2012 World Series of Poker

If No-Limit Texas Hold'em is the Cadillac of poker then No-Limit Texas Hold'em Six-Handed poker is the Ferrari. Event #23 started with 924 players and we lost two-thirds of the field in the first six-levels.

The action was frenetic, fast and fine and when the last card had settled on the felt there were 141 players that remained in the hunt for a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. As usual we have to have somebody with more chips than everyone else, and that honor goes to Jeff Manza who bagged and tagged 275,000 chips.

Manza won the majority of his chips when he flopped a set of sevens in a three-way pot worth 195,000 chips. Then as the floor announced the last four hands. Manza called down a three-street bluff from Florian Langmann holding on a board to cement his top spot berth,

But long before Manza had amassed his chips people were dropping like flies. WSOP bracelet holder Fabrice Soulier and WSOP final tablist John Eames both joining the list of early casualties as they departed in the very first level. Then multiple WSOP bracelet holder Daniel Negreanu joined the fray, scampering out of the door when his flush draw missed the turn and river in a fatal hand against the relatively unknown Jay Conley.

Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen won a flip against Lex Veldhuis, Kevin Iacofano evicted 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela and Andrea Dato busted Arnaud Mattern, At the other end of the chip counts WSOP bracelet winner Andre Akkari became the first player to grab our attention. It was a case of Diamonds Are For-This Flop as Akkari nailed a flop holding to double up through his hopeful opponent holding . Akkari had 45,000 chips and became our early leader.

WSOP bracelet winner Matt Perrins eliminated Ana Marquez and then her boyfriend Bryn Kenney followed her out of the door after a torrid Day 1. Kenney lost aces versus aces, after his opponent hit a four-flush, then flopped top-set of aces to lose to a five high flush on the river.

Back to the top of the charts and Jason Pritchard flopped quad queens on his way to a chip stack containing 80,000 plastic discs. Pritchard deposing Akkari at the top of the chip counts and he was joined by the likes of Scott Montgomery, Owen Crowe, Scott Seiver, Steve Gross and Matt Stout.

After the dinner break Florian Langmann came to our attention. The German finding aces no less than three times and then sucking out on Jake Cody versus . Cody was out and Langmann was up to 85,000 chips.

We lost Melanie Weisner, Jean-Robert Bellande and Andy Frankenberger at one end of the counts and Christopher Polzin (127,000), Hendrik Latze (120,000), Jordan Young (119,500) & Steve Gross (100,000) emerged at the right end.

A few levels on and it started to turn into the AE Jones show. Aaron Jones motoring over the 200,000 mark and he was totally dominant on his table. Then Jeff Manza hit a set of sevens in a three-way pot to go neck and neck with Jones just moments before Jones was physically neck and neck with him (they played out the last twenty minutes side by side). Then finally, Manza caught Langmann bluffing, and overtook Jones towards the last few hands of the night.

Other notables through to Day 2 include Liv Boeree, Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand Grospellier, Roberto Romanello, Jason Mercier, Kyle Weir and 2006 WSOP bracelet holder Paul Kobel with 12,500 chips!

Day 2 will resume in the Amazon room at 13:00 PM and you can join us at PokerNews for all the action.

Jeff Manza has just caught Florian Langmann with his hands in the proverbial cookie jar to take a dominating chip lead right at the death.

Manza raised to 1,600 from the hijack and Langmann three-bet to 4,700 on the button. Manza made the call and the pair shared a flop of and Manza check-called a 6,000 Langmann c-bet. The turn card was the and Maria Ho walked past the table to temporarily distract the players. Langmann had bet 32,000 but Manza hadn't even realised! In the end Ho left and Manza made the call. The river was the and Manza checked for a third time. Langmann announced, "32," and moved a stack of yellow into the middle and Manza called instantly.

Langmann very sheepishly showed for the bluff and Manza showed for second pair. That hand pushed Langmann down to 50,000 and Manza up to 270,000.

"Dealers, deal four more hands," is what tournament director Steve Frezer just announced. The day is almost done and we are trying to hunt down the big stacks!

Aaron Jones has just lost a 30,000 pot and the chip lead. He was undone by a set of fives and the new chip leader is now Jeff Manza, who incidentally is sat to the direct left of Jones.

Zachary Clark has just doubled through Yordan Mitrentsov. It was all-in pre flop with Mitrentsov holding and Clark holding . The board giving Clark a set - - and a double up. Mitrentsov has just 8BB.

As faith would have it Aaron Jones just got moved to the table where Jeff Manza was in control. Jones moved into the seat to the right of Manza who has position on his nearest rival. These two are first and second in chips and we could still see a pot worth 400,000 if they decided to go crazy.

Florian Langmann is also at this table and with 110,000 chips he also has a top ten stack. Plenty of chips over on table #18 which is right on the rail. "I think they're gonna need reinforcements for this table since it's about to collapse," one of the railbirds said as we were writing up chip counts.

Alexander Nudin has never cashed in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event in his short poker career, but the man from Russia looks odds-on to make Event #17 his first. Christopher Polzin has just taken a seat to his immediate right and has just dusted off at least 35,000 chips to him in the past two hands. We missed the first hand but here is the details of the second.

The player in the hijack seat raised to 1,650 before Polzin three-bet to 3,500 in the cutoff. Nudin was seated on the button and he made the call which dragged the hijack into the pot as well.

The three players congregated around a flop of and Polzin bet 5,550 once checked to. Nudin made the call, the player in the hijack seat folded and that was the end of the action. The turn and river were both checked through and Nudin took the pot with . Polzin showed down .

On a flop we just caught Steve Gross calling a raise to 4,400 after he had put in a 1,700 bet from the small blind. The turn was the and Gross check-called 3,400. The river was the and the action went check-check. Gross showed his and took down the pot.

Steve Gross is up to around 122,000 chips while one table over Todd Terry is sitting on a stack worth 110,000. The room is quickly filling up with big stacks as we approach the end of the day.

Jeff Manza has just decided to grab our attention. He has just hauled in a monster pot that involved three players and contained 195,000 chips. Manza nailed a set of sevens on a board to put himself into second place on the leader board. Florian Langmann started all of the nonsense with the pre flop three-bet and he believed the big loser in the pot held .

Manza has a 50% 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) cash record after cashing in two of the four events he has played in so far. It now looks very likely that he will be cashing in another one sometime tomorrow afternoon.