The play is astonishingly fast. Despite an average stack of nearly 30 big blinds, a large proportion of hands result in all-in confrontations. At a few of the tables, the play is absolutely dizzying.

At Allen Cunningham’s table, the pace is a little slower. The big stacks have managed to get pretty lucky and are now quite formidable. Paul Wasicka, an online pro, picked up a multi-way draw against a pair of Aces, and took down a massive pot when he made a straight on the river, eliminating an opponent. Just before the end of the level, one player was sent to the rail after making a very tough call, then falling victim to a three-outer.

Alllen has played few pots and can’t seem to find a hand. He’s got a very good player, WeiKei Chang, to his left. Chang has a big stack and has re-raised Allen a couple of times, when Allen open-raised. Allen has folded to the pressure.

Allen is down to about 500k, but it is not the first time he’s been short-stacked in the tournament. With a little luck he could be right back in the think of it.

At Allen Cunningham’s table, the following hand was just played. It wasn’t the largest of the tournament – but it was among the strangest.

All players in the hand, with the exception of the big blind, had deep stacks – over 1.5 Million.

With blinds of 8k/16k with a 2k ante, a player in early position raised to 50k. A middle position player and a late position player both called. The big blind then moved in for 200k. The early position player thought, then called.

Both the middle position player and the late position player then called as well, creating a massive pot.

The flop came Kd 6c 4s and the early position player bet out 200k. At this point the big blind looked stricken, as if he must be drawing dead. Both players with chips folded, and the early position player tabled K-8, which was a complete shock to all of us on the rail.

The big blind then perked up; he tabled his A-J, and was happy enough that he wasn’t drawing dead.

The turn and river were blanks, and K-8 took a massive pot.

The 135 remaining players started today with blinds of 6k/12k and an ante of 2k. The play continued to move fast, with frequent all-ins. In the two-hour level, 30 players busted, leaving us with 103 players. The average stack is now just over 800k.

Allen Cunningham, after flirting with the felt for hours yesterday, has managed to build his stack to over 900k. In today’s play, Allen was extremely quiet. He was involved in only a five pots and saw only two flops. He took both of those pots, one a blind-vs.-blind confrontation where he bet out the flop; in the other, he bet when an Ace appeared on the river.

I’ll be following Allen for the next levels and will give updates on his progress.

Sabyl Cohen, the Full Tilt qualifier, had dropped to under 500k. But she continued her game – playing tight and waiting for good opportunities. Then it came. She raised from late position and was re-raised from the big blind. She moved in and was called. Her Aces were up against Ace-King, and now Sabyl has nearly 1 Million.

Some stacks are still very short, and we can expect a number of all-in moves in the following levels.

Today 135 players remain in the Main Event. A look at the leader board shows that only a half dozen of these players have names familiar to the poker world. The rest are online qualifiers, unknowns, who have never played in situations as fraught and intense as they will encounter today.

Eighteen years ago, an unknown named Erik Seidel went deep in the Main Event. It was his first poker tournament. I caught up with Erik today and had a quick chat with him about his experiences.

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Stacks continue to consolidate, with some players now possessing more than 1,000,000 in chips. Players are dropping far faster than tournament organizers expected. At last count, 255 players remained. The plan for the day was to play to 300. We could still have another 5 or 6 hours of poker ahead of us.

What’s most notable right now is that the big names are either treading water or sinking. David Chiu, who was among the chips leaders for almost a full day, lost almost all of his 700k stack. At one point he was under 100,000 chips, but bounced back to 300k.

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Yesterday, I reported that Paul Wolfe disappeared after a couple of days of patient play on the short stack and resurgence just before the dinner break. Then he was gone.

Today I caught up with Paul, and heard about his final hand. Here’s how Paul described the play:

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Aaron is over 500k after taking another pot with a pre-flop re-raise. In the middle of the last level he described his table as “tough,” but observed that his opponents are giving him—and his stack—the proper respect.

The smile on his face remains. I asked him about his demeanor, and he said, “Poker’s fun. If I was going to take it super seriously I’d have stayed in college and gotten a real job.”

How are the pros who’ve busted out of the available tournaments pass their time?

Well, in the Full Tilt Suite today, Mark Vos, Andy Bloch and Richard Brodie are playing “Degenerate Omaha hi/lo.” (The name was given by Brodie.) Here’s how you play: deal out the starting hands face up. Deal the flop, one card at a time, then the turn and river. Cheer heartily for your cards draws.

The high hand and low are both worth 100.

So far, Vos is stuck a few hundred.

I’m thinking of getting in the game. I think I have an edge.

Update: The stakes have gone up. There’s now a $200 per hand ante and $400 goes to both the high and the low. Brodie is getting cold-decked and is badly stuck. I’ve decided not to play.

The day started well for Aaron Bartley. As I came by his table, he was raking a pot. After a count of his chips he told me he was at 460k, which put him in the top 30 overall. When I asked him what happened in the previous hand, he said, “a guy bet out for half his stack and I pushed. He folded.” He didn’t have time to go into the details, as a new hand was starting.

The situation looks favorable for Bartley. There are no recognizable players at his table, and the other two people with more than 200k are to his right.

Bartley is active, playing a number pots. In less than an orbit, he raised a hand, called a raise and limped behind an early position limper. He’s also gotten lucky. In the hand that he raised preflop, he was called by the big blind. It appeared he was behind until he hit his set on the river. He got paid nicely on his river value bet.

He’s also pleasant, chatting with his tablemates. Around the room, there are near constant cries of “All in and call.” ESPN is trying to catch most every all-in confrontation on tape. Listening to the cries, Bartley encouraged action, saying, “we have to catch up.”

Paul Wolfe is about as likeable a guy as you’ll ever meet. I’ve never seen him without a smile on his face. At the table he’s chatty and seems happy to be sharing time with his tablemates.

At today’s dinner break, Paul was in high spirits. He’d been on a short stack for almost two full days of play. Just prior to dinner he’d managed to pick up a couple of pots and finally had a little room to breathe. He had about 100k, and he liked the way the table was shaping up. One player at this table, he said, was playing horribly, blasting off chips. Another player, a man with a big stack, had betrayed a tell he thought he could take advantage of.

I went to sweat Paul after dinner, to see if he could continue his ascension. About fifteen minutes into the level, I waded through the masses and made my way to his table.

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