We may not have the field under one roof until Thursday, but that doesn't mean we aren't starting to notice things getting more serious here at the Rio. the players are busting at a fast clip, the chips are consolidating into some sizable stacks, and even after six hours of play, major developments are already underway:
1. When play began, there was only one player, Martin Jacobson, sitting with more than 200,000 in chips. The Swede is sitting on an even bigger stack now, but there are 11 other players up over 200,000 after three levels of Day 2 play.
2. In the battle of the dueling comedians, it is Kevin Pollak who prevailed over Ray Romano. The “Parenthood” star may have outlasted his son Matt Romano, but for the third year in a row it is Pollak still in this tournament longer than his friend. The question now is whether or not Pollak can match his 134th place showing in 2012.3. There will be no third consecutive Main Event cash for 2012 Main Event Champ Greg Merson. He came into today with a seat at a table with 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker, but wasn’t in it long before busting his short stack. Last year, Merson ended up finishing 167th place in the Main Event, getting everyone’s hopes up about the first return to the final table for a Main Event Champ since Dan Harrington in 2004.4. In the Amazon Room, the Day 1A field is only four tables away from being fully consolidated into just one section, the Orange section. Players shouldn’t get used to this small field though—the next time this room will be this empty, we’ll be down to the final 300 players or so in the event.5. The winner in the Main Event earns 500 points in the WSOP Player of the Year race powered by BLUFF Magazine. Both Brandon Shack-Harris and George Danzer busted early today, which means that the door is now open for someone else to put their name in contention with these two, who each have more than 700 points in the contest. With 104 players who have 200 points in the race, that means there are still dozens of people who could, by virtue of making the final table, put their name alongside the two frontrunners in the contest.6. With Michiel Brummelhuis’ exit on Day 2AB, there are now six players left from last year’s final table in the running to make it back-to-back. Reigning champ Ryan Riess, who did Shuffle Up and Deal honors today, is still in action today, as is Jay Farber, while Amir Lehavot, JC Tran, Sylvain Loosli, and Mark Newhouse will all be in the Day 2C field.7. Nearly seven hours after the scheduled start time of 12pm, Artur Koren took his seat in the Day 2A field. Unfortunately for him, he was detoured on his way to the Rio after falling off his skateboard. He had to make a trip to the hospital for some x-rays on his arm, which is now being housed in a sling. After beginning the day with 68,850, Koren is still in decent shape with right around 60,000 chips.8. While Hall of Famer Mike Sexton is out, eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel and Johnny Chan are repping poker’s most elite fraternity in the Day 2AB field. While Seidel continues to keep his stack in six-figure territory, the man who beat him for the belt in ’88, Chan, is slightly behind him with just a hair over 100,000. 9. If you have any interest in catching some nine-handed final table action on the dinner break, we are currently streaming the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout final table featuring Phil Galfond, Eric Wasserson, and Kory Kilpatrick. Technical difficulties prevented us from recording commentary earlier in the summer, but Wasserson and Kilpatrick graciously joined host David Tuchman recently to lay down audio on this stream, which will eventually end up in our video archive.10. Here are a look at the top ten unofficial chip counts from the dinner break:1. Joe Kuether - 290,9002. Martin Jacobson - 275,0003. Jack Schanbacher - 270,0004. Julio Belluscio - 263,0005. Daniel Wirgau - 255,0006. Kelly Douglas - 243,3007. Joe DeGeorge - 236,5008. Ryan Buckholtz - 224,0009. Bryce Yockey - 216,00010. Mars Callahan - 215,000