Gus Hanson continues to play strong and is currently sitting at 725,000 in chips. Vitaly Lunkin is once again putting in a very strong performance and is currently located in the top ten with 560,000. There are still a lot of big names left in this tourney and you will probably continue to see a lot of movement as this is one of the most volatile games you will see. Every game guarantees a lot of action and your chip leader very well may be a short stack within 5 hands. They are going to play this one till the early hours of the morning.

In other tournaments…

The Limit Shootout Event is down to 6 players, but the stacks are fairly even among the top 3. This is another tournament that you can expect to go on for quite a bit tonight and not see a winner until after midnight. The current leader is Greg Mueller with 950,000. Marc Naalden and Millie Shue round out the top three and are both within less than 200,000 of Mueller.

The dinner break has sounded in event 51 and there are still well over 100 players alive. You will not recognize many of the names in this one as a lot of the pros have stayed away from these $1,500 tournaments as the WSOP has played on. Huge fields have given them all problems and they seem to be sticking with the higher buy ins and other poker variations for the time being. They are going to have enough problems in the Main Event so why sit down with this aggravation now. The one big name that is making his way up the leader board is Men Nguyen. We haven’t heard much from him so far this year so this may be his warm-up for next week’s tournament.

The Triple Chance No Limit Event is at full steam and has had a surprising amount of eliminations already. They started with 854 players and are close to 300 eliminations so far. Overall chip stacks are not available, but a quick glance around the room says that a lot of the pros were taking advantage of the ability to have the free triple re-buy and play very aggressively. Don’t be surprised to see some big names on the leader board at the end of the day in this one.

Lemke was on the button with Ad8c and limped in. Quoss, AsQd, made it 360,000 and Lemke immediately made a move on the pot by pushing all in. Quoss made the instacall and the cards were turned over. Lemke was a huge dog, but things got very interesting with a flop of 9hJs10h. If either of the player hit their kicker card, the other one would hit a straight. The turn card was exactly what Quoss did not want to see as a Qc hit, pairing him up but also giving Lemke the straight. A harmless Jd fell on the river and Lemke scooped up the pot and the championship.

Event 16, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Tournament, was packed with big names throughout, but one rose to the top in Jeff Lissandro. He had been putting on a clinic the entire tournament and managed to ride the wave through to the end. He bested a field of 359 players to earn his second bracelet (both coming in 7 Stud events) and $124,959. Here is a recap of the final hand.

Lisandro had the force bet with a 5d showing and Pardey completed the wager with a Kh showing. Lisandro immediately came over the top and got the call from Pardey. Lisandro got a Ks on 4th street to Pardey’s 8s. Lisandro bet after a check from Pardey. Pardey check raised to go all in and LIsandro called. Lisandro was holding a AK which made Pardey turn ghost white. The hand was meant to go Lisandro’s way as he ended up with a flush when all 7 cards were dealt out. Pardey walked with $77,230 for second place.

In other tournaments…

Event 17, Ladies NL Hold’em World Championship, has reached its final table and there will be no movie stars or big names getting the jewelry this year. Lisa Parsons would seem to be the player with the most experience with two previous cashes. When all is said and done, we are going to have yet another first time bracelet winner. Lori Bender leads the way with 643,000 in chips.

The World Championship Omaha HL/8 or Better, Event 18, fell a little short of a final table, but will play through to a winner on Tuesday Night. John Monnette has a significant chip lead with 1,141,000 in his stack, almost double that of the rest of the field. However, he has his work cut out for him as he still has a hungry Daniel Negreanu in the field along with Annie Duke, Daniel Alaei and Toto Leonidas to name a few. This definitely ranks as one of the stronger fields that we have seen get this far in a tournament.

Events 19 and 20 had just gotten underway on Monday and a now familiar name is at the top of one of the leader boards. Brock Parker has taken the momentum from upsetting Daniel Negreanu in the Limit Hold’em event Sunday night. He is currently at 138,900 and in 6th place. There are still plenty of monsters left in the field and with almost 200 players remaining, anything can happen here.