October 21 2012, Donnie Peters

Day 1b of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at the Horseshoe Hammond Casino attracted 677 entrants. Play was undoubtedly slower during the second starting flight, but Phillip Liou still managed to bag up a lot of chips. He finished the day with 347,500 and topped the pack. Not only did Liou top the approximate 150 players that survived Day 1b, but he also eclipsed the mark of 276,100 in chips set by Mike Leah on Day 1a.

The field didn’t quite reach the 835 entries from Day 1a, but there were still plenty of notables in the mix. Some of the names in action were WSOP gold bracelet winners Robert Mizrachi and Michael Mizrachi, Robert Cheung, Brian Hastings, Bob Slezak, Gavin Smith and Nick Jivkov. All of them were eliminated, though, and Michael Mizrachi went home the earliest.

Despite being the most recognizable name in the field, Mizrachi’s trip to Hammond only lasted about a half an hour into Level 3 before he eliminated by Ghaleb Zayed.

From under the gun, Zayed raised to 425 with the blinds at 75/150. Mizrachi was next to act and made the call. Everyone else folded, prompting a flop from the dealer. Zayed bet 425, and Mizrachi raised all in for a little under 4,000. Zayed quickly called with top set – – and Mizrachi’s were in bad shape. The turn brought the and river the to send Mizrachi to the rail.

Chad Brown, Victor Ramdin, Jean Gaspard, Matt Brady, Allen Kessler and Matt Affleck were also bounced to the rail as the field was whittled down over the course of the day.

Gaspard went out after his lost to an opponent’s . The money went in on a flop of , and the board ran out with the , . Kessler was seated with Gaspard for a bit of the day, but busted later on when his couldn’t come from behind against an opponent’s pocket kings.

Of those to advance from Day 1b’s field were Blair Hinkle, Eddie Ochana, AJ Jejelowo, Hiren “Sunny” Patel, Faraz Jaka, Joseph Elpayaa, Ryan Julius and Tom Koral.

Patel and Jaka were always toward the top of the pack on the day, jumping in and out of the chip lead at times. Julius was grinding for the better part of the day, but landed a key double up towards the end of the night when his pocket aces held up against an opponent’s pocket nines. All of those players will be amongst those returning to join up with the remaining 170 players from the first starting flight for Sunday’s Day 2.

On Day 2, the cards will be in the air at 1200 CDT (2000 CEST). Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2, allowing players who haven’t entered, or those who have only fired one bullet, to get into the action with 20,000 in starting chips. PokerNews will be back on Sunday with all of the live coverage and we hope to have you around then.

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