The World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Palace main event, the second to last WSOP Circuit major tournament before the start of the 2010 World Series of Poker, began yesterday, with a large contingent of top pros sitting down to compete.

150 entrants in all chose to take part in this $5,150 buy-in Circuit event, 37 less than last year’s 187 total, but still enough to create a total prize pool of $717,500, as well as a top prize worth $190,137- not including the $10,000 seat into the 2010 WSOP Main Event thrown in by Harrah’s.

Of those 150 initial players, 83 have already been eliminated including such tough known pros as Jonathan Little, Scott Seiver, Isaac Haxton, Chau Giang, David Williams, Chris Bell, Jerry Yang, Scott Fischman and Justin Bonomo, friend of PokerRoad and last year’s champion of this event.

With Bonomo’s elimination, organizers are guaranteed a brand new champ this year, and there are plenty of well known players still remaining, anxious to claim that title.  Some of the recognizable names still in the hunt at Caesars include PokerRoad Radio’s Bryan “Devo” Devonshire, J.C. Alvarado, Matt “All In At 420” Stout, Blair Hinkle, “Rappin’” Jeff Madsen and Layne Flack, who was one of the chip leaders for much of the day despite being conspicuously absent from tournament poker for the last half dozen months.  Flack ended the day with well over 100,000 in tournament checks, enough to make his one of the largest stacks in the field- though noticeably smaller than chip leader Dan Casetta, who ended with nearly 170,000.

For more information on the WSOP Circuit series visit www.wsop.com, or check out PokerNews.com for live updates and chip counts, when things start up again Wednesday at noon (Vegas time).