The second of two starting days of the World Poker Tour’s Festa al Lago tournament played out on Tuesday. When the smoke cleared at the Bellagio, there were 256 survivors from Days 1A and 1B. Among them was a familiar face, Vivek Psyduck Rajkumar, who won the WPT Borgata Poker Open and also made a deep run at the North American Poker Championship, where he ultimately finished 16th. Play resumes today from the Bellagio for the combined Day 2, with $1.4 million set to be awarded to the winner in the largest Festa al Lago prize pool ever. Also in the hunt today will be J.C. PrtyPSux Alvarado and Luke IWEARGOGGLES Staudenmaier, two more PocketFivers who survived Day 1B.

Rajkumar has eight World Series of Poker in the money finishes. Three of them came in 2008 and combined they amount to $161,000. However, no one has been hotter on the WPT felts than Psyduck. He finished 26th in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December of 2007 for $57,000. He won the $10,000 buy-in Borgata Poker Open for $1.4 million and made another deep run at the Fallsview Casino’s North American Poker Championship, adding $50,000 CAD to his wallet. Online, he managed to find time to take sixth in the PokerStars Sunday Million in March for $32,000 and grab second in the $100 rebuy on the same site in July for over $15,000. He sits with the 30th largest stack after both starting days at 108,550.

PocketFivesLive.com, which provides WPT coverage of online poker players in the biggest live events, is not at the Festa al Lago. However, its Tournament Reporter, Court Harrington, has been on site and commented on Rajkumar’s play: “Still running well and playing well, Vivek continues to place himself near the top of the chip counts at every tournament he shows up to play.”

Another PocketFiver making waves on Day 1B was J.C. PrtyPSux Alvarado, who ended play holding the 19th largest chip stack in the room at 129,700. He made the final table and finished sixth in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the 2006 WSOP for $28,665, one of six WSOP and Circuit Event cashes to his name. Online, he cashed in the recent PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Main Event for $15,000.

Harrington has followed Alvarado throughout his live tournament run and noted, “J.C. is one of those players that just has great feel for the game, where he is at in individual hands, and the tournament in general. He is also fearless and more than willing to put huge amounts of chips in the pot if he feels his hand is good or if he senses weakness. Once he has chips, he can be torturous to the other players at his table.”

Luke IWEARGOGGLES Staudenmaier is fresh off a WPT final table of his own. He took third in the Bellagio Cup IV for $452,000. That tournament was won by fellow PocketFiver Mike SirWatts Watson. Staudenmaier also took third in a $300 rebuy Full Tilt Online Poker Series event in August for $119,000, won the Sunday Warm-Up in March for $108,000, and took second in the Full Tilt Poker $1 Million Guaranteed in March for $126,000. He’ll have the 33rd largest chip stack when play resumes with 105,825.

Other PocketFivers who successfully navigated through Day 1B included, but were not limited to:
4. Brian tsarrast Rast - 206,225
20. Michael inissint Glasser – 127,475
37. Tim Tmay420 West - 105,275
42. Bertrand Elky Grospellier - 100,825
66. Jon pokertrip Friedberg – 86,000
68. Jamie thecronic420 Rosen – 84,850
80. Peter Nordberg Feldman – 77,750
91. Phil USCphildo Collins – 70,700
Average Chip Stack – 65,000
107. Scott BigRiskky Clements – 63,125
110. Jimmy Gobboboy Fricke - 61,750
112. David Bakes Baker – 61,175
147. Hevad RaiNKhAN Khan – 50,175
156. Devin TranquilChaos Porter – 44,400
173. Blair blur5f6 Hinkle – 39,000
195. Barry barryg1 Greenstein – 34,125
197. Shane Shaniac Schleger - 33,150
213. Alex alexjacob Jacob - 27,275
221. Mike SirWatts Watson - 25,050

The top ten chip stacks over all are as follows:
1. Antonio Esfandiari - 313,000
2. Nicholas Sliwinski - 209,800
3. Daniel Schreiber - 206,925
4. Brian Rast - 206,225
5. Jennifer Tilly - 195,050
6. Jeremiah Vinsant - 184,575
7. Andrew Robl - 173,450
8. Nenad Medic - 167,250
9. Ryan Young - 156,725
10. Johannes Van Til - 151,000