2009 WSOP Champions Invitational Underway, Day 2 of $1k NLH

The 2009 WSOP Champions Invitational final table is in full swing in the televised arena in the corner of the Amazon Room. What started with 10 former champions has now been narrowed down to only six: Tom McEvoy, Huck Seed, Carlos Mortensen, Jim Bechtel, Robert Varkonyi and Dan Harrington.

This already eliminated include Phil Hellmuth, Peter Eastgate, Doyle Brunson and Berry Johnston. Yes, that does make ten players, which is one more than a usual final table. Hellmuth made the cut with only three chips in front of him, 1,000, 1,000 and 25. We heard him in the hallway last night saying that the only reason they stopped play was so the WSOP could say that he was at the "final" table.



Anyway, McEvoy is the current chip leader with Harrington and Mortensen breathing down his neck. Now that most of the old guys are gone, expect for McEvoy it seems more likely that they'll play down to a champ instead of just until someone falls asleep at the table. The winner gets a shiny 1970 Corvette Stingray. Yay.

The $1,000 No Limit Holdem event is well into Day 2 of play. There are now 395 players remaining out of the roughly 750 who started the day today. Out to a crushing lead is JC Tran, who is not one to give up leads when he has one. They will play through five more blind levels today and call it a day. First place is $771,106 but there is still a lot of poker left until we reach that point, so stay tuned here for updates from the 2009 WSOP.