Amidst a field of star-studded live pros, Stu “thedonator” Patterson (pictured at right) continued to defend his chipstack in Event #37, the $10K Omaha 8 Championship. In the last level, Stu busted Jennifer Harman when his pocket jacks completed a 5-5-9-5-6 board for a boat. Patterson was maintaining his stack at about 75K with 48 players remaining of the original field of 235. The bubble is set to burst at 27 spots remaining, when each player will be guaranteed more than $22K and racing for the $535,687 grand prize and bracelet.

TWo events have come to a close this evening, crowning two new champions. Event #35, the $1.5K Seven Card Stud tournament, has come to a close with Mike Rocco taking down the final table for WSOP gold and $135,753 in earnings.

Layne Flack, meanwhile, won Event #34’s Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys contest in an aggressive race for the bracelet against heads-up opponent Daniel Makowsky. Flack takes home $577,725 in cash and some wrist candy.

Day 1 of Event #38 continued on with less than a tenth of today’s earlier field remaining; Noah Boeken, Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Matt Stout, and Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby continued to perform well as the levels marched on, despite a floor warning against Schleger for disruptive behavior in a table outcry.

• June 21, 2008 -- He’s a Shaniac!
• June 21, 2008 -- That’s the Way You Need It
• June 20, 2008 -- Omaha Field Shrinks
• August 26, 2008 -- Early Exits

In event #34 there are currently 27 players remaining which seemed to excite Jeff “yellowsub” Williams quite a bit. Jeff explained when there were 28 players left that he had rebought quite a bit at the beginning of this tournament, totaling up to around $30k. As soon as PocketFives informed him that one of the other tables had just called out “seat open,” Jeff gave a little cheer saying “Yes! Only $11k in the hole now!” We’re hoping that Jeff and his short stack get out of the entire hole for this tournament soon. Players are currently taking a dinner break and when they return the blinds will be 4k/8k so Jeff will have to make a move soon as his stack is currently at 77k. Tim “Tmay420″ West’s stack is sitting at a more comfortable 175k.

Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire currently has 42k in chips with 33 players remaining in the $1.5k Stud event #35. The bubble has already burst, with the top 40 players finishing in the money. Everytime PocketFives walks by the table Bryan seems to be smiling and he has a lot to smile about right now as he is guaranteed at least $2,340 and with his large stack has a good chance to run much deeper.

• June 19, 2008 -- Patience Pays Off
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak
• June 20, 2008 -- Tusk Love for the Wahlroos
• June 19, 2008 -- West Moving North in the 1.5k PLO Rebuy

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

After playing until nearly 7am the final table of the $5K Stud Hi/Lo Championship event was finally set after the eliminations of Howard Lederer and David Benyamine.  Those returning for the final day of play today include Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Marcel Luske, and Steve Sung.

Our own Court Harrington put up a valiant fight in the $1.5K Hold Em event, but finished 14th when he got it all in pre-flop with AQ against current chip leader Jose Luis Velador’s AJ and Velador other player ran out a heart flush.  Court earned $26,732 for his efforts.  Velador and eight others will return at 2pm today to play down to the bracelet.

The $1.5K Omaha w/ rebuys also starts up again at 2pm today.  Some of the names we’ll be keeping an eye on today include Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) Tim “tmay420″ West, Jared “TheWacoKidd”, Kyle Bowker, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams, Matt Giannetti, and Jamie “TheNew” Robbins.  The $1.5K Stud Event will be playing down to a final table today as well.

The first event of the day is yet another $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event.  WSOP staff are predicting another large field and we have already spotted several P5ers filing into the Amazon Room including Jeff “JeffBoski” Sluzinski, Michael “Bertrand13″ Bertrand, Dan “wretchy” Martin, and Phil “USCPhildo” Collins

• June 18, 2008 -- Slow Day
• June 18, 2008 -- BigRiskky Business as Usual
• June 20, 2008 -- Tusk Love for the Wahlroos
• June 19, 2008 -- An Evening of Studs

• June 21, 2008 -- TheDonator Not So Charitable, Busts Harman
• June 19, 2008 -- Only Down $11,000 Now!
• June 19, 2008 -- Chip and a Chair
• June 19, 2008 -- All Night Grind in Stud Event