Day 1b Sees 87 Players Move On; Liu Leads
Day 1b of the 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event is officially in the books. A total total of 352 players came out to participate in Day 1b which makes for a grand total of 646 entrants thus far. By the end of play, 87 runners were left to advance into Day 2. Leading the way of not only Day 1b but also the entire field is Jingjing Liu who is sitting on a stack of 266,000.
Liu was one of several players in contention for the chip lead going into the final level of play and she officially sealed the deal thanks to one key hand at the end of the night. Action folded around to a late position short-stacked player who moved all in holding 
for his last roughly 9,000. It folded to the small blind who moved 40,000 all in over the top with pocket eights. Liu woke up with 
in the big blind and called. Liu's kings were able to hold and she scored a double knockout that boosted her stack to the 266,000 that she finished the day with.
Also among the chip leaders returning for Day 2 is two-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg Mueller. Mueller took his seat in the tournament toward the end of the registration period and it was essentially nothing but upward trending from that point on. We caught Mueller in a hand where he three-bet to 3,500 from the cutoff after the player in the hijack raised. The bet was called and both players checked the 
flop. Fourth street brought the 
which prompted a bet of 4,000 from Mueller's opponent. Mueller took some time before called to see the 
complete the board. Mueller's opponent moved 8,000 into the center and Mueller wasted no time sticking with his read and calling. The player in the cutoff showed 
but was ultimately behind Mueller's slightly better pocket pair with 
. Mueller ended up finishing the night with 180,300 in chips.
Other notable names that will be returning for Day 2 include Matt Levine (179,700), Joel Kaake (134,000), Sandra Wong (126,700), and Marc Verhiel (87,000).
While an impressive 87 players survived the day, others were not as fortunate. Among those to hit the rail today include David "Doc" Sands, Gavin Smith, Charlie Coultas, Shawn Buchanan, Terrence Chan, and Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome. A handful of even more unfortunate souls saw elimination for the second time so far in this tournament. Scott Clements, Matt Affleck, Robert Cheung, Laurence Grondin, Sean Giesbrecht, and Jason Koon all fired a second bullet for Day 1b and came up shorthanded.
The combined fields from Day 1a and Day 1b will see 146 total players return for Day 2 as well as those to move on from Day 1c. Tournament staff predicts that Day 1c will see the largest turnout of the starting day flights. Play will resume for Day 1c here in the River Rock Theatre at 12:00 PM PDT so make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the latest developments.