That's all, folks. There are no more preliminary events at the World Series of Poker. If a player hasn't cashed in one yet or still have a seat in one of the two events running today, he is going to have to make his nut in the Main Event.

This is the first day since May that a new WSOP event has not started and most people are taking that day off from the Rio. After several weeks of hard core poker play, everyone is in need of a bit of a break.

The penultimate day finished off with a bit of a splash last night as Chad Brown and Daniel Negreanu racked up a couple more big cashes.

There are still a few PokerStars players left in their seats. Lex Veldhuis, Bill Chen, Grant Levy, and Alexander Kravchenko all made day 2 of the $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event are still working to get their piece of the $1 million first prize.

Thursday hosts the $5,000 Ante Up For Africa charity tournament. Then, one day later, we're in the thick of it. The Main Event begins on Friday and will run for the next two weeks.

Good luck to PokerStars players who still have a chance at some prelim event money. And to the rest of you, get some rest. It's going to be a big couple of weeks.

Brad Willis with the latest from the Amazon Room...

Last night at this time we were reporting that Daniel Negreanu had just hit his seventh cash of the year.

Now we can report he's posted his eighth.

Negreanu has been multi-tabling the 2-7 game and $5,000 short-handed event all day long. Just a little bit ago, Negreanu made it into the money on the 2-7 game.

Kid Poker has now made it down to the final three tables and is gunning for another final table. We'll let you know how he makes out.

Good luck, Daniel.

Update: Shortly after we posted this report, Negreanu was eliminated in 16th place.

Team PokerStars Pro announced today that it has signed to its stable two rock stars of the modern poker world.

In one fell swoop, Team PokerStars Pro pulled in longtime tournament veteran Marcel Luske and prolific young gun Jason Mercier.

Known around the world as 'The Flying Dutchman,' Luske is a household name in European poker. Just last year he won the European Poker Awards' Lifetime Achievment Award.

Known for his sartorial elegance and distinctive singing voice at the poker tables, Luske was ranked Europe's top poker pro in both 2001 and 2003. In 2004, Luske went to the World Series of Poker and became an international star after a tenth place run in the main event.

Now, at long last, the longtime friend of PokerStars players and mentor to Team Pro Noah Boeken has come home to roost. Luske is now officially a member of Team Pro. Count on seeing him a lot in the coming season of the European Poker Tour.

Luske is joined by one of the hottest poker players on the circuit today. Mercier, a 22-year-old poker pro from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has put together $3.2 million live tourney cashes since his first tourney appearance at the 2008 PCA.

Mercier first came to the attention of the international poker community when he took down the Season Four PokerStars EPT San Remo event for $1,372,893. Only a few months later, he finished sixth at the PokerStars EPT Season Five event in Barcelona, earning $324,946. Just the next month, he took downPokerStars EPT London £1 Million Showdown High Roller tournament for $944,847.

Yeah. Seriously. He is that good.

As if that wasn't enough, just a few weeks back, Mercier did something people wait a lifetime to achieve. He won his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tourney for $237,415.

After all of that, you would think nothing could make Mercier any happier. Not so.

"Becoming a member of Team PokerStars Pro means a lot to me," he said. "I'm so excited to be playing for the site I first started playing on. I feel like this solidifies my standing as one of the top poker players' around."

The PokerStars Blog would like to welcome both players to Team Pro. We look forward to continuing to cover you for years to come.

Anyone who's been following the World Series updates on the PokerStars blog will have noticed the build up in tension as June turns to July. For those new to poker you're about to feel its full force for the first time. There's nothing like it.

While World Championship events have crowned new winners in the Amazon Room of the Rio hotel in Las Vegas, and events like the $50,000 HORSE event thunder towards a conclusion, the main event is about to loom over the horizon - the $10,000 buy in tournament that has shaped the poker calendar in all its 30 years of incarnations.

Thousand will play it - a number never accurate until every last name has been counted and the order to shuffle up and deal yelled across the tournament floor - but we know it's big and that means large amounts of money at stake.

If you can't play it then you're looking for the next best thing - the best place to follow the action online. That's where the PokerStars.net blog comes in - the place for daily reports on all the events taking place with the best writing and the best pictures from the business end of the world's greatest poker tournament.

It all starts on Friday with the first of four "day ones." It's about to get serious. See you there.

Brad Willis reports from the World Series...

It was not to be, apparently, for Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown.

Seeking his first-ever WSOP bracelet to mix with his more than $2.3 million in lifetime tournament winnings, Brown came into day 3 of the $1,500 Stud-8 event with the chip lead and a plan to take it down. He was still among the chip leaders when they reached the eight-handed final table. From there, nothing good happened.

