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A total of 205 runners joined the existing 188 on the second starting flight day of the World Poker Tour Jacksonville Main Event. Just 90 players from Day 1b will join the Day 1a survivors. Tommy Vedes, a professional poker player with a resume that includes a previous WPT victory, is the current player to beat with over 209k chips. Vedes’ last major win came in 2009 when he dominated to WPT Festa al Lago to cash for over $1.2 million. Amazingly, Vedes barely made it to the tournament room in time to register for WPT Jacksonville.

Although Vedes is the outright leader for now, there’s little doubt that he’d prefer more breathing room as top pros including Michael Swimelar (158k chips), Barry Wiedemann (162k chips) and Imari Love (172k chips) are hot on his heels. Love’s chip stack actually exceeded 200k for a few levels, but he relented later in the day to make way for Vedes.

Vedes earned a significant portion of his stack by eliminating James Calderaro, who understandably pushed all-in with pocket aces only to be defeated by the trip queens of Vedes.

Other recent railbird at WPT Jacksonville include Todd Terry and Allen Kessler. Kessler also pushed all-in with pocket aces only to face defeat in the form of an unsuited straight. Kessler, Terry, Lee Markholt and Will Failla all bought in on Day 1a and Day 1b, contributing heavily to the prize pool, but ultimately busting before Day 1b came to a close.

Andy Frankenberger, a one-time WPT champion and one of the most successful live tournament players of 2011, busted out as well when his A-K offsuit failed to improve against J-J. Noted pros John Dolan, Kyle Bowker, T.K. Miles, Antony Spinella and Allen Carter hit the rail soon after.

Despite the eliminations, plenty of talented pros remain, including Victor Ramdin, Harrison Gimbel, John Racener, Maurice Hawkins, Raj Vohra and Jared Jaffee. They’ve got some catching up to do, however, if they want to pass Vedes and take the $326k first-place prize.