Hurricane Shaun Deeb(pictured) is back. The man who won four PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker titles – three in Stud and one in HORSE – made the final 17 of Event #17 of the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP), $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em. And like many tournaments Deeb has run deep in during his career, he’s up against some stiff competition, including eight-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey.

Bertrand ElkYGrospellier was the final player sent packing on Saturday night at the Rio in Event #17. The Frenchman and PokerStarspro 4bet all-in before the flop with pocket fives and Jeff Tims called. When the cards were exposed, Tims showed aces and Alexander Venovski, who had 3bet all-in already, tabled jacks.

Venovski spiked a jack on the flop to take the lead and a running Q-9 gashed Tims’ chip stack and eliminated Grospellier in 18th place for $23,000. Grospellier, who won a bracelet last year in a $10,000 Seven Card Stud event, recorded his first cash of the 2012 WSOP. He has more than $1.1 million in career WSOP earnings and has cashed every year since 2006.

Meanwhile, Deeb Tweeted how his Day 2 in Event #17 came to a close: “400K to end the night. Blew my huge CL, became short, sucked out 1 all-in and lost 6 others when I shouldn’t be behind, but keep chipping up.” Late in the day, Deeb doubled up WSOP Harrah’s Rincon Regional Championship winner Ali Eslami after the latter flopped a pair of jacks on a jack-high board.

Earlier on, Deeb doubled through Farzad Bonyadi with A-K against pocket kings. An ace-high flop was all Deeb needed to secure the double up and he finished the day in fifth place with a stack of 396,000. Deeb is in search of his second career WSOP final table.

Also still in contention is Ryan RJules12Julius (pictured), who knocked out Steven Silverman in the latter part of Day 2. Silverman moved all-in with Q-9 on a flop of Q-5-J with two hearts and Julius called with the nut flush draw. The turn completed the flush and Julius stacked up nearly 600,000 in chips. He ended the day in third place with 503,000. By the way, his big live claim to fame is chopping the Chicago Poker Classic two years ago for $138,000.

The remaining 17 players have a combined 13 bracelets, with Ivey holding eight, Hoyt Corkins holding two, and Andy Frankenberger, David Benyamine, and Antonio Esfandiari each holding one. France’s Manuel manub Bevand has a commanding chip lead right now with 961,000. He has over $160,000 in tracked cashes on PokerStars in his PocketFives profile.

Also still alive is Matt Adzizzy Marafioti, who has the 14th largest stack. Marafioti was quite active on Twitter throughout the day on Saturday, updating his nearly 3,000 followers on his rough table draw: “Re-positioned to Phil Ivey’s direct left. Interesting. He has a similar stack to me fortunately. Elky + Eslami are also @ our table. #LetsGo.” His first pot won off Ivey was worthy of its own Tweet: “Just won my 1st pot off Ivey (he gave me a walk). #AgoodSign.”

The blinds were at 6,000-12,000 when play halted on Saturday. Here are the players you can root for when play resumes on Sunday at 1:00pm PT:

1. Manuel manubBevand – 961,000
2. Steve Landfish – 599,000
3. Ryan RJules12Julius – 503,000
4. Hoyt Corkins – 416,000
5. Shaun shaundeebDeeb – 396,000
6. Patrick Cronin – 373,000
7. Alexander Venovski – 364,000
8. Antonio Esfandiari – 303,000
9. Jeff Tims – 233,000
10. Ali Eslami – 228,000
11. Phil Ivey – 180,000
12. Daniel Weinman – 167,000
13. Andy Frankenberger – 166,000
14. Matt AdzizzyMarafioti – 154,000
15. Chris SLOPPYKLOD Klodnicki – 145,000
16. David Benyamine – 117,000
17. Cary Katz – 65,000

Finally, Mark AceSpadesRadoja (pictured) came within inches of his second WSOP bracelet in Event #16, $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed. He ultimately took second place for $281,000, while poker pro Matt Matros captured his third piece of hardware. The bracelet winners were deadlocked in chips when heads-up play began, but Matros scooped the largest pot of two-handed play after rolling over 10-5 of diamonds for two pair on a board of 10-2-6-5-7. It took Radoja five minutes to make the ill-advised call.

The final six cashed out as follows:

1. Matt Matros – $454,835
2. Mark AceSpadesRadoja – $281,502
3. Ramey Shaio – $182,521
4. Gordon stlouis6 Vayo – $121,262
5. Robert Muzzatti – $81,202
6. Mark RenRad 01 Darner – $56,300

Keep it tuned to PocketFives for the latest WSOP news.