Justin Bonomo Enters Day 2 of 2009 WSOP $40k Anniv Event in Third

Bodog Poker pro Justin Bonomo will come back to the Amazon Room today in third place. (Bodog Beat Image)"]

The 2009 WSOP $40,000 40th Anniversary Special event wrapped up in the wee hours of this morning with 89 players left in the running out of the original 201 that ponied up their monstrous buy-ins for a shot at their share of the more than $7.7 million in prize money up for grabs.

Among those that will be headed back out to the Amazon Room at 2pm local time (5pm ET) will be Bodog Poker pro Justin Bonomo, who hung around the top of the leaderboard for much of the day and held the chip lead during the evening hours yesterday. He will go in to play today with 738k in chips, trailing 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker (805k) and chip leader Bruno Fitoussi (812,500) by minor amounts.

Notables still alive in the event include poker pros Andy Black, Mark Seif, Ted Forrest, Nam Le, Tony G, Phil Ivey, David "The Dragon" Pham and many more. All of them will be chasing the $1.8 million first place prize and the honor of winning this one-of-a-kind event here at the 2009 WSOP.

Also kicking off today is the $1,500 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-Better event, which is rumored to be headed towards being the largest Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-Better event at a WSOP with currently 908 entered and more trickling in. Many of the pros who busted out of the $40k yesterday are sitting down for this event, so it should be a star-studded field and we'll keep you in on the action as it heats up.

Stay tuned for more 2009 WSOP updates from the Bodog Beat.