All HORSE players are now in the race after late registration closed just a few minutes ago and players paused for the dinner break. The crowd of spectators around the sparsely-tabled orange section of the Amazon room brandished plenty of cameras and wide-eyed smiles at the abundance of pros in the room, all vying for the bracelet and Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. At one table, the players were morose when someone remarked: “There’s one less player than last year. If Chip would’ve been here, it would’ve been the same.” Truly enough, the field stood at 147 entrants to the $50K HORSE World Championship - one shy of the 2007 WSOP event.

Several major online players dotted the field of entrants, sandwiched between live pros getting plenty of media attention and sporting patches for various causes, including Ante Up for Africa. At one table, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond sat with a very comfortable stack of between Robert Williamson III and Daniel Negreanu. Also at his table sat Phil Ivey and Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who caused quite a PocketFives stir when they butted heads in a major online cash game late last night.

Though Dwan looked like he’d had a good chunk of his starting stack taken, he managed to chip up in a pot with Ivey and Negreanu. He bet Ivey off a pot on the river playing Omaha 8, but Negreanu called him and the board showed J8526. Dwan held AA83 and Negreanu showed A367 - they both held the low, but Dwan took down the high and chipped himself up to a much more comfortable level. Other players looking quite healthy in the event include James “mig.com” Mackey (pictured at right), Justin Bonomo, and Annie Duke.

Meanwhile, Event #42, the $1K Seniors No-Limit Hold’em World Championship came to an end when Dan Lacourse steamrolled the final table to win the bracelet and $368,832. Congratulations to Lacourse on his win and to all seniors involved for concluding the tournament in time to catch a matinee at the movie theatre.

• June 27, 2008 -- A Player Makes a “FatalError”
• June 27, 2008 -- Stud Players Wanting Tang
• June 26, 2008 -- Top of the Chip Counts or Bust!
• June 26, 2008 -- Mackey Riding High

As the Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship, Event #42, enters the single-digit early-morning hours, 17 players remain in the battle for the bracelet and a grand prize of $368,832. One recent elimination was four-time bracelet winner Tom McEvoy (pictured at right), who went all in with A-J against his opponent’s pocket kings. Tom takes home $7,669 for his 28th place deep run. Now down to the final two tables, Dale Eberle is the chip leader in the tournament with a nearly 2:1 advantage over the next biggest stack.

Event #41, the $1.5K Mixed Hold’em tournament, continued in heads-up warfare between Frank Gary and Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo. Their heads-up session went into its second hour after a brief pause; more than six hours have elapsed since the tournament entered its epic three-handed play. After flopping a straight and losing to Frank Gary’s rivered full house, Tamayo was outchipped 4:1, but unwilling to concede. Several hands later, Tamayo shoved all his chips in the middle with Q-7 and lost when Gary’s A-3 flopped a pair of aces.  Gary wins the bracelet and $219,508, while PocketFiver Tamayo takes home $140,093.  Congratulations to both players for their amazing performance!

Meanwhile, hand-for-hand play began in Event #43, the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha 8 tournament. As the number of remaining players dropped on the LCD screens in the Amazon room, the tension was perceptible; players paced the floor in anticipation of the bubble bursting. Yet Chris “SKOAL” Falconer could be heard at his table challenging others: “You can’t be afraid to bubble!”

In all likelihood, Chris had one of the best reasons to be afraid, despite his positive outlook. After building his stack up to 26K over the last two rounds, a bad beat dropped him down to 9K and he was sweating it. Involved in a hand as the big blind for 1200, Chris dropped a chip protector on his hand and calmly observed his table. A player in middle position raised to 4,200, a player in late position reraised, and Chris promptly folded.

However, the reraise put the other player at a decision for his chips and the table laughed uncomfortably at his frustration — there were at least three other extremely short-stacked players, so fear was in the air. Each glanced up at the LCD, which read 73 players remaining. Other players less afraid of the bubble included Dan “Stainley88″ Adams who had 39K and Shannon Shorr, who was quite comfortable with three times the average stack at 70K.

Fortunately, just before the end of the last level of the evening, the bubble did burst and players were heard cheering for their successful entry into the ranks of WSOP cashers. All players are guaranteed $2,751, but only one will be crowned champion of the event and win the coveted gold. On the first hand after the bubble burst, Chris managed to get all his chips in and double up to 13K, while Shannon accumulated aggressively and worked his stack up to 87K. Congratulations to all players for making the money and good luck tomorrow in Day 2 when play resumes at 2pm.

