Among the faces we have spotted so far include Darryll Fish, Adam Levy, Cord Garcia, Jerry Wong, Jamie Rosen, Tony Ruberto, Zo Karim, Danny Suied, Joe Elpayaa, Jeff Fielder, Andrew Watson, Ylon Schwartz, Sam Taylor, Loni Harwood, Roman Valerstein, Dwyte Pilgrim, Joey Couden, Tristan Wade, Scott Baumstein, Corey Burbick, Lily Kiletto, and Sheddy Siddiqui.

Three of the six Event 7 ($560 No-Limt Hold’em) starting flights are in the books. Friday’s Day 1C field drew 487 entries, 115 of which have punched their tickets to Day 2 on Sunday. The Day 1C chip leader, and now the overall chip leader, is Howard Mash with 398,400. David “Chino” Rheem was the only other player to bag more than 300,000 chips on Friday, finishing with 301,800 and he sits in second place overall.

Here are the top 10 chip counts from Day 1C:

1. Howard Mash – 398,400
2. Chino Rheem – 301,800
3. Neville Darrell – 276,200
4. Brayden Fritzshall – 275,000
5. Josh Palmer – 269,600
6. Blake Whittington – 235,800
7. Chris Jackson – 235,400
8. John DePersio – 211,500
9. Farid Jordan Dhaniani – 199,900
10. Bill Gazes – 197,200

Here’s a quick update on Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better) with the blinds at 8,000-16,000, with limits at 16,000-32,000:

Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  110,000  (3 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  285,000  (8 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  485,000  (15 BB)

As you can see, Aaron Salamon has completely turned it around from where he was when it was four-handed and he was the critical short stack. Now it’s Cory Blum who is dangerously close to the felt.

Just as this update was about to post, Blum got it all in with against Zhen Cai’s .

The board completed to — Cai flopped a flush draw, but Blum flopped a king-high flush that held up to win the pot. Cai doubled up to 172,000.

As the blinds increase to 10,000-20,000 with limits of 20,000-40,000, here are the updated counts:

Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  160,000  (4 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  75,000  (2 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  610,000  (15 BB)

When we last reported on the final table of Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better), there were five players remaining.

But Daniel Genachte was eliminated in fifth place, and the final table was four-handed for a while.

Bob Leff and Aaron Salamon were the two short stacks, until Leff found himself all in during a three-way pot against the two big stacks.

The final board showed , and the players turned over their cards:

Zhen Cai:   (A-3 for a low)
Cory Blum:   (A-5 for a low)
Bob Leff:   (Pair of jacks for the high)

It was a split pot, but since it was three ways, Leff was still able to pick up some much-needed chips.

At that point, the players took a break, and the blinds increased to 6,000-12,000, with limits of 12,000-24,000. Here were the updated counts:

Seat 1.  Bob Leff  –  122,000  (5 BB)
Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  300,000  (12 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  326,000  (13 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  51,000  (2 BB)

Salamon was the clear underdog, but he’s been able to scrap his way back a bit and hold on. Leff wouldn’t be as fortunate.

In his final hand, Leff got it all in with against the of Zhen Cai.

The board came , and Cai made an ace-high flush to win the pot. (There were no possible lows.) Bob Leff was eliminated in fourth place.

Salamon got down to below 40,000, but he doubled up twice to get back into the mix of things, and he’s no longer in critical chip condition.

As the blinds increase to 8,000-16,000 with limits of 16,000-32,000, these are the updated chip counts:

Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  360,000  (11 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  172,000  (5 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  310,000  (9 BB)

And the prizepool still in play:

1st:  $6,926
2nd:  $3,990
3rd:  $2,625

4th:  Bob Leff  $1,785
5th:  Daniel Genachte  –  $1,418

As they take their last break of the day in the third flight of Event 7 ($560 NLHE w/ $1 Million Guarantee), the field has shrunk down to 180 players from a starting field of 487.

The blinds are increasing to 1,000-2,000 with a 200 ante, and the average stack is about 67,500 (33 big blinds).

