2012 World Series of Poker

A starting field of 302 players came out to compete for the bracelet today in Event 40: $2,500 Limit Hold'em - Six Handed. And come tomorrow, about one in three of those who began the event will be returning for Day 2.

Among the 101 players bagging up chips at the end of the day, Vincent Gironda, Michael Reed, Andre Akkari, and Terrence Chan looked to be the ones stowing away the most of them, all hovering around the 50k-60k chip range. Additionally, Chad Brown, John Hennigan, Scott Seiver, and many other top pros are primed to return on Friday to above average stacks.

Speaking of stacks, it was a fairly stacked field all around today. Among the familiar faces who failed to make it through the eight one-hour levels were Carlos Mortensen, Andy Bloch, Michael Mizrachi, Annie Duke, Matt Hawrilenko, J.C. Tran, Shaun Deeb, Barry Greenstein, Eli Elezra, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey.

The Brazilian Akkari led for much of the early evening, with Gironda, Reed, and Chan both making late charges. Also within shouting distance is Brian Meinders who hopes to earn a second LHE bracelet after having won the Event 25: $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout.

Play resumes tomorrow at 2 PM local time with the plan being to play 10 one-hour levels. Join us then as we continue to follow who among the remaining group will survive into the top 36 and the cash and have a shot at the bracelet and $182,088 first prize.

The tournament staff has just announced that three more hands will be dealt at each table before players begin bagging their chips.

It's getting late. After a long day of poker, players are getting tired. And some a little testy.

Just now we came upon a three-way hand involving a short-stacked player who was all in, Brian Meinders, and John Monnette. Monnette — a.k.a. "Angry John" — was expressing displeasure over how the raising had gone, specifically with regard to Meinders' attempt to reraise again in a spot where Monnette didn't believe he could (after the third player was all in).

All was resolved well enough for play to resume, although the debate continued as well the hand played out, with Monnette calling bets on both the turn and river as the board came . Meinders then tabled , better than both Monnette's and the all-in player's , and scooped the sizable pot, a result that didn't make Monnette any happier.

The player under the gun raised and Andre Akkari three-bet from the hijack. Action folded around to the UTG player who called.

The action played out the same throughout every street of the board at the UTG player check-called bets from Akkari the entire way.

Akkari tabled , winning the pot and upping his stack to about 40,000.

As the field gets smaller and the remaining players are moved about to fill empty seats, some tough tables are developing. Take Table #376 for example, where Scott Fischman, Chad Brown, Eugene Katchalov, and Justin Bonomo are now seated.

Here are their counts as we move into the last half-hour of play for the night: