Pat Walsh fired out a dark bet as we walked up to a flop of 
, and Isaac Haxton put in the flat call.
Walsh check-called a bet on the 
turn, and one more time on the 
river. When his last bet was called, Haxton flipped up his airball 
. Walsh showed his good call with 
, and his high cards are enough to win the pot and knock Haxton down to just a puny 2,500.
Maria Ho opened for a raise from UTG and Todd Brunson defended his big blind.
Brunson check-called Ho's bet on the 
flop, then check-called again when the 
hit the turn. The 
on the river put a potential flush out there and both players checked.
Brunson turned over 
for aces up and Ho mucked. She's down to 54,000 while Brunson stacked up 68,500 in chips.
We joined the action on the flop as the dealer put down 
. Phil Hellmuth was heads up, and he led out with a bet. Vladimir Schmelev bumped it up to two bets, and Hellmuth said, "All right, you get to bust me," as he reraised for most of his remaining chips. Schmelev called.
That brought them to the 
turn, and Hellmuth checked. Schmelev bet, and Hellmuth tanked before raising all in with 
. Schmelev quickly called the extra couple thousand, and he tabled the nuts, 
.
Hellmuth was drawing dead, and he was already heading out the door mumbling, "Some brilliant f***ing players here," as the dealer filled out the board with the 
.
Hellmuth has left the building, and Schmelev is up to 111,000.
Steve Chanthabouasy raised under the gun, and Bill Chen made it three bets in position.
Off the two men went to a flop of 
, and Chanthabouasy check-raised a Chen bet. Both players put in two small bets apiece leading to the 
on fourth street. Chen flat-called a full bet there, and another one on the 
river.
At showdown, Chanthabouasy showed 
for second pair, and Chen stared at it for a moment to make sure before flipping over his winning 
. Chen was nodding vigorously as the dealer pushed him the pot, moving his stack up to about 72,000.
The votes are in and the top 20 vote-getters in the public balloting for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions are in. You can check out the whole list here.
Familiar faces prevailed in the voting and six of those 20 are still sitting behind chip stacks in our $10K limit hold'em field-- Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, and Jennifer Harman.
On a flop of 
, Fabrizio Balsassari bet before Vladimir Schmelev check-raised to two bets. Balsassari came back with a reraise, and Schmelev called.
The turn brought the 
and an all-in bet from Balsassari, which Schmelev qiuckly called. He turned up 
, still on the draw, and Balsassari was looking to fade the clubs with his .
He could not fade the clubs. The binked the river, and that gives Schmelev the pot and the knockout, moving his way up to 110,000 in the process.
Phil Ivey raised from late position, and Mark Cortazzo made it three bets from the cutoff seat. In the big blind, Doug Booth came right back with another raise, and Ivey capped it at five bets. Both opponents called.
On the flop of 
, one single bet from Ivey was enough to end the hand right there, moving his stack up to a respectable 52,000.
Daniel Hood got his few thousand remaining chips into the pot preflop with , up against Nick Schulman and Brian Meinders.
On the flop of 
, a Schulman bet was enough to fold Meinders and get the cards on their backs with Hood at risk. Schulman held just , but he was poised for the knockout. The turn was a blank, and so was the on the river, and Hood is unable to stay afloat.
Brian Meinders opened for a raise from the hijack seat and Nick Schulman three-bet from the small blind. Meinders called and they saw a 
flop. Schulman led out and Meinders called. The turn came the 
and Schulman led again. Meinders raised and after a bit of a tank, Schulman gave up his hand.
Meinders showed and took down the pot. He's up to 37,000 from the 21 and change he started with today while Schulman dipped to 68,000.
Lex Veldhuis came into the day short-stacked with just about 13,000 chips, and he's already burned through those within the first four hands.
Veldhuis is out, and he joins Michael Fong as a casualty of the first couple minutes of Day 2.
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