Before play started, he told us that Stud was a game where being short did not matter so much, so long as you made your move with decent hands. Starting with 191,000, well below avergage (although he said he never bothered comparing himself with the average in Stud) , he was soon out after those hands went bad.

He lost two of them back-to-back sending him down to 35,000, then the fatal third a short while later. He got it all in with Tim Phan, but ended up with just a pair of tens to Phan's pair of kings, which became three kings on the river.

Negreanu now plans to play the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha/Hold'em No Limit mix later today.

All photos © Joe Giron, IMPDI

But the confident Canadian insists that means nothing at this stage. "I've been down for most of the tournament, but the structure here is so very good - thanks to me," he laughed.

"Stud is such a good game. If you are short stacked there is really no big problem, though obviously you need something good to play with if you are to survive. Actually I don't really feel as if I'm short, so it's not an issue for me.

"Still, yesterday was tough. This man (pointing to the jovial Freddie Ellis), kicked my butt for much of the day. And now I've got to play with him again today... I'll be keeping out of his way!"

Clearly the smell of his fifth bracelet is something on his mind - "Hell, yeah" - but he's also playing for points. Points? Yes, as a result of big side bets on his performances with the likes of Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein.

"It means I've been playing a lot of events so far," said Negreanu. "I may play another today if I get knocked out here, but a night off sounds good too because I am looking forward to the mixed event tomorrow."

The 11 survivors in this marathon Stud event, which began with 142 experienced and wiley pros, are now unbagging and getting ready for the off. They'll play down to eight, and then our final table will follow. There's the bracelet and $373,000 up for grabs for the winner, and each is already guaranteed $29,152.

Stay with us for updates, and you should also follow Daniel Negreanu's Twitter page, where he drops regular fun updates.

They say the greatest poker players are those that master a wide spread of games, and Negreanu has certainly proved that by winning his bracelets in Hold'em (pot limit and limit) and the mixed game S.H.O.E.

But there's another skill the best players must have - not to panic when things get bad, but to regroup. That is exactly what the Canadian has done today, the second day of this event which attracted a super-strong field of 142. At one point he was down to below 20,000 when the average was more than four times that, but he made his move at the right times to set off on a dizzying spin-up that at its peak saw him second in chips with 25 left in the event.

The nature of Stud means the tournament has been something of a slog. It took nearly four hours before we lost the first of the 142 players yesterday - and we had hoped to make the final table tonight until proceedings were brought to a halt at 3am. So although the first prize of $373,744 will not be the biggest payout at this year's WSOP, it will have been one of the toughest to get hold of.

It certainly got tough for Negreanu when, with 16 players left, there was a new table draw. He was put on by far the most tricky table, pitting him against the likes of then chip leader Max Pescatori, Mel Judah, Jeff Lisandro, Greg Mueller and Hasan Habib.

Down to 11, with the likes of Judah gone, Negreanu was low in chips and only a couple of bad hands away from the rail. But he fought on, and took a sizeable pot off Greg Mueller when he made aces against his fellow Candian's queens.

That helped him to bag up 191,000 at the close of play, bringing an end to an epic day's work. Chip leader is Eric Drache on 785,000 followed by Hasan Habib on 593,000. The full chip counts can be found here.

Early in the day we lost Katja Thater, then Alex Kravchenko. The other Team PokerStars Pro in the day two field, Chad Brown, was looking good for a cash until he departed in 25th place.

We'll be back in less than ten hours, after a brief nap, for the last bustouts before the final table is set. Here's hoping we'll witness Negreanu make it bracelet number five.

All our excellent WSOP photos are © Joe Giron, IMPDI

He'd been on a downward slope and then, like Alex Kravchenko shortly before him, fell when his two pair of tens and threes were outgunned by Max "The Pirate" Pescatori's bigger two pair of jacks and fours. Brown walked the plank and jumped into the sea of poker players still swirling around the Rio.

But while he and Kravchenko have an unwelcome early night, our last surviving Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu is on a thrilling run. Down to 20,000 earlier in the day, he has now soared to second in chips with 354,000.

As he just said on his Twitter page: "23 left I have 354k avg is 185k. I'll be out of the other one soon. Oh well haha," a reference to his stack which is being blinded away in the $2,500 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball.

Negreanu won't mind that one bit if he goes really deep here, with a final table appearance a real possibility - and the $373,000 first prize and bracelet looming large.

You'll also find Daniel Negreanu, who happens to be a happy man right now. Not so long ago he was getting low in chips to the point where he could be described as being in danger, but several nice hands later and he's back in good health again and and still fighting for the $373,744 first prize and bracelet. Sixteen will be paid.

