Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang's early surge in Level 1 was met by a long slide in Levels 2 and 3, when the other champions began playing back at him. In a recent hand, Yang opened to 700, and Tom McEvoy reraised to 2,100. Yang gave it a long think before folding, leaving himself with only 6,375.
McEvoy is among the quiet climbers of late, currently at about 17,500.
Phil Hellmuth
Soon after the smudged deck was swapped out and Greg Raymer departed, Phil Hellmuth and Jim Bechtel mixed it up in a big hand. Most of the chips went in on the river after a board of . Hellmuth's pocket queens for the boat might have been good most times, but here Bechtel opened for quads and raked a circa-8,000 pot.
Greg Raymer welcomed to the Champions Invitiational
The cards have been in the air for several minutes, but early on in Level 3, there's been precious little action. Greg Raymer visited for an orbit while the dinner break continued over in the $40,000 event, and the biggest excitement was when he found a smudged card -- the -- and withheld it to furiously rub off a bit of embedded dirt.
Unfortunately he may have rubbed a bit too hard; the dirt came off but so did a bit of the finish, and after checking the results, a new deck was brought into play.
Raymer mentioned to his tablemates that he came over to have his aces cracked -- a reference in part to his late Day 3 action in the $40,000 event where that happened twice. "I want it to be here instead of there," he said, gesturing over to the empty feature table a short distance away.
Raymer soon returned to the other event, leaving 8,500 in chips and a fossil as a bounty for whoever gets the last of his chips, if in fact he's blinded off before he returns.
Today's special event has brought out many of the WSOP trappings reserved for special occasions. One such is the appearance within the rails of artist Steve Venet, the '60s songwriter whose pencil sketches of WSOP Main Events have been a fixture since the '70s. Among Venet's first sketches was a Rat Pack-era Frank Sinatra wielding casino chips at a Vegas table, and he's returned today to do sketches of players who he's already captured in other famous WSOP moments. Venet knocked off a Joe Hachem sketch early on, and was wrapping a Scotty Nguyen profile before the players adjourned.
Chip counts for the remaining 18 players are current through the dinner break. Carlos Mortensen topped the 30,000 mark late in Level 2 to open an early lead, with Huck Seed also gaining chips late in the level.
Due to the late start of today's event (approximately 4:45 pm), the plan for today is two pre-dinner levels, followed by a maximum of six one-hour levels post-break. The break arrived only minutes after the players settled into their seats. Play resumes around 7:55 pm.
The second former world champion to exit from what's becoming a surprisingly serious event was 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker's stack dwindled throughout the early levels, and his departure has brought on the seat redraw for the final 18 players.
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. Both players checked. Yang checked the 
turn, Nguyen bet 1,000 and Yang again called.
, Yang checked, and Nguyen checked behind, showing A-K. Yang opened pocket fives, a busted straight draw but still a winner.
. Hellmuth's pocket queens for the boat might have been good most times, but here Bechtel opened 
for quads and raked a circa-8,000 pot.
-- and withheld it to furiously rub off a bit of embedded dirt.
