World Series of Poker players on 2nd day of competition

Nearly 1,500 players started the World Series of poker main event on Tuesday with a flurry of all-in bets as they worked to claim a spot in the event's third day.

While many players simply looked to get through their second sessions without being eliminated, some tried to accumulate large amounts of chips to make a deep run in the no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament.

Actor Jason Alexander started the day among the chip leaders with nearly 90,000 chips, and said he gained about 20,000 more chips during the first two levels of play, but was back down to about 56,000 by the dinner break.

"I have no illusions about where I'm going to wind up in this thing," Alexander told The Associated Press. "My aggressiveness is counterbalanced by the fact that I just don't want to be stupid. And when you're a C-plus, B-minus player and you've got some chips, you can get stupid."

Alexander said he wants to make it to a third day of play, but not without a healthy amount of chips.

Players left on Tuesday were expected to combine with the players left from a session on Wednesday, when about 2,900 players will play eight hours in their second session. The fields will combine on Friday when all players will play simultaneously for the first time.

An hour later, Alexander eliminated another opponent with pocket aces, the best starting hand in poker.

"Really scary board," he said after winning the hand despite the possibility of a straight given the community cards.

Mike Sexton, who has cashed 45 times at the series and won a gold bracelet in 1989 in a stud high-low tournament, said players this early in the tournament should only be hoping to stay in the tournament and not worry about having large chip stacks.

"You can't win the tournament on Day 2 no matter how many chips you get a hold of," said Sexton, who began the day with 11,000 more chips than he started the tournament with. "Just having average chips at the end of Day 1, the end of Day 2, the end of Day 3 is perfect for me. I mean I don't think you really need to be chip leader or anywhere near it to have a fighting chance to win the tournament."

Chips have no monetary value in the tournament, and can fluctuate wildly given that players can gamble their entire chip stacks at any time.

Top prize is US$8.55 million, while 648 players will cash in the $10,000 buy-in main event.