In most poker circles, you can't really throw out the name Larry Wright and expect a ready look of recognition. In fact, when looking at the chip counts of the 2008 World Series of Poker, you might be forgiven if you can't immediately place the name to a face.

It's only after you search your memory banks and remember the APPT Grand Final in Sydney that Larry Wright's poker resume will come to mind.

Wright is a contractor from Montgomery, Alabama who isn't at all ashamed to say that, up until several months ago, he'd never played a big buy-in tournament.

"I've won a few tournaments on PokerStars," he said while he racked up more than one million in WSOP chips and headed to a new table.

He may be being a bit modest, because if you look back to that event in Sydney, you'll find Wright's name on the list of final table players. He finished ninth there before going back to his real life in the Deep South.

Between then and now, though, he qualified for the WSOP on PokerStars. As is habit for most modest southern men, Wright was quiet as he recounted his trip to Sydney, only saying of the suckout that sent him out in ninth place, "It was frustrating."

As we head to the dinner break tonight, Wright is among the chip leaders and the biggest PokerStars stacks in the room. He said quietly, "I plan on winning."

Wright is joined near the top by Owen "ocrowe" Crowe and Robert Ford. Both names should be familiar. Crowe is a big time online player and one-time winner of the PokerStars Sunday Million. Ford made the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2006 and has more than $600,000 in live tournament winnings.

With a little more than 200 players remaining, we're getting the impression the players will take a dinner break and then return to play only one more level, instead of the two on the schedule. The field is thinning faster than expected, and with three more days of play after this one (and then only to get to a final table), some shorter days may be in order.

In the meantime, it's off for some BBQ.