Bill Chen needed a miracle. He needed a rush of cards. He needed something other than a chop. The man needed some cards and he didn't get them.

Only a few players off the money, Chen was down to his last few bets.He knew there was no such thing as turtling his way to the money. He wasn't going to survive five bustouts, so he put himself in action.

The first hand was the real crippler. Chen raised pre-flop in the Omaha/8 round and got a call in the big blind from Vitaly Lunkin. The flop came down [2d][5c][2s]. Lunkin check-called a bet and they saw the [5d] on the turn. Now, Lunkin led at Chen, who called. With less than 20,000 behind (less that a full bet), Chen folded to the [Qh] on the river.

On the very next hand, Chen got it all in again after a raise from Brett Richey. Huck Seed called in the big blind and they saw a flop of [4d][6c][2c]. Seed checked, Richey bet, and Seed looked at him with a little disdain. With a player all-in, Seed didn't like to see Richey betting. Seed folded to see Richey only held [Ah][3d][8s][9c], good enough for the nut low, but little else, and not enough by the river to beat Chen's [As][3c][Th][7h]. Chen got three quarters of the pot to stay alive. The table was not pleased.

Still, Chen barely had any chips and got it all in on third street in a subsequent hand of Razz with [9d][8s][Ad]. From there it was brick city, leaving him with no better than a T-9. With that, the last surviving member of the PokerStars stable was eliminated from the $50,000 HORSE event.

It was a tough day in the Amazon Room, but hope springs eternal--or at least for another few events. This week will see a few more bracelet tournaments, the Ante Up For Africa charity event, and finally the $10,000 Main Event beginning on Friday.

Of course, we'll be here for it all and report all the news that's fit to blog, and perhaps a bit more.

We suppose it had to come to an end at some point. We were just hoping Barry Greenstein's winning streak in the $50,000 HORSE event wouldn't end today.

As we've mentioned a few times over the last few days, Barry Greenstein came into this big events as the only player to cash in every one of the HORSE World Championship. Each year he had improved on his previous performance. He made the final table the last two years.

Greenstein had a very tough Day 2 and looked to be on the verge of elimination a couple of times. He persevered, though, and managed a late rally. He came into Day 3 with enough chips to do some damage.

Instead, everything went south. No matter what he did right, the hands went wrong. He couldn't win a pot all day long and suffered three big river suckouts that spelled his exit.

Earlier in the day, Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko discovered his 80,000 chips weren't going to do him much good in Day 3. He was eliminated within the first hour of play, as well.

The remaining 43 HORSE players are now on their first break of the day. When play returns, Friend of PokerStars Bill Chen will be in action and looking to carry the PokerStars flag to the final table.

If today's $50,000 HORSE event had been a thoroughbred race, you would have heard a lot of gunfire at the end and seen a lot of trucks heading for the glue factory.

You could get a feel for how things were going simply by reading some of the Team PokerStars Pro's Twitter feeds.

Barry Greenstein: "This is getting serious, seriously bad."

Daniel Negreanu: "I feel like I'm being dealt out. I hardly ever get a hand you could consider playing. Frustrated and in need of a rush."

Barry Greenstein: "A good table and bad cards is not a good recipe. "

Daniel Negreanu: "I got completely tortured. From 200k to 0 without winning any hands at all."

Negreanu couldn't find an ounce of luck and was eliminated midway through the evening.

Greenstein, for his part, managed to survive the day but not without a lot of pain. It looked like he might succumb in the last level of the night, but had a good last level to move up to a better-than-average 284,000.

Friend of PokerStars Bill Chen actually looked like he might be eliminated near the end of the evening, but then went on a mad rush in the last hour to finish at 324,000.

Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko had a tough day. He survived, but is near the bottom of the field with 80,000 at day's end.

As we mentioned earlier in the afternoon, Greg Raymer reported that his day, in a word, "Sucks."

His description was a far cry from the optimism he'd shown earlier in the afternoon when he spoke to the PokerStars video blog team.

Watch WSOP 2009: Raymer's day (June 27th) on PokerStars.tv

Raymer's Day 2 started badly and ended worse. He never got above his 123,000 start and was first of the Team to be eliminated.

Chad Brown, too, began the day as a man with ambition.

"My goal today is to survive today," Brown said as he walked into the Rio. He explained more in this interview.

Watch WSOP 2009: Chad Brown on his HORSE event on PokerStars.tv

Brown, like Raymer, couldn't get any traction and was eliminated midway through the evening.

With 53 players remaining, we are still a long way from the 16 players who will get paid. We can only hope tomorrow isn't as tough for the Team as today.

