The axe continued to fall at the 37th World Series of Poker Sunday as the field for the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'em championship was slashed to the last 45 players.
The original field was 8,773, including thousands - the vast majority - who qualified online.
They will return at noon Monday, with the remaining players again facing the chopping block at Harrah's Rio Hotel and Casino.
This year's WSOP still is far ahead of schedule, thanks to the quick exit of scores of players after the money bubble burst earlier in the week.
Only 27 players still will be alive once Monday's action is complete.
How the schedule will play out Tuesday and Wednesday, when the field is due to be cut to the Final Table of nine for Thursday play, remains to be seen.
The Final Table will be shown live only on pay-per-view TV, a fact that irritates many for a variety of reasons.
Cost is $24.95.
Allen Cunningham (1,290,000 in chips) and Humberto Brenes (565,000) were among the 45 survivors, in 31st and 41st position respectively.
Jamie Gold, who entered the day as the chip leader, continued to build his stack, which totaled 7,330,000 when play ended about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
Gold is a TV producer from Malibu who told reporters he is in the WSOP, for the first time, for the competition rather than money.
"I don't need the money," he said, adding that the gold bracelet given all WSOP event winners was his main motivation.
The WSOP champion will earn $12 million and the runnerup more than $6 million.
Rounding out the Top 5 chip leaders were Erik Friberg, 5,590,000; William Thorsson, 3,545,000; Rhett Butler (no kidding), 3,210,000; and Kevin Aaronson, 3,190,000.
"It's going to be another unknown," predicted one writer from "Card Player" magazine.
Women's hopes again were thwarted as high-profile Annie Duke busted out in 58th, walking off with $51,129.
Defending champion Joe Hachem of Australia, who won $7.4 million in 2005, was eliminated Saturday.
Harrah's continued to go to great lengths to separate itself from myriad Web sites that qualified the majority of the WSOP seats.
A front page story in the Sunday Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper, detailed efforts of the gaming giant, which last week e-mailed reporters reminding them that no one is permitted to wear Web site logos on their apparel.
The second of a half-dozen No-Limit events being held concurrently with the World Series was ongoing in another part of the Amazon Room, giving players eliminated from the main event added opportunities to claim a bracelet.
The WSOP began June 25.
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