The Team PokerStars Pro first made a club flush in a three-way pot when the two others were drawing and missing their heart flushes, taking him up to 34,000 - and then he shot up to 49,000, winning a nice pot of Hoyt Corkins. Negreanu had 4-6-8 spades, then caught seven of spades, raised it up and bagged a 5 on the river to take the pot.

He's updating this event on his Twitter page for those of you who like reading about Stud hands.

While Katja Thater busted earlier this afternoon, fellow Team PokerStars Pros Alex Kravchenko and Chad Brown are still going strong.

Kravchenko made it through to day two despite doing some rather smart multi-tabling yesterday, when he was trying to maintain stacks in this event as well as the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha. That took some effort as the PLO was in the Amazon Room while the Stud was in Braslia - a good two minute trot away.

When he busted from the PLO, he was able to move to the Brasilia full time to concentrate on the higher buy-in of $10,000. He's now over 60,000, while Chad Brown has made it up to over 76,000.

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Also at the Rio today is day three of the $1,000 No Limit event, day two of the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha and starting in a while is the No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball $2,500. Benjamin Kang says he'll be playing in it.

"I know the rules, but I've never played it before," he admitted. Good luck that man!

That will explain why after level four (yes, that's four hours of play) we have lost only one player. Just one. Compare that to the start of today's $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, where an incredible 600 out of little more than 800 starters bust in the first six hours! Or the day ones of the $1,000 no limit event (now on the combined day 2), where a player was busting every 5.5 seconds. I kid you not.

Still, the 141 still remaining in the Stud, now off on a dinner break, have plenty of time to get lost in their own little world as time goes by.

Here's a look at what the Team PokerStars Pros in the mix were up to when I just toured the room:

Daniel Negreanu (24,500): Talking. No surprise there.

Barry Greenstein (20,000): Looking like he's about to nod off.

Katja Thater (40,000): Drinking a coffee then coming up to stroke this blogger's hair. Which was nice.

Dario Minieri (21,000): Listening to music on rather large headphones.

Bill Chen (34,000): Tapping away on his mobile phone.

Greg Raymer (15,500): Watching Phil Ivey getting what looks like a full-body massage.

Alex Kravchenko (37,000): Laughing (yes, it's true) with Tony G, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson.

Chad Brown (36,000): Sitting quietly. And doing quite a bit of folding (though to be fair, his stack says he hasn't been folding for long).

All photos © Joe Giron, IMPDI

Now there's no suggestion these two would ever collude, but one of them had to move, which meant Traniello needed to swap seats with a player waiting for his own table to fill up.

While Traniello walked over, the unfortunate replacement took one look at his new seat, where Harman, David Benyamine and Greenstein sat twiddling their thumbs, and shook his head.

"I don't want to sit at THAT table," he said.

But the tournament director is king, and off he trundled to try his luck against some of the game's most feared names. And it was to get worse - Eli Elezra and Andy Bloch sat down soon after.

The Rio is heaving today, with any fears that the WSOP would get off to a slow start well and truly swept away by a colourful and noisy tide of bracelet hopefuls. There's stuff going on everywhere you look, with action including:

- The $10,000 World Championship 7-card Stud, day 1
- The $1,000 No limit, day 2
- The$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha, day 1
- The Champions Invitational, day 2
- Cash games
- And more satellites than NASA's back catalogue

Add to that the thousands of railbirds and the just plain curious who wander down from the Rio to the Amazon Room and find themselves in a strange new world, and you've got quite a mix.

The $10K Stud event is always select, not just because of the buy-in, but the game itself. Not many play it when Texas Hold'em, and increasingly Omaha are the online labours of love.

So far 120 are registered to play - among them Team PokerStars Pros Katja Thater, Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu (who has taken a shot at every event so far), Chad Brown and Dario Minieri. Then there is Bill Chen, Friend of PokerStars, who has a mathematical brain that suits this game just fine.

They started with 30,000 - three times the buy-in like all events this year - and before long the chips were flying; it may not have that "no limit" element, but it's an action game all right.

Thater, nestling under a straw cowboy hat and enjoying a level one massage (as is Negreanu and Brown) got her campaign off to a flyer, finding eights full to rake in a 3,500 pot in the first few orbits. But she knows it's a long, and very busy road here at the Rio

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With two of Team PokerStars Pros' most prolific Tweeters in the Stud event, be sure to follow there Twitter updates - Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein.

While you're at it, you can follow us as well over at the PokerStars Blog Twitter page. Be a shame if you missed out.