Play began at 12:20pm with the blinds at $400-$800 and $100 running antes, and with everyone hoping to make a rush to the top of the leaderboard there were some heavy clashes within minutes of the start of play.

Joe Hachem was one of the first involved, doubling up when his full house trounced David Oppenheim’s queen high flush, allowing the former WSOP chanp to build his stack back up to the $100,000 mark.

David Oppenheim survived that set back, but a number of big name pros were not so fortunate, with Daniel Negreanu the highest profile casualty of the day. Indeed by the end of play even Joe Hachem’s double up couldn’t stop him from hitting the rail, where he was joined by defending champion Joe Bartholdi, Todd Brunson, Gsvin Smith, Todd Brunson, David Benyamine, and many more.

But while some big names busted out, others struck for the top of the leaderboard, and none more impressively than Phil Hellmuth Jnr. The ten-time WSOP bracelet winner has struggled with results in the World Poker Tour since its inception in 2001 and besides a second WSOP main-event win there is no tournament the ‘poker brat’ would rather win than a WPT title.

And after yesterday it is unlikely he will get a better chance in the near future. Two key hands put him in this position; the first when he made the nut straight to beat his opponents two pair, and the second when he flopped a set of queens to take some $60,000 chips from Dave Rheem. The wins helped push Hellmuth’s stack over the $500,000 mark, meaning he will start Day Three at the top of the leaderboard, not something Hellmuth is used to in the WPT. Given his skill at playing a big stack you’d now have to count the poker brat as a serious contender for the title, even at this early stage.

Another player making headlines yesterday was Roland De Wolfe, the British phenomenon who finished third in this event last year. Roland already has a WPT title and an EPT title to his name, but will be hoping to go two better than this time last year. He scored his biggest pot when he flopped two pair with KQ on a Kd-Qd-2c board and it held up against J.C. Alvarado’s 5d-2d flush draw, and ended the day n second place

In fact by the close of play the top of the leaderbaord was simply crammed with famous professionals, making the likelihood of a star leaden final table a real possibility. And even outside of the top twenty the  likes of Phil Ivey and J.C. Tran are still alive, low on  chips, but far from out of it.

Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looks going into tomorrow:

1 – Phil Hellmtuh - $528,000

2 – Roland de Wolfe - $526,500

3 – Sorel Mizzi - $499,300

4 – Steve Wong - $475,000

5 – Patrik Antonius - $470,000

6 – Paul Wasicka - $440,000

7 – Lee Markholt - $350,000

8 – Anna Wroblewski - $350,000

9 – Sam Farha - $345,000

10 – Marcello Del Grosso - $325,000

Selected:

11 – Daniel Alaei - $310,000

16 – David Oppenheim - $265,000

20 – David “Chip” Reese - $250,000

23 – Freddy Deeb - $240,000

23 – Amir  Vahedi - $240,000

29 – Barny Boatman - $220,000

31 – Ram Vaswani - $215,000