Here is a look at the top of the leaderboard with one hour left in today’s play:

1.  Blake Whittington  –  305,000  (152 bb)
2.  Howard Mash  –  275,000  (137 bb)
3.  Neville Darrell  –  232,000  (116 bb)
4.  Eric Mishkin  –  222,000  (111 bb)

@RyanRiess1 you better reg for tonight kid. We grind. Hova can wait.

— Cord Garcia (@CordGarcia) August 16, 2013

There are now five players remaining in Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better), and the key hand was a three-way preflop all-in situation.

Marla Crumpler was the short stack and all in from the big blind, against Jonathan Gallin in middle position and Zhen Cai on the button. Here were their cards:

Zhen Cai:
Jonathan Gallin:
Marla Crumpler:

Gallin had the best hand preflop, with A-K on the high side, A-2 on the low side, and a suited king.

But the board came , and Cai paired his seven on the flop to win the high side of both the main pot and the side pot. Cai and Gallin both chopped the low side with A-2, and Crumpler was eliminated in eighth place.

Gallin took a hit in the hand, getting quartered against Cai, and he was eliminated in seventh place a few minutes later.

As this post was being written, Robert Wachtel was eliminated in sixth place. And that’s where the field currently stands.

Here are updated chip counts for the final five players, with the blinds at 5,000-10,000, and the limits at 10,000-20,000:

Seat 1.  Bob Leff  –  85,000  (4 BB)
Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  225,000  (11 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  210,000  (10 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  170,000  (8 BB)
Seat 9.  Daniel Genachte  –  127,000  (6 BB)

6th:  Robert Wachtel  –  $1,103
7th:  Jonathan Gallin  –  $893
8th:  Marla Crumpler  –  $683
9th:  Ronald Brooks  –  $473

The Day 1C field of Event 7 ($560 NLHE w/ $1 Million Guarantee) has dropped down to 207 players with about four hours left to play in this flight. The average chip stack is about 58,800 (49 big blinds).

Event 9 ($150 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Bounties) got underway at 1:00 pm, and attracted a field of 159 players. From the $150 buy-in, $70 goes into the main prizepool, and $50 goes into the bounty prizepool. Every time a player scores a knockout and busts a player, he or she receives $50.

There are currently 44 players remaining, and the average stack is about 21,700 (36 big blinds). The main prizepool has just been released for Event 9:

1st:  $3,559
2nd:  $2,059
3rd:  $1,336
4th:  $918
5th:  $707
6th:  $551
7th:  $434
8th:  $323
9th:  $223
10th-12th:  $184
13th-15th:  $156

After the elimination of Daniel Yanofski in 11th place in Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better), the final ten players combined to a single table.

It didn’t take long before Debbie Mitchell got her short stack all in with against Zhen Cai’s .

The board came , and Cai won the pot by flopping two pair and rivering kings full of threes. Mitchell was eliminated in 10th place.

At that point, the official final table of nine players was set. Here are the updated chip counts with the blinds at 3,000-6,000, and the limits at 6,000-12,000.

Seat 1.  Bob Leff  –  125,000  (10 BB)
Seat 2.  Jonathan Gallin  –  26,000  (2 BB)
Seat 3.  Ronald Brooks  –  75,000  (6 BB)
Seat 4.  Robert Wachtel  –  98,000  (8 BB)
Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  91,000  (7 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  189,000  (15 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  81,000  (6 BB)
Seat 8.  Marla Crumpler  –  85,000  (7 BB)
Seat 9.  Daniel Genachte  –  61,000  (5 BB)

10th:  Debbie Mitchell  –  $368
11th:  Daniel Yanofski  –  $368

There’s an interesting side note regarding Debbie Mitchell and Marla Crumpler.

As they combined to a 10-handed final table, Mitchell let us know that in 2008, she and Crumpler both made the final table of the 2008 WSOP $1,000 Ladies Event. That year, Mitchell busted sixth to earn $47,106, and Crumpler followed her in fifth place to earn $60,101.