After everything that happened on Day 1 of the 2011 World Series of Poker, there would have had to have been a full-scale riot at the Rio to get anywhere near the same level of excitement and intrigue.

As controversy related to Phil Ivey and FullTilt continued to swirl, poker went on as usual at the WSOP. Both of Tuesday’s tournaments came back for critical Day 2 action, while the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event got underway at noon and gave the general poker population their first crack at a gold bracelet.

$1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo

For those players without $25,000 to throw away in one of the hardest fields all Summer, the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo was the first chance to chase the poker dream at the WSOP. A very healthy 925 players signed up on Wednesday, setting a record for the largest field ever for an Omaha Hi-Lo event . Ther will be 90 players making the money, with a min-cash worth $2,809 and the winner netting himself $262,283.

Late registration was a perilous path in this event.  Players who registered late were placed with players who registered immediately before or after them.  For example, one crazy table featured Barry Greenstein, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Amnon Filippi and Mohsin Charania. David Benyamine and Tom “durrrr” Dwan each played this tournament as well as Day 2 of the Heads-Up Championship.

Heading into the dinner break, there are about 530 players left. Play will resume at approximately 8:20 PT.

$25,000 Heads-Up Championship

The players in the round of 32 had to win two matches to survive Day 1, and then they had to win their first match on Day 2 just to get into the money.

The first match to end, in which John Duthie defeated Carlos Mortensen, took over an hour-and-a-half. The last match took over three hours. Everyone is now guaranteed $67,436.

There will be one more round played tonight at 8 pm PT to get down to eight players. Here are the match-ups:

• Tom Dwan vs. Gus Hansen
• Yevginy Timoshenko vs. Olivier Busquet
• Steve Billirakis vs. Matt Marafioti
• John Duthie vs. Eric Froelich
• Jake Cody vs. Jonathan Jaffe
• Anthony Guetti vs. Richard Lyndaker
• Mikhail Smirnov vs. Nikolay Evdakov
• David Paredes vs. Kunimaro Kojo

$500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em

The money bubble of 81 burst just before the end of play on Day 1, with 77 players making it through to Wednesday’s action. The plan at the beginning of the day was to play down to a champion on Day 2, and at the time of this post, there are 17 players left. The winner will take home $82,292, so stay tuned for our upcoming final table report as the first bracelet of the WSOP is awarded. With the new hard stop times in place, a champion may not be crowned until Thursday.

Full Tilt Patches Going the Way of the Dodo

After the chaos of Black Friday, followed by the shocking revelation last night that Phil Ivey was suing Tiltware, it may come as no surprise that members of Team FullTilt stopped wearing their patches. Phil Gordon did not wear a patch on Day 1, and Howarard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Jen Harman and Andy Bloch have yet to be spotted at the Rio. Erick Lindgren and Patrick Antonius were patched up Tuesday, but were not at the Rio Wednesday.

This is where it gets interesting. Erik Seidel and John Juanda were each wearing a patch all day yesterday, but were sans-patch today. Tom “durrrr” Dwan had a patch on for his first round match in the Heads-Up event, but has been without one since. Mike Matusow was wearing a Deepstacks U patch, but no specific FullTilt gear, and Allen Cunningham was patchless, but wearing an “I Busted a Pro on Full Tilt Poker ” t-shirt. The one with the smiling puppy. That leaves the last remaining patched up member of This is where it gets interesting. Erik Seidel and John Juanda were each wearing a patch all day yesterday, but were sans-patch today. Tom Dwan had a patch on for his first round match in the Heads-Up event, but has been without one since. Mike Matusow was wearing a Deepstacks U patch, but no specific FullTilt gear, and Allen Cunningham was patchless, but wearing an “I Busted a Pro on Full Tilt Poker ” t-shirt. The one with the smiling puppy. That leaves the last remaining patched up member of Team FullTilt, Gus Hansen, who may be out of the loop because he had to be woken up to play his match via a phone call from Tom Dwan. While various level pros affiliated with FullTilt continue to wear patches, it will be interesting to see how long they will do so.

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