2013 World Series of Poker

Today started with 491 players, just 50 spots off the money. It didn’t take long for the money bubble to burst and eliminations kept up a quick pace throughout the day. The day ended with just 34 of the original 4,497 players. It is James Miller (1,088,000) leading the way with Kenneth Lind (1,057,000) and James McClendon (1,029,000) not far behind. All three players stayed under the radar while quietly accumulating chips to build impressive stacks.

Some of the notables that were lost in the flurry of bust outs include John Strzemp (125th), Young Ji (104th), Robert Varkonyi (73rd) and Dan Heimiller (39th), who busted during the last level of play. Hoyt Corkins (266,000), who placed fourth in this event last year, is looking to better his finish but has his work cut out for him as he sits with a below average chip stack.

The remaining players will be returning tomorrow to the Amazon Room at 11 a.m. battle it out for the first-place prize of $634,809 and a WSOP gold bracelet. Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates and hand-for-hand coverage of the final table. See you back here tomorrow. Good Night from Las Vegas!

Play is done for the evening. Stay tuned for a complete list of chip counts from our remaining players.

If you happened to miss anything that went down in the poker world this week, the PokerNews gals have go you covered. Check out this weeks PokerNews Weekly.

With just twenty more minutes separating our remaining players from an appearance on Day 3 of this Seniors Championship, many are playing cautiously in hopes of ensuring their survival. Fortunately for Michel Bouskila, one player had a prior engagement.

We caught the action on the flop, with the board reading , and Bouskila with an all-in lammer in front of his fairly large stack.

His opponent was standing over his own sizable stack, eyeing Bouskila and the board cards warily.

"I've got somewhere to be tomorrow, I call!," he announced suddenly, turning over .

His read on the hand was right, as he will not be returning to the Rio for tomorrow's final day of play. His rockets had been shot down by Bouskila's for top set.

After the turn and river brought no more bullets on board, the player graciously slid his stack over to Bouskila, wishing his tablemates well as he departed the tournament floor.

When asked what plans were so pressing, the recently defeated player said simply "a golf trip with my buddies," and here's hoping he avoids the hazards there as well as he did through two full days of Senior Championship play.

The tournament director has announced that each table will play exactly four more hands tonight, then players will bag up their chips.

Kimberley Kilroy opened the preflop with action with a raise to 25,000. Mark Kroon then three-bet to 83,000. Everyone folded to Steven Albini in the big blind, who verbally announced a raise. He then put out enough chips to match Kroon's bet, and made no motion to push out any more. Kroon eventually asked what he was doing, since he'd announced raise. Albini apparently didn't notice Kroon had raised and was trying to three-bet over Kilroy's 25,000. Having verbally committed to a raise, Albini pushed out a min-raise to 141,000. Kilroy folded, and Kroon moved all in. Albini said he thought was pot committed, and called, and the players revealed their cards:

Kroon:
Albini:

The flop came , and Albini outdrew Kroon's tens. Kroon was a little upset about the way events unfolded preflop, and Albini was a little self-conscious about misreading the betting before the action got to him. After the hand, he said to us, "I sh** the bed real bad on that hand, and I got bailed out." However, the bailout worked wonders for his stack, and he had 430,000 when the hand was over.

There is 30 minutes left in the day and the players are just two eliminations away from a $3,000 pay jump. As a result, play is slowing down and short stacks are battening down the hatches in hopes of making day 3.

We noticed the unmistakable Oklahoma Johnny Hale buzzing around the tournament floor on his motorized mount, as he graciously congratulated each and every senior still left standing for reaching this late stage of the tournament.

Oklahoma Johnny was kind enough to regale us with a few tales from his storied poker career, and he even showed off the glittering gold bracelet awarded to him by Jack Binion in 1980. When asked what he thinks of a seniors tournament attracting more than 4,400 players, Hale was not surprised in the slightest.

"These players are the lifeblood of poker," he told us. "Their the ones that come to the casino early and start the games, and its their extra money that starts the whole thing going."