Bricks, big limits, and second-bests ground Brown's stack down to a do-or-die situation. Before long, he was forced into a hand with Costa Rican stud kingpin Max Stern. By the river, Stern had made two pair with no low to Brown's ace-high with no low.

The fourth place finish puts another $44,000 in Brown's pocket. It's not a bracelet, but it's not bad.

If anything, we can take heart in the fact Max Stern (seen above next to Brown) is still alive and kicking three-handed in the same event. Stern is a good friend to the PokerStars Blog and we wish him all the luck in the world. If he could win today, it would be his fourth WSOP bracelet.

More from the Amazon Room at the World Series...

Daniel Negreanu may be a lot of things, but a tragic figure he is not.

Shakespeare would have a field day in building full of tragic tales. They may not end with star-crossed lovers offing themselves or a crazed prince speaking to a skull, but they often end with as many tears. The saddest of the tales usually begin with the words, "I've played 16 events" and end with "I haven't cashed once." If it weren't so common, it would be enough to make a jaded poker writer blubber all over his keyboard.

In a world of tragedy, Negreanu is the court jester. Having just busted out of the $1,500 Stud-8 tournament, he could very easily be cranky about not having a shot at another bracelet. Instead, he's happy to report his seventh in-the-money finish. So happy, in fact, he's walked the few dozen feet to the back of the Brasilia Room to play in the 2-7 tourney. The money didn't mean much (in fact, Negreanu earned more from his last longer with Chris Reslock than he did for making it into the cash). It was just some more padding on the Negreanu legend.

Just behind him, Barry Greenstein slipped out for the same money and, coincidentally, his seventh cash as well. He started four to a wheel and bricked the rest of the way too many times. He was hot on Negreanu's heels and is sitting in the 2-7 event, too.

Meanwhile in the same event, Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown is threatening to make his second final table of this year's Series. He already has a third place finish in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship for more than $188,000. At this hour, with 37 players remaining, Brown is among the top five chip leaders.

Down the hall here in the Amazon Room, Team PokerStars Pros Christian De Leon and Johnny Lodden are both still alive in the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Triple Chance tourney. With 63 players left, both men are already guaranteed twice their buy-in with a shot at the half million dollar first prize.

Hold that thought: Seconds after we hit publish, De Leon and Lodden both busted out of the $3,000 Triple Chance event for $8,037. Congrats, guys.

Brad Willis reports on Event 53 at the World Series...

The rail at the $1,500 is the thicker than you'd expect for a limit, split pot Stud game. Normally at a rail for that kind of event, you'd have two people watching and one of them would only be there because he thought they were giving out free soup.

Today, though, the cream is sitting on top (not to mention right on the rail). The $1,500 Stud-8 Day 2 field is packed full of name pros, notably Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown, and Daniel Negreanu. Accordingly, the rail is two and three deep with fans.

For a lot of people (and, let's be honest, especially Stud players) all the attention would be a little more than annoying. Team Pro Negreanu, however, is taking it in stride, despite referring to how he's running as, ahem, "like ass."

Between every hand, Kid Poker is joining in conversations on the rail, standing up for photos, and signing autographs, No sooner has he made it back to the table than he peeks at his hole cards and declares, "I'm gonna raise THAT guy." He bricks a couple of cards, folds to a bet, and back to the rail. Back to the table and then, "I'm going to raise that guy, again!"

This time he gets a different caller. A couple of streets go by and Negreanu's hand has barely improved. Even an amateur on the rail can tell his opponent is holding the wheel, so it's particularly funny when the guy checks to Negreanu.

"You're checking?" Negreanu laughs. He checks behind, bricks again, and pulls off his hat. He pretends to shoot himself in the head, hits himself in the forehead with his hat four times, and folds.

All the bricks should be enough to put Negreanu into an ugly funk. Instead he hops up and heads toward a pretty blonde on the rail. "Ready for me?" She smiles widely and steps in to have her picture taken. That opens the flood gates. Suddenly, ten people are crowding in.

"It's my 40th birthday!" a woman implores with camera in hand.

Negreanu glances over his shoulder to make sure he won't miss a hand and then smiles for the camera. And then another. And another. One woman is holding more cameras than seems reasonable.

"How many do you have?" Negreanu asks. Then he counts them, "One, two, three, four, five?"

He manages to fit in a picture with every one of them before noticing the dealer is about to shuffle. He double times it back to the table, calling over his shoulder, "I gotta get back. They've got rules around here!"

All three Team Pros are still alive at the dinner break with fifty players remaining.

Brad Willis reports on the latest from Event 49 at the World Series...

Bill Chen needed a miracle. He needed a rush of cards. He needed something other than a chop. The man needed some cards and he didn't get them.

