Marcel Luske is our champion of the Day 2 $2000 no limit event and pockets $212,070. He knocked out Nick Marsico after his short stack forces him to move all in with K-6. He picked the wrong time to do so, as Luske had picked up pocket queens and makes a set on the turn. Marsico picks up $115,235 for second place.

Marcel Luske just knocked out Daniel Alaei. Marcel raised it up $250,000 preflop. This covered both his opponents. Alaei called with his remaining $180,000 with A-Q. Luske shows A-J. The flop is a beauty for Luske: J-8-7 and the turn and river do not bring a queen. Daniel's third place finish is worth $57,620.

Marcel Luske has triple the chips of his two opponents as we get down to three handed play. With the blinds now $10,000-$20,000 and antes of $4000, Luske had about $700,000. Both Daniel Alaei and Nick Marsico both have just over $200,000 each.

For a while, our chip leader coming into today, Nick Marsico, was hanging on by a thread. But he hit all the hands he need to on his short stack to stay in the game. He doubled up earlier with J-J against Daniel Alaei's K-10 and just did it again to bust out Joe Awada. Awanda was all in with K-K and Nick, with A-Q, just had him covered and called. The final board read Q-7-6-A-9 giving the underdog and tenacious Marsico the victory. Awada's 4^th place finish netted him $32,950.

With the blinds now $8000-$16,000, every hand matters. Marcel Luske wins the first three hands at the four handed table with consecutive uncalled $45,000 preflop bets. On the fourth hand he leads out for $45,000. Daniel Alaei re-raises him another $100,000. Then Marcel comes over the top again all in for another $280,000. Alaei, with over a third of his chips already in the pot, thinks for a long while and mucks his hand. Marcel shows pocket queens and now, with over $500,000, is our chip leader.

With four players remining here are approximate chip counts:

Daniel Alaei $390,000

Marcel Luske $350,000

Joe Awada $345,000

Nick Marsico $115,000

The final table has traded blinds around for the past hour but two players finally went at it with playable hands. Celilia Norderstam pushed $160,000 all in with A-Q and was called by Daniel Alaei, who had her covered, with J-J. The pocket jacks hold up and Daniel is back in a horserace for the chip lead. Norderstam's 5^th place finish is worth $24,695.

Blinds are now $6000-$12,000 with a $2000 ante. Play has tighten up considerably in the last half hour. However, Marcel Luske, with over $450,000, is now chip leader as he has picked off multiple pots with aggressive pre-flop play.

After two consecutive all in bets for his $200,000 stack go uncalled, netting him $44,000, Awada muscles out Cecilia Nordenstam on a 9-9-7 flop. Cecilia bets $40,000 under the gun and Joe reraises all in. Cecilia drops her cards. Awada wins the next two hands uncontested with $27,000 preflop raises. He now has over $400,000.