Players dropped like flies in the last level. From thirty two to twenty five seemed instantaneous. Tournament officials announced began hand to hand play, and on the first hand the 25th place player busted on the bubble.  The remaining players were in the money, and guaranteed of at least $8,460 for their efforts.  The players then redrew seats for the final three tables, racked up their chips and moved.  Phil Ivey, whose stack has grown to roughly $120,000, is now sitting with Cory Zeidman and Johnny Chan.  Marco Traniello also has a sizable stack, and is looking to make his second final table of the series in one the first week.  After playing for a short while, play halted for the dinner break.  Make sure to come back Cardplayer.com to catch all the action as the remaining players battle down to the final table after dinner.

The final hour of play in day one of the $5,000 Seven Card Stud event is over. More than 20 players were eliminated this hour, leaving less than 100 returning for day two. Play will resume tomorrow at 3 p.m. and continue until the final table.

With the antes and betting climbing, the action remained fast and furious. John Juanda found himself all in against Bill Edler who had aces up. Juanda was able to river a straight to stay alive and make to day two. Across the floor Negreanu was able to triple up when he was all in against two opponents. Negreanu found love on the river in the form of a fifth diamond and made a flush to add a nice amount of chips to his stack.

The field returning tomorrow is ridiculous. Pros and long time stud players like Paul "The Truth" Darden, Alan Boston, David Levi, John Hennigan, Allen Cunningham, Howard Lederer, John Juanda, Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein are just some of the top tier players returning tomorrow to continue to grind towards a 2007 World Series of Poker bracelet. Type CardPlayer.com into your browser tomorrow at 3 p.m. to hear from players in the event in the Pro Blogs section and to keep up on all the action with our updates.

Eliminations continue to pile up.  Jay Newnum, Sam Grizzle and Chris Ferguson were all eliminated in the past hour.  Newnum was betting the whole way down, and after sixth street had four to a straight on the board.  His opponent check called him the whole way down, and ended up showing down one pair against Newnum, who was representing, but never caught, that straight. Ferguson was incredibly short chipped, and got his last $1,000 chip with a 6 22.  John Juanda called and revealed the QQ4.   The 4 gave Juanda two pair on the end, and Chris did not improve by sixth street. He had the dealer deal the last card down so that he could squeeze it out. He needed a three or a two to win. He saw that it was a club, which meant it wasn't a three because Juanda held the 3.  Ferguson's final card needed to be the 2 in order for him to survive.  It was the 8, however, and he was sent to the rail.  Less than 120 players remained as the final hour of play began.  Make sure to check back in an hour for the end of the night update here at Cardplayer.com.

With $100 antes and $400-$800 betting, players are beginning to drop with higher frequency. Gus Hansen and Jen Harman both busted in this level, among others.  As a result of table re-balancing, tables just keep getting sicker. Nick Shulman joined Bill Edler, David Levi, Chad Brown and Gabe Kaplan.   John Juanda took the one seat  at a table occupied by Isabelle Mercier, William Chen, Jesse Jones, Layne Flack, and Chris Ferguson. Humberto Brenes joined Jeff Lisandro, Ram Vaswani, Huck Seed and Alan Kessler.  This field is the best of the best, and the tables just keep getting better. Play will continue until 3 a.m. tonight, so keep it locked to Cardplayer.com to see if these tables can get any more stacked.

After the dinner break, players resumed their battle for the bracelet. As more and more players bust, tables are being consolidated and becoming even sicker, if that is possible.  Darrell Dicken joined table 166, where a friendly little game was going on between Barry Greenstein, Cyndy Violette, Josh Arieh and Sam Grizzle. Players at table 142 were probably relieved to see a tough player like Doyle Brunson leave their table. Their relief was shortlived, however, because he was soon replaced by Eli Elezra. 

At the same table, a short stacked Jen Harman got involved in a lot of pots coming off the break. Joking with Eli, she predicted that she would not be at the table long seeing as she was a bit tipsy from the wine she had at dinner.  Reconsidering, Harman announced with a wry smile that, "I'm the best drunk player in the world."  At the end of the level she was still on life support, however, with less than $1,000 in chips.

