The poker world is now officially on high alert. Phil Ivey has chips in the World Series of Pokermain event!

Ivey, the ten-time bracelet winner and poker hall of famer who has spent the better part of the last five years fighting casinos in court over baccarat winnings, only recently returned to the felt. He won a combined $2.27 million in Montenegro at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in May, before taking ninth in the $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship.

Now, the 41-year-old is looking to go deep in the $10,000 main event, bagging up one of the biggest stacks in the room during day 2C at the Rio on Friday. Ivey, who last cashed in the WSOPmain event back in 2014 (430th), is looking to improve upon his personal best of seventh place, which he accomplished back in 2009, earning $1.4 million. He finished play with 434,200, which was good enough for 11th in the flight, and 26th overall entering day 3.

One of the few players to top Ivey’s performance during the day was Reedley, California farmer Ignacio Sanchez, who bagged up a whopping 627,200 to lead the field. Sanchez, who has cashed in the main event once before, will take 313 big blinds with him into day 3.

At the start of play, there were still 3,480 players remaining in the flight. But by the end of the day, which consisted of five, two-hour levels, just 1,655 had survived. They will join the remaining players from day 2AB, combining for day 3 with 2,786 total remaining. Only the final 1,182 players will make the money, earning a minimum payout of $15,000.

Other notables who advanced from the flight with a big stack included Andrey Pateychuk (434,200), Yueqi Zhu (429,200), Chino Rheem (390,800), Daniel Opsina (331,200), Dario Sammartino (309,600), Jordan Cristos (304,000), Cliff Josephy (285,400), Xuan Liu (279,600), Dan Heimiller (263,000). 14-time bracelet winner and former main event winner Phil Hellmuth (162,700), and Card Player’s own Jeff Shulman (69,300), also moved on.

The tournament resumes Saturday at 11 a.m. PT with another five levels scheduled. Check out the overnight chip counts here.

Card Player’s 2018 WSOP coverage is sponsored by BetOnline Poker. Get a 100 percent deposit bonus, up to $1,000, by joining now. The site offers great cash game action and a chance to win more than $1 million in guaranteed tournaments throughout the month.

The first of three starting flights in the 2018 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event is officially in the books. A total of 925 players showed up for day 1A, which is more than a 16 percent increase from the 795 in last year’s first flight.

One reason for the increase may be the earlier starting date. Last year’s WSOP main event began on July 8, while this year’s main event kicks off with 13 other bracelet events still to go on the schedule.

2017 main event champion Scott Blumstein got his title defense effort started early and he was even seated at the ESPN featured table, but his run ended in level 3 when he ran an overpair into the back-door flush of three-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon. Other former main event winners who couldn’t survive the day included Jerry Yang and Qui Nguyen.

After five, two-hour levels of play on day 1A, just 661 players remained, led by Timothy Lau with a stack of 338,700. Lau, Truyen Nguyen, and Chris Fraser were the only players to cross the 250,000 mark.

Comedians Ray Romano and Kevin Pollak both sat down in the main event, and both managed to advance to day 2, bagging up stacks of 61,100 and 71,300, respectively. Hollywood producer Randall Emmett, who went so far as to hire a marching band to accompany him to the Amazon room at the Rio, finished with 133,400.

Other notables moving on to day 2 include Matt Berkey (185,600), Jake Schindler (157,900), Jared Bleznick (155,000), Brian Yoon (145,000), Jason Lester (139,100), Matt Waxman (120,600), Lacey Jones (114,000), Owen Crowe (114,000), and Chris Hunichen (107,300).