With 1,900 chips in the middle, the board read 
between Marco Johnson and one other player. Johnson checked to his opponent, who bet 1,200. Johnson thought for a bit and then called.
The river completed the board with the 
and Johnson checked. His opponent thought and thought, but eventually just checked behind.
"Queen high," announced Johnson, with the 
. His opponent tabled the 
and won the pot to knock Johnson back a tiny bit to 55,000.
Tracey Nguyen, extremely short-stacked for the past couple hours after losing with aces versus aces, has finally succumbed.
She got her last in with 
against another player's 
, and failed to hit a thing on the 
board.
Ronnie Bardah raised from middle position to 450. Only the big blind came along to see the flop come down 
. Both players checked the flop, the turn () and the river (). Bardah tabled the , but it was no good as his opponent his a lowly pair of threes with the 
. Bardah lost a few hundred chips, but still has 46,000 in his stack.
We're through with two levels here on Day 1b, and registration is going to close in just a few minutes.
It's been a good four hours of work for some of our notable notables. Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy is in his rookie season at the WSOP, and he's off to a flying start here in the Big Show. Collopy's ~100,000-chip stack puts him atop our leader board and well above average just less than halfway through his opening day. Todd "DanDruff" Witteles and James "Flushy" Dempsey both dragged big pots during Level 2 to slide into positions two and three behind Collopy. Also of note, Phil Laak showed up late, and he's already doubled his stack to about 60,000 in two hours.
On the flip side of things, the eliminations are starting to trickle our way. Mark Seif, the broken-footed Arnaud Mattern, Dan Shak, Sam Stein, Liv Boeree, Rafe Furst, and 2006 Main Event Champion Jamie Gold were among the casualties of that second level. Tracey Nguyen and Joe Sebok are getting close, both hanging on dearly to their short remaining stacks.
With the clock showing double zero, the players have been herded into the hallways for a twenty-minute break.
Level: 3
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 0
Just before the break...
We just caught the tail end of a pot as the dealer put the river card down on a board of 
. James Dempsey bet 8,800 with his opponent calling, and Dempsey tabled 
for the full house.
It's not much for detail, but here's the important bit. "Flushy" is up to 92,000 now and in second place on our leader board.
Jeremiah Smith is down to 3,500 chips after flopping a flush against an opponent.
Smith held 
on a 
board, and his opponent opened . The board ran 
, giving his opponent a full house unfortunately, and Smith is now on the short stack.
Orel Hershiser hadn't been having the best start to his Main Event. But things started to look better just before out last break. On a board reading 
, Hershiser moved all in for 10,050 and his opponent folded. Hershiser showed 
and arranged his new stack of 21,000 chips.
We have discovered a monster stack over here in the orange section of the Amazon Room. We don't know exactly how it happened, but Mr. Robert Miller has somehow upped his stack to 132,000. That seems to be chip lead, at the moment.
