2008 World Series of Poker

With play concluded on Day 2 of Event 45, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship, the chips have now been bagged and tallied and official counts released by Harrah's. Lyle Berman moved into the lead at the very end of the night's play, edging by Patrick Bueno, who will officially start Day 3 in second spot. With chip counts now posted for all surviving players, here are the top ten spots on the leaderboard:

Lyle Berman 507,000
Patrick Bueno 485,500
Barry Greenstein 473,000
Minh Ly 451,000
Chris Reslock 435,500
Joseph Michael 401,000
Erick Lindgren 397,500
Justin Bonomo 384,000
Daniel Negreanu 374,500
Doyle Brunson 366,000

Day 3 action begins at 3pm PDT on Friday.

Of the 140 players who made it to Day 2 of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, 67 remain. Players are currently bagging and tagging their chips and will resume play at 3 p.m. local time tomorrow.

Patrick Bueno, Barry Greenstein, Joseph "bigjoe2003" Michael, and Lyle Berman ended the evening at the top of the pack, each with over 400,000 in chips. Some of today's notable bust-outs included Ted Forrest, Mike Matusow, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, and Patrik Antonius.

Join us tomorrow at 3 p.m. PDT for continuing coverage of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. From the Rio in Las Vegas, that's a wrap!

Stud-8:

With his stack grown short, Allen Kessler found himself in a three-way pot with Isabelle Mercier and Rafi Amit. Mercier was showing ; Amit was showing . Kessler looked the situation over and said that he knew he was beat, that there was no way he could win the hand...so he folded. And that left him with just 3,000.

When the hand was over Mercier did show down a flush and Amit a wheel, so Kessler saved that 3,000. What he can do with it from here on out remains to be seen. Chip and a chair, as the saying goes...

Katja Thater has been enjoying a massage for all six levels of play tonight... just as she did for all five levels of play yesterday.

According to our calculations, that's about a $2,000 tab with the masseuse... plus tip.

A five-day deep-stacked tournament like this is a long grind. Even after two full days of play, we've only lost slightly more than half the field. Prop bets are flying amongst the remaining players and the latest one we've heard about involves Billy "The Croc" Argyros and Greg "FBT" Mueller. The two placed a wager on how many players will be left at the end of the day. The line was set at 65 at the beginning of this level, Crocky taking the over and FBT the under.

With 67 players remaining, Crocky's probably wishing he could switch sides.

Hold'em:

After David Oppenheim raised to 10,000 Ray Dehkharghani called from the big blind. The flop came and Dehkharghani check-called Oppenheim's 5,000 bet. Ray did the same when the and when David bet again after the fell on the river Dehkharghani tanked for well over a minute before making the call.

Oppenheim turned over for the flush and Dehkharghani flashed the before mucking. He slipped to 230,000 while Oppenheim lifted his stack to a nearly-identical 220,000.

Omaha-8:

The exact action is unclear but Michael Binger and Marcel Luske just got mixed up in a pot that resulted in Binger's departure.

With a final board of , Binger showed . It was second-best however, as Luske's had earthy tones, a smooth draw, and enough kick to win him the high and the low.

After losing much of his stack to Thor Hansen just a few hands ago, Ralph Perry won some of those chips back when he eliminated the even-shorter Ted Forrest.

Omaha-8:

Two of our shorter stacks mixed it up as Thor Hansen raised before the flop and Ralph Perry called from the small blind. The flop came and when Perry bet out Hansen called. The turn was the , again Hansen called Perry's bet, but when the fell on the river and Perry bet out Hansen threw out a raise. Perry called, to find that Hansen flopped a set of aces with to take the pot. Thor is up to 75,000 while Perry slipped to 40,000.