March 12 2012, Paul Oresteen

When Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Atlantic City Main Event ended, only 22 players remained of the 300-plus who began the day. Ryan Higgins will enter Day 3 as the chip leader with 1.477 million.

Chasing the only seven-figure stack are Aaron Overton (955,000) and Justin Liberto (893,000). Also moving on to Day 3 are Roland Israel (675,000) and John Andress (548,000). Israel won this event in 2010, and both he and Andress made the final table in this event last year, with Andress turning in an eighth-place finish.

Also returning for Day 3 are Garry Gates (805,000), Josh Brikis (354,000), Edward Pham (578,000) and Tyler Kenney (446,000).

The beginning of the day saw swift action with players busting at a quick rate and the field was only a handful of players away from the money bubble when the dinner break hit.

It was a day of attrition with a slew of notables hitting the rail, including; Dwyte Pilgrim, Jacob Bazeley, Christian Harder, Andy Frankenberger, Lee Childs, Sirous Jamshidi, Matt Glantz, Kurt Jewell, Wendeen Eolis, Anthony Gregg and Ari Engel.

Midway through the day, the WSOP decided to boot up the live stream at the feature table due to the number of accomplished players seated at the table. Josh Brikis, David Fox, Garry Gates, Manh Nguyen and Edward Pham were all deep stacked. This was the first instance this season a non-final table was streamed. But the poker gods would not have it. Five minutes after going live, the spotlight on the table burned out and couldn’t be fixed easily. The table broke with a collective sigh of relief.

For almost the whole evening, no single player was able to pull away from the field. The chip lead changed multiple times, and as many as a dozen different players held the lead at one time or another following the dinner break.

Day 3 action will get underway at 1200 EST (1600 GMT) and will continue until a Main Event champion is crowned. Watch the live streaming final table on WSOP.com and follow all the action on PokerNews.

WSOPC Atlantic City Top 10 Chip Counts

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March 10 2012, Chad Holloway

March 1 marked the start of the World Series of Poker Circuit’s latest stop, which is happening at Caesars Atlantic City. The 12-ring event stop, which runs through March 12, is among the most anticipated tournament series on the East Coast, as evidenced by attractive numbers in the preliminary events.

The stop will culminate in the $1,600 Main Event beginning on March 10, but there were a number of motivating stories that developed throughout the prelims, though none more interesting than that of Brandon Croft, a 31-year-old recreational player from Sumter, South Carolina.

Croft’s story began in Event #3: $555 No-Limit Hold’em, which attracted 253 players and created a prize pool of $122,705. Croft managed to navigate the field and captured his first WSOP Circuit ring, not to mention the $30,062 first-place prize.

A few days later in Event #5: $555 NLHE, which drew 263 entrants and created a prize pool of $127,555. Croft was at it again. He certainly had momentum and experience as the event was the same buy-in and nearly the same size as his previous win, so watching him capture the gold ring was basically déjà vu.

That win made Croft an early favorite, if not a virtual lock, to claim the Caesars Atlantic City Casino Championship, which would qualify him for the National Championship along with the eventual winner of the Main Event.

Here’s a look at the WSOP Circuit Caesars Atlantic City events completed thus far: