Wsop Day 1b of event 54

Day 1b of event 54, a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em competition played down Friday, setting the scene for a combined field for Day 2.
 
The Day 1b field was smaller than the first day in this event, but still attracted 1,504 entries, making total registrations for the event 3,844 entrants, and generating  a mouth watering prize pool of $3,459,000.
 
On the ‘who’s here’ list for the day was Pat Pezzin, Raymond Rahme, J.C. Tran, John Monnette, Barry Shulman, Men Nguyen, Chris Moneymaker, Wiliams, Phil Ivey and Valdemar Kwaysser, along with a slew of other famous faces.
 
Day 1b was bagged and completed at level 9 late Friday night with 602 players remaining and average chip stacks at 19,156. Andrew Talbot held the lead on 71 075, way short of the substantial lead built up in Day 1a by UK player James Dempsey on 140 000.
 
The survivors of both initial days will join together in Day 2 action Saturday afternoon to see who makes the final table, and more importantly who gets the bracelet and the $570,960 first prize. The cash bubble is at elimination 396.