Second Verse

In just less than an hour, our final 36 players will come streaming into the Pavilion to be reunited with their chip stacks. Day 2 of this WSOP-C Main Event is slated for a noon start on what figures to be a relatively short day of card playing.

A total of 188 players took to the felt yesterday, and they were whittled down to just four tables by night's end. Among the notables who've already come and gone are a couple of former WSOP champs (Jerry Yang and Phil Hellmuth), a former November Niner (Dennis Phillips), an alleged cheater (Josh Field), a mindset coach (Sam Chauhan), a chainsaw (Allen Kessler), a Pilgrim (Dwyte), and a Doug Lee. Our own Kristy Arnett also played this Main, but she was unmercifully run out of the room during the middle stages of Day 1.

But it's not a total loss for our PokerNews family. Arnett's fiancé Andrew Moreno is still alive and kicking with a stack of 67,000 chips, and our former Live Reporting Manager Garry Gates has a half-average stack with which to mount a run as well. Our pals Andrew and Garry will be sharing the felt with the likes of Ryan Tepen, Donna Jetter, Jason Wheeler, and Eddy Sabat today. Everyone's chasing Seneca Easley, though, the chip daddy with an impressive 329,000 technicolor chips in his bag.

Fifteen players will go home empty-handed today, while the final 21 survivors will all be guaranteed a payday of some sort upon their exit. Once the bubble bursts, it's a straight shot on down to the final table of nine, a goal we'd expect to take six or seven levels.

Cards will be in the air promptly at noon today, so don't wander off. Day 2 is coming up!