a little above average stack with 300k as does his table mate Bruno Fitoussi. Sandwiched between Rusnak and Fitoussi is Justin ”Fluffdog” Filtz, who one of the biggest stacks at the table with 493k. 

Filtz has been eyeing the bracelet after turning 21 eleven days ago. Although Filtz has some impressive results online, including a 20th place finish in an FTOPS event in March, he considers himself more of a cash game player that specializes in heads-up play.

If Filtz is able to win a heads-up match in this event, he would miss being the youngest bracelet winner by one day at 21 years and 12 days.

Meanwhile the current record holder for youngest bracelet winner, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (pictured at left) is getting low on chips in the $5K Stud8 Championship event.  Steve lost a big pot when he paid off Davidson Matthew’s trip queens after his low draw developed into two pairs, fours and eights.  James “mig.com” Mackey has also dropped far below his 10K starting stack.  With the limits at 250-500 ante 50 and a 75 chip bring-in Billirakis and Mackey have 2.5K and 4K respectively.  With the level coming to a close in less than ten minutes, the two will surely be looking for a good spot to try and double up.

One player who successfully doubled up a couple of times is Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich who was as low as 1100 chips just an hour ago.   After scooping several pots with two pair when no one else in the hand made a qualifying low, Rich now has 16K.   He has been involved in a number of hands and always seems to walk away with at least half the pot every time.  Most recently, Rich split a large, multi-player pot with Todd Brunson when he made Qs and 8s on sixth, which was good enough for the high hand while Brunson was the only player to make a qualifying low.

Brock “t_soprano” Parker was recently eliminated from the $10K Limit Hold Em Championship Event in 5th place when his Q8 failed to catch up with Jerrod Ankenman’s A9.  He earned $102,460 for the finish.

• June 17, 2008 -- Parker Taking it to the Limit
• June 18, 2008 -- Ginger Snaps
• June 18, 2008 -- Minieri Steamrolling on Final Table Bubble
• June 6, 2008 -- “Worldsgrtest?” World’s Greatest!

Brock “t_soprano” Parker is still at the final table of event #30 the $10k LHE tournament. After coming into the day short stacked, Parker (pictured right) has managed to win some big pots and is currently 4th out of the 6 remaining players in chips. He hasn’t been very active in hands for the past hour or so, obviously trying to pick his spots carefully and get his money in with the best hands he can. Andy Bloch was just eliminated in 7th place ensuring that Parker and the other 5 remainng players are guaranteed to take home at least $102,460

Over in the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament Billy Westom, Shannon Shorr, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen and Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier have been eliminated.

Billy Westom got all his chips in with AT against Bill Chen’s JJ and failed to improve and was knocked out in 40th place good for $8,379.

Shannon Shorr got all his money in with almost the same hand as Westom, the AT and found he was dominated by his opponents AJ. The flop came with both an ace and a jack and Shorr was sent to the rail in 32nd place to claim his $9,775 prize.

Keven Stammen was knocked out in 24th place when his QQ was bested by a player who made a flush with their AK on a T5238 board. Stammen recieves $15,594 for his great run.

Jason Mercier was one of the chip leaders for a good portion of the day but he doubled up Scotty Nguyen when his AT couldn’t catch up to Scotty’s pocket sevens. After the hand, both Mercier and Scotty were left with exactly 160k in chips and got involved in another big pot on the very next hand. Scotty opened with a raise to 11k and Mercier pushed his entire 160k stack into the pot. Scotty called with his TT which dominated Mercier’s 77 and when the board hit neither player, Mercier was eliminated by the prince of poker himself who said “I can’t be pushed around, baby” as Mercier was leaving the table. Mercier’s 22nd place finish was good enough to net him $15,594.

Event #33, the $5k Seven Card Stud H/L World Championship has been underway for almost two hours now and a number of notable players have been spotted in the field including Jordan “octavian_c” Rich, Thayer Rasmussen, Anna Wroblewski, Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, and Barry Greenstein. In a field filled with well known pro players this event is sure to be an exciting one and we will keep you posted as play progresses.

• June 18, 2008 -- Minieri and Rusnak Closing in on Final Table
• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
• June 16, 2008 -- Get Your Fricke On
• June 20, 2008 -- Omaha Field Shrinks

• June 20, 2008 -- A Murder of Crowes
• June 20, 2008 -- Tusk Love for the Wahlroos
• June 19, 2008 -- All Night Grind in Stud Event
• June 19, 2008 -- An Evening of Studs