FBT Takes a Hit

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

Greg Mueller calls the all in bet of his opponent and shows AK, but will need some help as he is up against KK. The board comes AKJ Mueller top two pair, but a set of kings for his opponent. The turn is the 7 and the river is the 5 doubling up Mueller's opponent and leaving him with only T20,000.

Pro Player Blog: by Joe Pelton - Day Two Intro

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

Joe Pelton is the champion of the Legends Event at the Bicycle Casino this past August and finished 3rd at the Festa Al Lago tournament at the Bellagio in October. He is currently one of the front runners for WPT Season 5's Player of the Year Award. Soon we will be introducing a Professional Player Blog within Live Updates. These blogs will feature the pro's names and pictures ala Gary Wise's Wise Thoughts. Paul Wasicka is another young pro who will join our core. More to follow. Below is Joe Pelton's Day Two Intro Blog from the World Poker Challenge here at Reno. Enjoy! Day 2 Intro: It's not talked about much but poker tournaments are often won and lost with table draw. Aggressive players with big stacks can really punish middling stacks like I am going into the day. If I have Joe Sebok, Mark Seif and David Pham on my left today, I'll have no hope other than picking up numerous big hands and hoping they hold up. But if I end up with some inexperienced players at my table and no big stacks I'll have a fighting chance regardless of what my cards are.

Shuffle Up and Deal

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

The players are in their seats and the cards are in the air for the start of Day 2! Keep it here at worldpokertour.com all day long as we bring you chip counts, live updates, and blogs. The remaining 88 players will play down to 27 and the money bubble will burst when the 46th player is eliminated.

Pro Player Blog: by Joe Pelton

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

Joe Pelton is the champion of the Legends Event at the Bicycle Casino this past August and finished 3rd at the Festa Al Lago tournament at the Bellagio in October. He is currently one of the front runners for WPT Season 5's Player of the Year Award. Soon we will be introducing a Professional Player Blog within Live Updates. These blogs will feature the pro's names and pictures ala Gary Wise's Wise Thoughts. Paul Wasicka is another young pro who will join our core. More to follow. Below is Joe Pelton's end of day one blog from the World Poker Challenge here at Reno. Enjoy! Day 1 end: I promise myself every tournament that I'm not going to make any wild bluffs....then someone like Brandon Cantu comes to the table with a mountain of chips and raises my big blind every round. Eventually re-raising him with 67 (or anything at all really) seems like a good idea. So with the blinds at 600-1200-200, Brandon makes it 3,800 from the cutoff. I make it 15k from the big blind with the 67 He thought about .6 seconds and moved all in (having me well covered) I thought barely more than that before folding rather disgusted with myself. Thankfully I later busted a player with JJ vs 10-10 all in preflop for a 25k pot and ended the day back up around 42k. We players like to think that its skill that gets me all in Kings vs Queens and Jacks vs Tens in my 2 biggest pots of the day but its mostly luck.

Day 2 about to begin

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

Players are slowly making their way into the casino poker area. 88 players remain. We'll be playing down to 27 players today. Shuffle up and deal kicks off 12pm PST. Stay tuned!

Day 2 - Monday at 12pm PST

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

All the action from the World Poker Challenge in Reno continues on Monday at 12pm PST. Stay right here at WorldPokerTour.com; the official Live Updates coverage of the World Poker Tour.

Day 1 Recap

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

It’s been a very long day. At twelve o’clock noon today, 475 players gathered to start day 1 of the World Poker challenge in Reno. Now, over thirteen hours later, we’re down to the double digits. Almost 400 players have been eliminated thanks in large part to T10,000 starting stacks and a progressive blind structure that saw antes introduced in the fourth level of play. Our chip leader by a wide margin is David Pham. While the field wilted around him to the hours and the smoke, Pham was resiliant, taking stacks left and right. He enters day two with a massive lead. A number of other faces have stacks worth watching. Amongst those players six-figure totals are Mark Seif, David Williams and Devin Porter. They'll be joined by the likes of Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein and JC Tran on day two. On Monday, we start back up at twelve noon PST as our remaining players work their way down to twenty-seven. With the money bubble at forty-five, we expect some high drama. Be sure to check back here for all of your coverage needs. Until then, go to sleep.

Video Blog - End of Day One

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

Video Blog - End of Day One

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

Simon Bakes Up Some Tilt

Level 8: 200,000-400,000, 50,000 ante

On a board of AA7K seat seven bets T5,000 from middle position and Mike Simon makes the call. The river card is the 2 and seat seven fires out another T10,000. Simon calls and his opponent flips over the A8. Simon then flips over the Q10 and seat seven goes on tilt. Simon says, "Ship it!" as his opponent gets up from the table, throws his hat on the ground, and walks out of the tournament area. He then returns and says, "nice hand." To which, Simon replies, "you should have bet me off on the turn." Simon now has T58,000 and his opponent is down to T42,000.