Poker: Wsop Day 2B

Just short of 1 500 entrants started the World Series of Poker Main Event action around noon in Vegas Tuesday as Day 2B kicked off at the Rio, with many highly recognisable names among the packed tables.

By 12.45am early Wednesday morning - just short of 12 hours and five levels later - the field was down to 630 survivors, all of whom will now go forward to the merged field on July 10th for Day 3.

Unofficial chip counts suggest that Eric Cloutier held the lead at the end of Day 2B play with around 384 000, but at least seven other players were over the 300 000 chip mark when officials called it a day. Among them were Greg Mueller, Brandon Demes and Ed Perry.

Missed this year, want to qualify early for the 2010 Wsop. Bodog Poker is already running qualifiers.

Celeb Brad Garrett of 'Everyone Loves Raymond' fame lasted well into the night until busted out on a failed all in call. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander, who started with a very useful 90 000 in chips, was still in the hunt.

The list of big names eliminated is almost as interesting as those that have survived, however.

Losing their Main Event dreams this year were Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen, Sandra Naujoks, Johnny Chan, Jon "PearlJammed" Turner, Johannes Strassmann, Barry Shulman, Jennifer Tilly, Brian Townsend, Jerrod Ankenman, Phil Laak, Sam Khouiss, John Hennigan, 97-year old Jack Ury, Tony G, Matt Woodward, Raymond Davis, Jason Mercier, Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan, Shaun Deeb, Lex Veldhuis, Hoyt Corkins, Erik Cajelais, Mel Judah, Wendeen Eolis, Billy "The Croc" Argyros, Mike Matusow, Bill Sineath, Gavin Smith, Amarillo Slim Preston, Dewey Tomko, Juha Helppi, Mike Gracz, Todd Brunson and Alex Kravchenko.

Cryptologic 14 top games to be provided to Loto-Quebec - 02/08/2012 : The companies have signed a multi-year agreement that will see Cryptologic providing a portfolio of quality games to the Societe du jeu virtuel du Quebec, the online gaming division of the provincial state lottery corporation Loto-Quebec, known as Espacejeux.

Utah : Online Gambling : HB108 - 02/08/2012 : An intrastate attempt by Utah politician Stephen Sandstrom to introduce state legislation banning any legalisation of internet gambling has failed at the start gate.

MORE U.S. DISCUSSION ON INTERNET GAMBLING DUE THIS WEEK - 02/08/2012 : Interest in online gambling in the United States is set to continue on Thursday this week when the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs meets to hear the views of a wide cross section of interested parties on the possible impact of legalised internet gambling on tribal gaming.

Judge wont dismiss DoJ Black Friday charges - 02/08/2012 : Former Utah banker John Campos and e-processor Chad Elie, who face charges relating to the payment processing of online poker transactions, suffered a setback Tuesday when a Manhattan judge refused to allow their motion for dismissal of Black Friday indictments against them.

ANOTHER MAJOR INTERNET GAMBLING BUST IN MALAYSIA - 02/08/2012 : Police units in Malaysia raided a series of premises in a week long anti-online gambling operation, seizing 225 computers and detaining 47 men, according to reports from the Bernama news agency. All of the detained men were later released on bail.