After an unexpectedly swift-moving Day 1, our 408-strong starting field has become a much more manageable 120 or so - that's what the number on the clock said as the chips were bagged up, although it had been saying that for a while so the actual number we finished up with is most likely a little under that.
Nevertheless it's been a crazy day of stud in the Amazon Room, and a cornucopia of poker talent was eliminated from the running before our eyes. Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, David Williams, Marcel Luske, Chris Ferguson, Chau Giang and Lex Veldhuis were among those who didn't make the Day 2 grade.
The remaining field is no less star-studded, though. Scott Seiver moved into the lead late in the day and remained there until close. He is the man to beat as we head into Day 2, on an impressive 63,800. Still very much in the running, though, although some way behind Seiver, are Carlos Mortensen, Jean Gaspard, Pat Pezzin, Alex Kravchenko and Greg Raymer.
We'll be back at 3pm PT tomorrow, when we will be playing right down to a final table.
As we move towards the last few hands of the night, Scott Seiver remains our chip leader. In fact, he has increased his stack to 62,000, and there is no-one else even in the same town chip-wise, let alone the same ballpark.
Teddy Monroe called a completion from the player in Seat 7 and called bets all the way until seventh street when he folded to a bet with just 900 chips left.
Jon Turner has taken a bit of a hit, although he isn't in any immediate danger. He got as far as sixth street, with showing, but by that point his opponent had jacks up and Turner folded.
Turner is still rolling nicely along on 25,000 or so.
Jean Gaspard couldn't have asked for a better hand to run into quads with. He eliminated an opponent in Seat 1 when they both hit quads. Gaspard simply called a bet on third street, but each subsequent street was capped until Gaspard's opponent was all in on sixth street.
When the player in Seat 1 turned up his quads he looked to Gaspard's cards. One of the threes was partially covered over, and only seeing trips, Seat 1 said "Those won't do." Gaspard then looked down, saw that his last card wasn't visible, uncovered his final three and said "That'll do."
Sorel Mizzi had two players all in by fourth street and it looked as though he might metaphorically kill two proverbial birds with one manner-of-speaking stone.
In the event, though, the bigger of the two all-in stacks won the hand, and Mizzi took a smallish hit to put him at 12,000.
Dan O'Brien has picked up a small but always helpful pot, after he found himself with a pair of tens up on fourth street. He duly bet, his opponents Chip Jett and Richard Ashby duly folded, and O'Brien is up to 9,500.
Tom Dwan is back up to about 11,000 in chips after hitting a flush against an opponent at his table. Dwan called bets on third and fourth streets, but led out with bets on fifth, sixth, and seventh street. He got called the whole way and scooped in some much-needed chips.
When asked if he had the flush the whole time, he simply shrugged his shoulders and let out a tiny smirk.
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