• June 25, 2008 -- Shorr Thing
• June 25, 2008 -- Busting Before the Bubble
• June 25, 2008 -- Bad Moon Rizen
• June 25, 2008 -- Shorr Silences Minneapolis Meehan

Event #42 recently took a break to color up their green chips (and take a quick snooze). Before the break, several notable players were taking advantage of their passive tables and aggressively moving up the chip count charts.

As Tom McEvoy (pictured at right, wearing one of his four WSOP bracelets) was racking up his green chips, he was stealing the blinds and raising in position. In one hand PocketFives witnessed, McEvoy got caught - his A9 couldn’t catch up to his opponent’s pocket queens on a 84K66 board. However, he caught up with the small loss later when he raised to 2,400 in two back-to-back hands on the button and in the small blind. He took down the uncontested pots and increased his stack to 41K.

Before the break, McEvoy managed to even further increase his stack when a limp by the small blind incurred his standard raise - again, 2,400 - and he was called down. The flop was 8K9. His opponent checked and McEvoy bet 3K, which was swiftly reraised all in. McEvoy called and his opponent showed K-5 to his queens. The turn came the A, but the river hit McEvoy with the Q and he jumped up the count to 51K. The WSOP bracelet McEvoy was wearing glinted in the overhead light as his opponent took his leave.

Meanwhile, Men “The Master” Nguyen (pictured at left) sat two tables over in camaraderie with his table, who were grumbling that they couldn’t defend their blinds against his massive stack. As PocketFives watched, Men raised 2,500 on a rainbow 10-9-3 flop and took down the pot. Greg Raymer entered the tournament area to distract the Master, who asked how much longer the Fossilman has until he qualifies for the Seniors Bracelet. Raymer laughed, but a man at the next table over got in a good jibe — he asked Men, “Are you sure *you* are old enough, Men? It must be that Asian men are so well-preserved!” Everyone within earshot laughed heartily. Men, however, got the last laugh. His chip stack was up to nearly 60K.

“Captain” Tom Franklin sits at the top of the list with 78K. Faring less amicably were Jack McClelland and “Minneapolis” Jim Meehan who were both eliminated in recent levels.

• June 23, 2008 -- DanDruff Doubles Up
• June 25, 2008 -- Tamayo Runner-Up, SKOAL Survives Bubble Burst
• June 27, 2008 -- Stud Players in the Money
• June 26, 2008 -- All the King’s HORSEs

Todd “DanDruff” Witteles has been all in and doubled up a number of times in the $1.5K Mixed Limit Hold Em event since we last reported on him.  Most recently, Todd moved all-in for 6,475 with the blinds at 400/800 after a couple of players limped into the pot ahead of him.  One of the players who limped in elected to make the call with AT and Witteles was happy to see he had two live cards with his K9.  The flop came 966 and Todd flopped top pair to his opponent’s flush draw.  The turn and river came 82 and Witteles managed to increase his stack to 18K going into the break.

Play has been relatively slow in Day 2 of the Mixed Limit event with hand-for-hand play going for nearly an hour.  Several tables have expressed frustration about the limited number of hands they are seeing each level, especially considering how high the Limit Hold Em blinds are getting.  One player who is putting all his down time to use is Rolf Slotboom, who continues to build interesting sculptures out of his chips.  He has even gone so far as to start incorporating props.  His chips and his Tic Tacs are pictured at right.

Here are some recent chip counts going into the player’s 20 minute break:

Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 22K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 18K
Todd “DanDruff” Witteles - 18K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 12K

The $1K Seniors Event field has been reduced by two-thirds as play ended for Level 5.  770 players remain and both Men “The Master” Nguyen and Tom McEvoy are towards the top of the leaderboard.

• June 25, 2008 -- Tamayo Runner-Up, SKOAL Survives Bubble Burst
• June 24, 2008 -- PLO Hi/Lo Underway
• June 24, 2008 -- So Close They Can Taste It
• June 24, 2008 -- DanDruff Doesn’t Flake Out

• June 26, 2008 -- All the King’s HORSEs
• June 25, 2008 -- Tamayo Runner-Up, SKOAL Survives Bubble Burst
• June 24, 2008 -- Senioritis
• June 23, 2008 -- DanDruff Doubles Up