The field of 72 remaining players are now on a break while tournament officials color up the $100 chips. The tournament will need to be cut in half before the money is reached, which might not happen tonight. The players that wished to leave the tournament area were forced to wade through the large crowd on the rail which has actually thinned since the last break.

Scott Fischman was able to take down a huge pot before the break when he was all in against two other players. Two players were all in before the flop with AK and AK. Fischman waited a long time before making the call with 88. The board came 9427J and the paint on the river gave the table a scare. Fischman now sits among the chip leaders with more than $90,000.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson has maintained a healthy stack all day and continued to play strong in the last level. Ferguson bet out $2,800 and the player in seat eight called. The flop was J102 and Ferguson checked. The player in seat eight bet $6,500. Ferguson called to see the turn, which was the 8. Both players check the turn and the river was the K. Both players again check and Ferguson turned over 66 and his opponent mucked. Ferguson took down the pot and is over $80,000.

With a double up already under his belt in the last level, Joe Sebok took a big hit when his king high flush ran into a straight flush courtesy of Greg "FBT" Mueller. Sebok's stack fell to only $5,000 before he was able to make a strong comeback to over $70,000.

If the crowds on the rails get any bigger, Harrah's should really start to consider selling tickets to these events. The rail on the $5,000 Pot Limit Hold 'Em event started out big and is only getting bigger. Clogging the aisles of the Amazon Room are fans all eager to catch a glimpse of some of poker's elite.

Recent eliminations include Cyndy Violette, Doyle Brunson, Phil Laak, Jason Strasser, Clonie Gowen, Kristy Gazes and Daniel Negreanu. With under 90 players remaining, play hasn't slowed down a bit. Gavin Griffin and Daniel Negreanu bumped heads early and found themselves heads up in a very large pot. Griffin made it $3,400 before the flop and Negreanu raised to $9,400. Griffin made the call and the flop was A94. Both players check the flop and the turn is the 2. Negreanu checked and Griffin bet out $12,600. Negreanu raised to $25,200 and Griffin quickly pushed all in for $11,000 more. Negreanu began to analyze the hand out loud while pondering his decision. "Thats so not like you," said Negreanu. Griffin just chuckled and said smiling, "I know." Negreanu folded his hand and was left with less than $10,000. Shortly after the hand Negreanu was eliminated.

Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy built his stack to over $15,000 when he doubled up this level. All in before the flop, Josephy was called by Mickey Appleman who had A-7. Josephy showed JJ and the board came 932Q6. Josephy turned his head away as the dealer put out the cards and was relieved to see that his jacks held up at the end of the hand.

With just 130 players left and the field littered with big name players, stacked tables are bound to arise. On table 60 Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy is in the one seat, and seated to his left are Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Clonie Gowen, Sorel "Imperium" Mizzi, Mickey Appleman and Mike Wattel. Table 55 is home to the likes of Kristy Gazes, Humberto Brenes, Minh Ly, David Grey, and Allen Cunningham.

Lee Watkinson was eliminated in the last level. Watkinson was all in on the river with a board showing QQ785. Watkinson had AQ and his opponent in the ten seat had Q8. At the table next door Mike Gracz found himself involved in a large pot. The flop was 875 and Gracz bet out $10,000. The player in seat 6 pushed out $32,2000 more. Gracz pushed all in his opponent had him covered. The player in seat six called and showed JJ. Gracz had J9. The turn was the Q and the river was the 2. Mike Gracz was eliminated and left behind Jason Strasser, Robert Willaimson III and Thomas Wahlroos at his table.

Erick Lindgren doubled up to over $14,000 shortly before the players went on break. His opponent in seat eight pushed all in following a board of Q9382 with A9. Lindgren made the call with 99 and doubled up.

After a day filled with patient play Joe Sebok has finally had the chance to collect some chips. Sebok bet $2,200 before the flop and was called by the player in seat four. The flop came 9-7-4 with two diamonds. Sebok bet out $2,500 and the player in seat four raised to $9,500. Sebok called and the turn was the 3. Sebok checked and his opponent pushed all in. Sebok called and showed 99. The player in seat showed AQ and realized he had been drawing dead since the flop. Sebok doubled up to roughly $50,000.

