As the $1,500 HORSE event reached the critical stages - the players rested and fed, returning to action - the matter of Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso’s efforts in the $1,500 no limit hold’em had yet to be resolved.

Vanessa had put in one of her best World Series performances to date, rocking on from being among the short stacks late last night when the bubble burst, to ride a hand with kings well to establish herself among the leaders. This was all surely part of Vanessa’s game plan, but to the railbirds it had the hallmarks of a top draw performance.

But as they reached the last 45, from a starting field of 2,693, the road came to an abrupt end for Vanessa. She busted in a hand against Anders Fraulund who had moved all-in on the 6s-7s-6h flop. Vanessa’s call put her all-in but when she showed pocket nines it looked to have been a well judged decision, as Fraulund turned over his K-J. But his face cards were suited and whilst the turn was a blank the river made his flush, busting Vanessa.

Whilst she now takes a well earned rest ahead of the big one later this week, her colleagues in Team PokerStars Pro had other things on their mind – rail birding one of their number in the final of the $1,500 HORSE. Victor Ramdin had good support from the likes of Isabelle Mercier, Chad Brown, Humberto Brenes, Bill Chen, Joe Hachem and the two Russian players sponsored by PokerStars, Kirill Gerasimov (himself a final tablist earlier this week) and Alex Kravchenko. They were in place to see the end of Victor’s HORSE hopes.

A victory for Victor was always going to be a tall order, hampered as he was with the short stack against a table well armed behind chip counts that, when written down, had an extra digit in them.

So when Victor busted in seventh place in a stud hand, you could only applaud an effort that had seen him work with less than the average and turn it into a cash finish to the tune of $32,992.

The downside will be one felt by Victor more than anyone - that he’ll have to wait a little longer for that first World Series bracelet to go with his WPT title. That achievement will surely come. In fact there’s a tournament starting this Thursday that might be worth winning...

Victor was keeping his cards close to his chest (if you’ll excuse the pun) at the start of the day, preferring to wait on the outcome before elaborating on what he’d planned. That’ll be a story for another time. For now all we can say is congratulations to Vanessa and to Victor on a great day at the tables.

As always the PokerStars video blog team have an update on the day...

Watch WSOP 08: Vanessa 'lady Maverick' Rousso Update on PokerStars.tv