Chip Leader Kevin 'BeL0WaB0Ve' Saul

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Another Sick Table

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Seat 1: Kristy Gazes Seat 2: Kevin 'BeLOWaBOVe' Saul Seat 3: Only unknown player at table Seat 4: Barny Boatman Seat 5: Herbie Montalbano Seat 6: Brian Rast Seat 7: Joanne "JJ" Liu Seat 8: Adam Weinraub Seat 9: Don Mullis Seat 10: Fred Goldberg This list includes two of the best female tournament players in the world (Gazes and Liu), The chip leader (Saul), former WPT Champ (Weinraub), recent braclet winner (Goldberg), and three other solid professionals.

Haralabos Moving Early

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Haralabos Voulgaris just eliminated an opponent who moved all-in on an ace-high flop with A-7, Haralabos reluctantly called with A-8 which held up and he added about 11,000 to his stack. As he raked in the pot Haralabos admitted, "I almost folded, I knew he had an ace."

Tilly Busts

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Jennifer Tilly has been eliminated from the tournament.

STACKED

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Toughest starting table on Day 2: Seat 1: Mike Matusow Seat 2: David Sklansky Seat 3: David Oppenheim Seat 4: John Gale Seat 5: Joe Sebok ... Seats 6-9: Poor saps that are likely to get crushed

Seat Open!

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Grant Lang makes an early exit from Day 2, barely making it past the first five minutes.

Shuffle Up and Deal!!!

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Day 2 of the Bellagio Cup is offically under way. We are at Level 6 with blinds of 400-800 with a 100 chip ante.

Day 2 Moments Away

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

Finally, we are at Day 3 of the Tournament. After three "Day 1's" players are filling both the DaVinci Room and the main Bellagio Poker room. As we have a group to large to play in one venue (240) they will be split up. Todays action will start at blind level 6 in just a few minutes.

Ending the Starting Days

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante

The last of the stragglers made their way in on the third “Day 1” of the Bellagio Cup III. Day 1C’s attendance eclipsed the other days by over 50 players, with 232 hopefuls filling the Fontana room. Combining the three days totals, the Bellagio Cup III saw attendance of 535 players, creating a prize pool of over $5 million dollars, with the final 100 players getting paid. Capping the payouts is the $1,342,320 first place prize, impressive by any standard, especially considering this tournament is running concurrently with the World Series of Poker Main Event. The start of Day 1C filled the tournament room to capacity as every seat was occupied. Some of the big name pros that were missing the first day made their appearance on this final starting day. Patrik Antonious, Phil 'The Una-Bomber' Laak , Kenna James and the Bellagio Cup’s defending champion, Shannon Shorr, were all in attendance. But the players that were creating the most buzz were two of poker’s royalty, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey. Both showed up fashionably late, over three hours late, to take their seat in the tournament. As always Hellmuth made an impression when he entered the room, adorning a gold full-body NASCAR style jumpsuit. Assuming that the minor “mishap” he experienced with his NASCAR crash didn’t deter him from the racing world, he proudly explained that he had the suit custom made and enjoyed wearing it. Ivey also made an impression in typical Ivey fashion, silently taking his seat, rocking a ridiculously extravagant watch and striking fear into those at his table. Unfortunately for both Phils, neither would last very long as they busted within moments of each other in under an hour of play from when they arrived. Today’s action unfolded similarly to that of yesterdays, where a cautious style of left few eliminations and a tightly packed field atop the leader board. Everyone climbed slowly, as no one topped the 100,000 mark until late in the day. Most known pros that had accumulated decent stacks are closely bunched together between 40,000 – 60,000. They will have an uphill battle to climb if they want to reach chip leader of the three Day 1’s, Kevin 'BeL0WaB0Ve' Saul. The seasoned internet player accumulated 250,000 chips on Day 1A and no one else has even come close to reaching even 200,000. Here are the top 10 chip leaders heading into Day 2: Kevin 'BeL0WaB0Ve' Saul 262,075 Konstantin Puchkoy 180,500 Andreas Hagen 141,850 Ofer Stern 132,525 Gino Yonan 118,425 Robert McLaughlin 117,875 Arkadi Aminov 115,975 Justin Young 108,250 David Oppenheim 100,750 Matthew Casterella 100,100 The remaining players from all three days will converge tomorrow at 12pm; finally we reach Day 2! There are still 240 players left, and since this is only a six day event tomorrow we will have to play down to 36. If this sounds like a lot of players to lose in one day, well, it is. The live updates staff is ramped up to give you an expected 12+ hours of coverage. Some are even saying we may go until the early hours of the morning, meaning those of you on the east coast that follow the action may see who gets eliminated 37th as you eat your breakfast Saturday morning. Who knows? But it will be an exciting day for poker fans and the lucky 240 that get their shot tomorrow. Check back in for all the Day 2 action as we report LIVE from the Bellagio.

Kimberly's Day 1c Recap

Level 26: 50,000-100,000, 1,000 ante