Monday was supposed to be the day of calm before the storm, a day when pot limit Omaha aside, a few minor tournaments would grind on, acting as preparation for thousands of players newly arrived and looking for a pre-main event warm up.

But even with the surprise fallers from the ranks of Team PokerStars Pro early in the PLO, the temperature would soon rise, making today a bit of a corker. The cause? A $1,500 HORSE event and another of those high-octane blink-and-you’re-busted $1,500 no limit hold’em events that put Amazon Room space on the critical list.

The PokerStars video blog team bring you a roundup of the day...

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Hope of a Team PokerStars Pro pot limit Omaha triumph were ended in short order this afternoon, with all three of the team – Humberto Brenes, Noah Boeken and Bill Chen - eliminated in a 15 minute spell which had everyone double checking they’d got their facts right.

Alongside them were the HORSE players, or the pony club as Howard Swains dubbed them in reference to it being the smaller cousin of the $50K version last week, with among their ranks the likes of Victor Ramdin, Joe Hachem, Chad Brown, Vicky Coren and Luca Pagano. While Vicky Coren busted mid afternoon - her second bust out of the day having played the $1,500 no limit hold’em on a whim.

Narrowly missing out on a cash finish in the prestigious $50K HORSE event last weekend sent Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown out today with a point to prove. His eye on the prize, he built his stack up steadily today never far from the leaders before finishing his hopes of bracelet glory were crshed in a Razz hand late on, eventually busting with just minutes left to play. A hard earned cash for one of the best HORSE players in the game.

He was just one half of a successful day for PokerStars’ first couple. Over in the $1,500 hold’em, Chad’s fiancé Vanessa Rousso was in the process of cashing back in the Amazon Room. Along with fellow Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari, she cashed in a fraught end to the day’s play. Whilst Andre busted soon afterward, Vanessa returns with 34,000 tomorrow as day two plays to a final nine.

As we were packing up media row for the night the HORSE players continued, riding on till sunrise - the process of breaking the field into a last nine being a slow one. As we left it with just minutes to play on the day both Joe Hachem and Victor Ramdin were on 58K and 95K respectively. We’ll have a full update on their progress tomorrow.

In the meantime you can catch up on the detail on the day by checking here:

LOL Walkaments

Coren making up for lost time

Here yesterday, gone today

The pony club

The boy from Brazil

PokerStars’ first couple

The Bill Chen post-mortem

Team PokerStars Pro + HORSE = Cash

Long day behind us, long day ahead

Photography ©2008, Joe Giron/IMPDI