Photos by Joe Giron/IMPDI Worldwide

I hadn't yet found a chance to congratulate Greg Raymer on his $700,000 finish in the $40,000 event at the beginning of the World Series.

I picked the wrong time.

On break from the $50,000 HORSE event, I found Raymer sitting in the Poker Kitchen, his trademark duffel bag sitting on the table in front of him. A fan was taking a candid, paparazzi style photo with a cell phone. I didn't notice at first that Raymer wasn't smiling.

I touched his shoulder and told him congratulations on the big win. He looked up at me with barely a flicker of recognition in his eyes.

"Thanks," he said. He was clearly glum.

We've known each other for five years and I hadn't seen him since we'd been in South America on the LAPT. I quickly realized it wasn't the best time for a reunion. Still, I offered that it was going to be pretty hard for him to have a bad WSOP. When you nearly take down one of the biggest events of the year, the rest of the summer should be pretty good by default.

"The Series is good," Raymer said. "Today sucks."

I knew Raymer didn't look happy sitting at the table, but I hadn't realized how bad it really was. How bad was it?

"I started the day with 123,000," he said. "I have 23,000 now."

Raymer's afternoon has epitomized how to run bad at the wrong time. He's not the type to prattle on with bad beat stories, but if he hadn't mentioned them, we would have had nothing to talk about.

It was a disgusting litany of poker's ability to depress the hell out of the happiest of people. In the Omaha 8/b round, Raymer flopped a set of aces and pounded the pot the whole way. His opponent rivered a straight.

"Only the jack was going to save him," Raymer said ruefully.

The next round was Razz. Raymer was getting hit in the head with the deck...for the first four cards. He'd start with four to a five or six, then brick the rest of the way. Meanwhile, his opponents took down the pots with next to nothing.

"Their hands are so weak, they can't even bet the river," he said. Still, even weak hands beat 2-3-4-5-brick-brick-brick.

It was clear Raymer didn't want to fill my head full of nastiness, so he changed the subject to a hand where he managed to hit three sevens on seventh street to an opponent who rivered two pair.

"That's the only hand I've won today," he said.

Raymer knows his poker heart is clearly next to his Team Pro badge...right on his sleeve. Normally happy and talkative, he's in the middle of getting eviscerated and it's showing on his face. We wondered aloud if there is anybody who could hide such a bad day.

"It's hard to tell if Bill Chen is losing unless you ask him," Raymer said. "Mark Gregorich, too."

I knew it was time to let Raymer get back to the event, although with 23,000 at the 3,000/6,000 stud limit, he was going to have to win a hand fast.

It didn't last half an hour. Within a few minutes, the FossilMan was signing a fossil and handing it to his executioner, Michael Saltzburg.

Raymer was the first of the PokerStars crew to exit. Bill Chen, Chad Brown, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, and Alexander Kravchenko are still in action.

When it was over, Raymer walked to an outer table where he sat alone and talking on his phone.

"I'll find something to get me out of this funk," he'd told me when we parted.

I'd suggest counting the $774,927 he's already won this Series. That's better than any antidepressant.

It's hard to fully define what Day 1 of the $50,000 HORSE means. It takes an incredible amount of Run Bad or some equally terrible play to get eliminated. It's not that Day 1 means nothing, but nobody will be hitting the Dom to celebrate making it to Day 2. With another four days of play before we crown a champion, today wasn't so much important as it simply was.

If there is a headline to print, though, it is that every member of the PokerStars stable who started the day will be joining us here for Day 2.

After finishing fifth in the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em event, Barry Greenstein made it over to the day's biggest tournament. He is working to be the only person to cash in every $50,000 HORSE tournament since it began in 2006. After losing 16,000 chips to blinds and antes while he was at the other final table, Greenstein finished with 151,500.

Daniel Negreanu, who helped conceive this event in 2006, started strong today. He's cashed in this event once before, and is looking to make it happen again. By night's end he was still rocking, rolling, and entertaining the crowd. When the clock hit zero, his stack sat at an impressive 204,100.

Across the room, Greg Raymer is working to get second $50,000 HORSE event cash, too. He had a rocky day, but managed to end the day on 123,900.

Bill Chen, Chad Brown, and Alexander Kravchenko are all in search of their first money finish in this tournament. They all still have a shot. Chen is sitting on 208,400. Brown finished with 165,000. Kravchenko will go into Day 2 with 234,400.

Ninety-one players will return for Day 2. Because another giant $1,500 no-limit hold'em event is scheduled to kick off tomorrow, the $50,000 HORSE event has been pushed back to a 4pm Pacific Time start. So, we'll catch a nap and be back with full coverage of Day 2 at that time.

Photos by Joe Giron/IMPDI Worldwide