The field has to be worried that three of the hottest players in this year’s WSOP are gathering chips in much the same fashion that they did on their way to bracelets already this year.  Phil Ivey (376,000), Greg Mueller (287,300) and Jeff Lisandro (229,300) all have formidable stacks and they way that they have been playing this year, people have to be worried when they take a seat at their tables.

Friday marks the first time that all of the players will be sitting in the same room.  The field got a rest day on Thursday  and everyone comes back fresh for the big run at the final table.  The overall chip leader will be Amir Lehavot (610,500) when they get started again.  He has caught an amazing run of cards and has a 150,000 chip lead over the next closest player.  That is quite amazing at this level of the tournament.  It is actually reminiscent of the run that Jamie Gold put together when he won his championship.  He continue to hold a huge lead throughout as nobody ever seemed to be able to put the hands together that could make a dent in his stack.

Other notable players that still have chips in front of them are Eric Cloutier (383,500), JC Tran (284,600), Kenny Tran (273,000), Justin Bonomo (223,300), Paul Wasicka (184,900), Dutch Boyd (163,600) and Phil Hellmuth (142,900).

Day 3 should see some decent movement as some of the newbies start to get antsy, especially when they are sitting at a table with one of the big name pros.  If any of these players can catch a run of cards, their stack will get humongous as the amateurs seek to be the one that took them out.  Someone like Hellmuth could walk out of the session with well over 1,000,000 in chips if the poker gods are looking down at him in a positive way.

A quick glance throughout the room makes it obvious that there is going to be some serious and at times annoying Poker being played in the second session. Joe Hachem led the list of previous WSOP winners sitting down on this day and that means anyone at his table better be ready to play some serious poker. Hachem is one of the few recent amateur winners that has proven he has the game to play as a professional. While he is at one end of the spectrum, you have the Jamie Gold’s and Chris Moneymakers on the other end.

I can only imagine those that had to sit next to the Brenes clan. Umberto’s displays have become some of the most annoying things in Poker over the last few years and having to deal with his idiotic routine every time he wins a hand is enough to make someone push with 27o. Having to deal with three of them must seem like a day in poker hell. Luckily for the players, they did not fair very well during the first session and we will all be spared the chomping shark on day 2.

Unfortunately for Hachem, the cards would not come on this day and he was not really able to make anything happen. Every time he made a move it seemed as though his opponent was sitting on the cooler cards. His final hand of the tournament was more of the same as he was short stacked and forced to push with KQo and ended up getting called by AKo. The lady never came and Joe was forced to the rail.

All in all, 35 players move on from this session to join the 27 from day 1b to have 62 players vying for 9 seats at the final table. There is still plenty of firepower left at the felt and the next 2 days should be fun to watch.