Tournament officials released the event information for the $5,000 World Championship Pot-limit Hold'em event.  The 398 entrants built a prize pool of $1,870,000, with 36 places paid and a sizable $487,000 first place prize.  Players have gone on dinner break, with play resuming at 9 p.m.

Make sure to check back around 10 p.m. for the first update on the post-dinner action here at Cardplayer.com.

Slightly more than 200 players remain in today’s $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Event, which puts us to very close to the half-way mark.

“Captain” Tom Franklin was eliminated when he found himself all-in on the turn in a four handed pot. On aboard of 8547, Eric lynch bets $3,000 and Tom Franklin makes the call. The player in seat 7 re-raises to $17,600 (pot size) and Tom Franklin calls all-in for his last few thousand chips. Lynch folds his hand and gets out of their way as the player in seat 2 also makes the call. The river brings the J and Seat-2, first to act, flips over K6 for a flush. Franklin mucks his baby flush and heads for the rail.

John D’Agostino was eliminated by Phil Laak when, according to Phil, “He had a real hand and I didn’t. I had to call for the math and I ended up sucking-out.”  

It wasn’t all bad news in Level 6 as a short-stacked Phil Hellmuth managed to double up right before the break. Hellmuth bets the pot maximum of $1,500 before the flop and the player in seat 8 makes the call. With only $400 left in front of him, Hellmuth moves all-in in the dark and the flop comes K72. Seat-8 calls the $400 and Hellmuth shows JJ. Seat-8 flips over Q10 and the turn and river bring the 10 and the 3, no help to Seat-8 as Hellmuth proceeds to double up.

Michael Binger also doubled up from the short-stack right before the break. He raises to $2,400 before the flop and Phil Laak makes the call. The flop comes QJ3 and Binger bets $400 of his $500 stack. Laak makes the call and the turn brings the 5. Now Binger moves all-in for his $100 and once again, Laak makes the call. Binger shows AA as the 3 hits the river and Laak throws his hand into the muck.

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Play has slowed down considerably, as do all tournaments in the final hours leading up the dinner break, and there are roughly 240 players now remaining. Unfortunately for him, Antonio Esfandiari is not one of them. Esfandiari makes a pre-flop raise of $1,800 when Scott Fischman re-raises all-in (he has Esfandiari covered). Fischman shows QJ while Esfandiari flips over 109. The board comes Q86109, giving Fischman the queen high straight against Esfandiari’s two pair, sending Antonio to the rail.

William Chen was the next player to take an early dinner break when he got involved in a heads-up with Michael Binger. On a flop of 953, Binger makes it $1,200 to go when William Chen pushes all-in for $4,700 more. Binger calls (has him covered) and flips over 54 while Chen turns over A2. The turn and river bring the 9 and the 6, no help to Chen as Binger’s pair of fives hold up.

Gavin Smith also took an indefinite dinner break in Level 4 when his K-10 ran into Eric Lynch's Q-10 straight on the turn.

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Level 3 has brought us even more notable eliminations brining the player count down to somewhere around 280 players.

A terminally short-stacked Michael “The Grinder’ Mizrachi was finally eliminated when he moved all-in pre-flop with A3. The player in seat 5 makes the call with 76, and the board came 643J4, giving Seat-5 the higher pair and sending Mizrachi to the rail.

Next to go was Harabolos Voulgaris, with quite possibly the sickest bad bead of the entire World Series to date. Voulgaris raises to $600 before the flop and the player in seat 10 re-raises to $2,100. Voulgaris moves over the top and pushes all-in. His opponent calls and flips over QQ while Voulgaris shows AA. The flop comes AK2, giving Voulgaris a set of aces and putting him way out in front of this pot. The turn brings the 10, and the river brings the J giving seat-10 a straight to the ace. Voulgaris can’t believe that his opponent just went runner-runner Broadway to crack his all-in set of aces and gets up to leave mentioning something about being so sick after that beat that he needed to go throw-up. Seat-10 replies, “I think I just did”, as he rakes a monster pot after dodging not one, but three bullets.

