Liv Boeree is pretty. And bagged 34,000 in chips going into Day 2.

When you run a poker tournament in which most of the seats are won via online qualifiers, and around 25-30% of your biggest market that typically sends the most qualifiers is wiped off the map…safe to say you’re going to see a dip in attendance.

Meet the 2012 PCA Main Event.

The 2010 and 2011 versions each saw over 1,500 entrants. This year, the number dropped to 1,072. Regardless, first will still bank an even ,000,000, making it one of the largest non-High-Roller first places prizes of the year.

A total of 545 of the starting 1,072 survived to the merged Day 2. Alexey Repik leads the way, stacked at 220,100. Notable big stacks include Chino Rheem (182,900), Alexander Kravchenko (120,000), Barry Greenstein (105,000), Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (100,000), and Vanessa Selbst, a woman (86,000).

Last year’s winner, Galen Hall, is alive with 56,900.

Viktor Blom and Daniel Negreanu were eliminated on Day 1B.

Get full chip counts here.

* Photo courtesy PokerStars Blog.

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Faraz Jaka has almost lapped the field at the 2012 PCA Main Event.

With 183 remaining at the 2012 PCA Main Event, Faraz Jaka has built a huge chip lead, nearly doubling the stack of his nearest competitor.

Jaka enters Day 3 stacked at 902,500. The closest player to him is Cristian Folescu with 555,500.

A total of 160 will get paid. Some notables remaining include little Asian hottie Xuan Liu, a woman (216,000), last year’s champ Galen Hall (192,500), Phil Collins (166,500), Carlos Mortensen (146,500), and Liv Boeree, a woman (90,500).

Get full chip counts here.

* Photo courtesy PokerStars Blog.

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Xuan Liu is looking as good at the 2012 PCA as she did on the rail at the WSOP. She's among the chip leaders.

With 64 remaining in the 2012 PCA Main Event, Phil D’Auteuil leads, stacked at 1,472,000.

Yesterday’s chip leader, Faraz Jaka, remained steady, finishing the day third overall with 1,220,000.

Still plenty of notables remain, including but not limited to Xuan Liu, a woman (680,000), Barry Greenstein (379,000), professional golfer Sergio Garcia (235,000), last year’s champ Galen Hall (168,000), and [..........] (122,000).

Everyone remaining banks at least ,500, and first earns ,000,000.

Get full chip counts here.

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Garcia is the one on the left.

Sergio Garcia‘s inspired run at the 2012 PCA Main Event came to an end on Wednesday.

The Spanish golfer–who was among the chip leaders at various stages of the tournament–was eliminated in 51st place for ,000–or approximately .001% of what he’s earned during his professional golf career.

This makes Garcia’s third ever career poker tournament cash, giving him three more than Rocco Mediate (at the WSOP here) or Paul Pierce (at the WSOP here).

While Garcia was KO’d, 24 still remain. Faraz Jaka reclaimed the chip lead with 4,114,000. He’s followed by Alex Fitzgerald with 2,709,000.

Xuan Liu, a woman, is also still alive with 1,082,000.

Get a full recap of the day here.

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Pius Heinz, Ben Lamb, and that other guy will come back to compete for the 2011 WSOP Main Event title on Tuesday.

The 2011 WSOP Main Event final table played out like most episodes of The Walking Dead: really slow at first, then picking up with a bang at the end.

While Sunday’s final table didn’t match 2009′s ridiculousness of swings, bad beats, and storylines, the near-live feed on ESPN2 showcased a level of skill among the participants that’s likely been unmatched in previous years.

In the end, you can make the case that the three guys who played the best ultimately survived for Tuesday’s championship battle. Taking the chip lead when the final three return is German PIUS HEINZ with 107,800,000. He’s followed by U.S. American and reigning WSOP POY Ben Lamb with 55,400,000. And in third overall is the man who started play as chip leader, Martin Staszko, with 42,700,000.

Follow the final three on Tuesday on ESPN.

Get 4-9 payouts after the jump. Get a full live blog recap from Dr. Pauly here.

* Photo courtesy Jon Boncek/2011 WSOP

4th – Matt Giannetti: ,011,661
5th – Phil Collins: ,268,909
6th – Eoghan O’Dea: ,720,396
7th – Badih Bounahra: ,313,851
8th – Anton Makiievskyi: ,009,910
9th – Sam Holden: 2,115

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Leean Tweeden bares all for the December issue of Playboy.

Former NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and Poker After Dark hostess Leean Tweeden is featured in the December issue of Playboy.

Tweeden–who at 38 years-old looks absolutely fantastic–bares all in a multi-page spread.

By our count, Tweeden is the third poker hottie to pose for the mag, as Shana Hiatt (here) and Jennifer Leigh (here) have done past pictorials.

See the obviously NSFW pictorial pics here.

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Pius Heinz is the 2011 WSOP Main Event champion.

Pius Heinz has won the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

The 22 year-old German defeated 42 35 year-old Czechoslovakian Martn Staszko heads-up for the title.

WSOP POY Ben Lamb went out early in third place.

For the win, Heinz captures his first bracelet and banks ,715,638. Staszko takes home ,433,086 for second. Ben Lamb adds another ,021,138 to his 2011 WSOP haul for third.

It was an action packed final three. Ben Lamb pushed all in twice early and was eliminated on the fourth hand. And Martin Staszko and Pius Heinz changed chip leadership eight times heads-up.

Heinz becomes the first ever German Main Event winner.

* Photo: Bluff Magazine

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PIUS HEINZ surprisingly helped carry a strong WSOP live rating on Tuesday evening.

Live poker raked in strong ratings for ESPN.

The overnights for the 2011 WSOP Main Event final broadcast on Tuesday were strong, holding an average 1.01 rating during the 6.5 hours of live broadcast.

While that’s down from last year’s 1.28 produced primetime 2-hour comparable, the 1.01 rating stretches over six hours, bringing significantly more eyeballs and exposure overall. This despite losing arguably the most well-known and marketable (and American) of the bunch–Ben Lamb–on the fourth hand.

In all, that’s a major win for the WSOP and the viability of live poker programming in general.

We expect to see the broadcast finals out sometime by end of day Wednesday.

We’ll have our take on this year’s overall WSOP ratings–for both produced shows (down) and live shows (solid)–and the future of poker on TV in general–on Wicked Chops Insider by Thursday.

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