Only a few players off the money, Chen was down to his last few bets. He knew there was no such thing as turtling his way to the money. He wasn't going to survive five bustouts, so he put himself in action.

The first hand was the real crippler. Chen raised pre-flop in the Omaha/8 round and got a call in the big blind from Vitaly Lunkin. The flop came down [2d][5c][2s]. Lunkin check-called a bet and they saw the [5d] on the turn. Now, Lunkin led at Chen, who called. With less than 20,000 behind (less that a full bet), Chen folded to the [Qh] on the river.

On the very next hand, Chen got it all in again after a raise from Brett Richey. Huck Seed called in the big blind and they saw a flop of [4d][6c][2c]. Seed checked, Richey bet, and Seed looked at him with a little disdain. With a player all-in, Seed didn't like to see Richey betting. Seed folded to see Richey only held [Ah][3d][8s][9c], good enough for the nut low, but little else, and not enough by the river to beat Chen's [As][3c][Th][7h]. Chen got three quarters of the pot to stay alive. The table was not pleased.

Still, Chen barely had any chips and got it all in on third street in a subsequent hand of Razz with [9d][8s][Ad]. From there it was brick city, leaving him with no better than a T-9. With that, the last surviving member of the PokerStars stable was eliminated from the $50,000 HORSE event.

It was a tough day in the Amazon Room, but hope springs eternal--or at least for another few events. This week will see a few more bracelet tournaments, the Ante Up For Africa charity event, and finally the $10,000 Main Event beginning on Friday.

Of course, we'll be here for it all and report all the news that's fit to blog, and perhaps a bit more.

Brad Willis, working the rock face in the Amazon room, reports on the HORSE event at the end of the first day...

It's hard to fully define what Day 1 of the $50,000 HORSE means. It takes an incredible amount of Run Bad or some equally terrible play to get eliminated. It's not that Day 1 means nothing, but nobody will be hitting the Dom to celebrate making it to Day 2. With another four days of play before we crown a champion, today wasn't so much important as it simply was.

If there is a headline to print, though, it is that every member of the PokerStars stable who started the day will be joining us here for Day 2.

After finishing fifth in the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em event, Barry Greenstein made it over to the day's biggest tournament. He is working to be the only person to cash in every $50,000 HORSE tournament since it began in 2006. After losing 16,000 chips to blinds and antes while he was at the other final table, Greenstein finished with 151,500.

Daniel Negreanu, who helped conceive this event in 2006, started strong today. He's cashed in this event once before, and is looking to make it happen again. By night's end he was still rocking, rolling, and entertaining the crowd. When the clock hit zero, his stack sat at an impressive 204,100.

Across the room, Greg Raymer is working to get second $50,000 HORSE event cash, too. He had a rocky day, but managed to end the day on 123,900.

Bill Chen, Chad Brown, and Alexander Kravchenko are all in search of their first money finish in this tournament. They all still have a shot. Chen is sitting on 208,400. Brown finished with 165,000. Kravchenko will go into Day 2 with 234,400.

Ninety-one players will return for Day 2. Because another giant $1,500 no-limit hold'em event is scheduled to kick off tomorrow, the $50,000 HORSE event has been pushed back to a 4pm Pacific Time start. So, we'll catch a nap and be back with full coverage of Day 2 at that time.

Photos by Joe Giron/IMPDI Worldwide

Brad Willis reports on the first day of the HORSE...

After an initial slow start during which time we couldn't tell exactly who was playing the $50,000 HORSE World Championship and who was not, we now have a clearer picture of the event.

When registration closed this afternoon, 95 total players had signed up for the event. While not quite the 148 players the event has seen the past couple of years, it still will pay out more than a million bucks to the winner. Sixteen runners will walk away with cash. The eventual champion will bank $1,276,802.

Team PokerStars Pro is represented by some of the top players in the stable. Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Chad Brown, Alex Kravchenko, and Barry Greenstein are all in action today. They are joined by Friend of PokerStars Bill Chen.

Greenstein is essentially freerolling the event. Having just won $57,000 in the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em tourney, Greenstein is now getting a chance to play the big one without any significant ding to his bankroll. As it turned out, the HORSE event went on dinner break just as he finished on the other final table. As he put it on his Twitter account, "On dinner break of the 50k HORSE, #wsop49. I have 134k from my original 150. Haven't yet played a hand."

Of all the Team Pros in the field, Negreanu went into the dinner break with the best of it. He's up to 195,000 after three levels of play.

All 95 players managed to survive until the dinner break. With five days of play, this HORSE event is in no danger of breaking major news tonight. Slow and steady, as they say.