Day 1b Concludes with Liou On Top
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Day 1b of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at the Horseshoe Hammond attracted 677 runners. Play was undoubtedly slower during the second starting flight, but Phillip Liou still managed to bag up bunches of chips. He finished the day on 347,500 and topped the pack.
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 and Michael Mizrachi, Robert Cheung, Brian Hastings, Bob Slezak, Gavin Smith and Nick Jivkov. All of them were eliminated, though, and it was Michael Mizrachi going home the earliest.
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 — 
— to have Mizrachi's 
in bad shape. The turn came 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.
Of those to advance from Day 1b's field were Eddie Ochana, Faraz Jaka, Joseph Elpayaa, Ryan Julius and Tom Koral. They'll be amongst those returning to join up with the remaining 170 players from the first starting flight for Sunday's Day 2.
Speaking of that Day 2, the cards will be in the air at noon local time. 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.