Cyndy Violette got involved in a sizable heads up pot against Sam Grizzle. With her board showing the 595 and Grizzles reading K92, Viollette bet $600, Grizzle raised to $1,200, and Cyndy reraised to $1,800.  Sixth street brought the 8 for Violette and the Q for Grizzle. Violette bet again, and Grizzle called.  After seventh street, Violette bet, Grizzle raised  and Violette called.  Grizzle revealed his downcards, the KK10 for trip kings, and Violette mucked her hand.

Make sure to check back for more updates and Pro Blogs here at Cardplayer.com.

Tournament Officials have released the event info for the $5,000 World Championship of Seven Card Stud in the last hour. 180 players entered the tournament, but only 24 players will take home part of the $846,000 dollar prize pool. Of those in the money, only the champion will take home the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet and the $258,453 first place prize.

The flow of play has been punctuated by the fifteen minute break, taken after every two levels. In this instance, the players returned from the break to play only fifteen or so minutes before their 10 p.m. dinner break.   During this short interval, some interesting hands went down, however.  David Benyamine was all in with the 10888 on his board, and was called by an opponent who had trip kings, as well as four to a straight and four to a flush.   Benyamine caught a queen on 7th street to match his other in the hole, filling up and beating his opponent who did not improve on the end.

In another interesting hand, Cory Zeidman released wired aces on 5th street when Shawn Sheikhan reraised him with a board of 422. Make sure to check back later for more updates and Pro Blogs here at Cardplayer.com.

The field is incredibly stacked with seasoned tournament veterans and high stakes players.  With these big name pros comprising most of the field, this event has a very different atmosphere from some of the lower buy-in hold'em events.  Instead of the mutual disinterest often felt during the events with larger fields, in this event the players seem to all know each other, like they are all in a club and this is their  weekly meeting.  Shawn Sheikhan and John Hennigan joke around. David Benyamine and Johnny Chan have little notepads on which they have been keeping track of prop bets.  The mood is light at this stage of the tournament,  surprisingly so for the money at stake.

With the blinds still small, monster pots have not yet  become common.  An interesting hand came up between Josh Arieh and Sam Grizzle. Arieh was showing the KA and Grizzle the 105.  Arieh lead out, and Grizzle opted to call. Fifth street brought the 4 for Arieh and the A for Grizzle, and again Arieh bet and Grizzle called. With the 6 on sixth street for Arieh and the 2 for Grizzle, the action once again went bet and call. The river was dealt, Arieh bet and Grizzle called again.  Arieh quickly rolled out the J for a flush.  Grizzle revealed the 55 from his holecards, apparently calling on sixth with the hope of filling up or thinking that Arieh was on a bluff and only representing the flush.

Make sure to check Cardplayer.com throughout the night for more hourly updates and Pro Blogs.

Here is a small sample of the stacked tables in the $5,000 World Championship of Seven Card Stud event:

Table 142 -
1.Max Pescatori
2. Daniel Negreanu
3. Jennifer Harman

Table 150
1. Perry Friedman
3.Jeff Lisandro
5. Ram Vaswani
6. Huck Seed
7. Allan Kessler

Table 154
1. Bill Edler
6. David Levi
7. Chad Brown
8. Gabe Kaplan

Table 161
2. Marco Traniello
3. John D'Agostino
5. Joe Awada
8. David Grey

Table 165
1. Cory Zeidman
4. Fabrice Soulier
6. Chau Giang
7. John Hennigan
8. Shawn Sheikhan

Table 166
2. Cyndy Violette
3. Barry Grennstein
7. Josh Arieh
8. Sam Grizzle

Table 179
3. David Benyamine
6. David Pham
7. Men Nguyen
8. Johnny Chan

These are but a few of the incredibly tough tables that populate this event. David Williams, who won his first WSOP bracelet last year in stud is also in today's event. Make sure to check back for updates and Pro Blogs here at Cardplayer.com.