The World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio, one of the WPT’s longest running and most prestigious events, is well underway in Las Vegas with all of Day 1 and Day 2 now complete.

438 players this year entered the Bellagio Five Diamond, over 100 more than in 2009 when Daniel Alaei took down the event to the tune of $1,428,430. 

This year’s champion, due to a slightly smaller buy-in this time around, will earn $870,124, and at this point in the contest only 142 of the original 438 are still eligible to win it. 

Just some of the surviving notable players still in the hunt include Sorel Mizzi, Vanessa Rousso, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Kirk Morrison, Allen Cunningham, David Singer, Dwyte Pilgrim, Hoyt Corkins, Thomas Marchese, Eric Baldwin, John Hennigan, Michael Mizrachi and Antonio Esfandiari, who leads the field with nearly a half million in tournament chips.

Notable bust outs include Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Isaac Haxton, Erica Schoenberg, Jean-Robert Bellande, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, J.C. Tran, Kathy Liebert and PokerRoad’s Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok.

The 142 surviving Day 2 players are now within striking distance of the 100 person money bubble, and are set to play past it during Day 3.  To follow the action as they do, check out live updates and photos at www.worldpokertour.com.