Toto Leonidas was a little more fortunate with his pocket eights when he flopped a set against his opponent’s all-in. Leonidis is seemingly in control of his table and starting to build a real nice stack.

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Level 2 has brought us some big eliminations and some even bigger emerging chip stacks. Sorel Mizzi managed to pick off Tong G and Tuan Le back to back-to-back within a half hour’s time, and as a result he has amassed roughly $45,000 in chips.

Allen Kessler was the next one to hit the rail when he pushed all-in on a flop of Q87. The player in seat 10 made the call and flipped over Q8 against Kessler’s AQ. The turn and river bring the 10 and the 3, no help to Kessler as his opponent’s two pair holds up. Filling his empty seat was Brett Jungblut who joins the table already in progress with David Willamson III, Eugene Todd, T.J. Cloutier, Eric Froehlich, and defending champion, Jason Lester. Despite being surrounded by all of this talent and their accompanied bracelets, an unknown player in seat 10 is starting to build some real momentum. After eliminating Kessler and stealing a few pots with some big raises, he gets the ultimate sign of respect by T.J. Cloutier. I’m not sure if it was a sign of respect or just a case of knowing when to get out of the way when a player is running good, but none the less, Cloutier throws A-K into the muck pre-flop against this guy. T.J. Cloutier raises $625 before the flop and Seat-10 re-pots it for another $1,275 more. T.J thinks for a minute and flips over AK and says to the table, “I’m throwing this away because he’s running so good.” Brett Jungblut seemed shocked by T.J.’s lay down and although you can argue the move, no on can argue how good Seat-10 is running right now. Seat-10 shows T.J. pocket jacks, as he’s eliminated a few pros, scared some more off of their hands, and now sits with well over $40,000 in chips.

Aaron Been went into the tank for almost eight minutes during the break when Jennifer Harman put him to a decision for all of his chips. The flop comes AJ2 and Been bets $2,000. Harman re-raises the size of the pot for a total of $7,500. Been deliberates for almost eight minutes before showing A-K and tossing it into the muck.     

Roughly 330 players remain as we head into Level 3.

Roughly 380 players entered Event 13, and a large majority of them were pros.

There was some serious action going on in the Amazon room during Level 1 and it looks like there’s no end in site. A good amount of tables were stacked with pros, some of them eight deep. Table 60 played host to Johnny Bax, Eric Lynch, Gavin Smith, Amnon Filippi, Blair Rodman, and J.J. Liu, before her early elimination. A few rows down sits Table 36, perhaps one of the toughest tables in the entire room, and there was only one person that I didn’t recognize. It sucks to be that guy sitting at the same table with Isaac Haxton, Nam Le, Vanessa Rousso, Scott Fischman, Kirill Gerasimov, Ryan Daut, Antonio Esfandiari, and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (PokerStars’ first Supernova).

Mark Seif however, has found himself at a quiet table without too many familiar faces and has begun to take an aggressive approach early in the tournament. Within in a half hour, Seif had already gone all-in three times. A few walks and some big steals, and Seif now sits with close to $15,000 in chips.

David “Devil Fish” Ulliott was not off to a good start after getting involved in a big pot with Shane Schleger. On a flop of A88, Schleger bets $500 and Ulliott raises $2,500. Schleger re-raises and moves all-in (has Ulliott covered), and Ulliott is forced to make the lay down, leaving him with only a few thousand chips at best.

The best pot of Level 1 involved three players all-in on the turn and Jamie Gold hitting the rail early. On a board of A938, Seat-10 makes it $600 to go and Jamie Gold raises to $2,600. Nick Binger re-raises all-in for $9,400 and Seat-10 calls all-in along with Jamie Gold. Binger turn over A-8 for top two pair while Gold shows pocket threes for bottom set. The player in Seat-10 turns over pocket nines for middle set. Seat-10 rakes a monster pot, tripling up early in the tournament and eliminating last year’s Main Event winner, Jamie Gold.

Stay tuned to Cardplayer.com for more live updates and Pro Blogs featuring Phil Laak, Cyndy Violette, John D’Agostino, and Jason Strasser.