Bodog Beat

Bodog poker pro Justin Bonomo is one of the many big names at the 2009 WSOP today. (Bodog Beat Image)

The $5,000 No Limit Holdem event at the 2009 WSOP kicked off today and has drawn a stacked field of well-known players, promising to (*fingers crossed*) give us some great poker to watch, and one of those out in the crowd is Bodog Poker pro Justin Bonomo.

All in all, 655 players registered for the event, generating a prize pool of $3,078,500 of which 63 players will receive their share with first place getting $692,658. The laundry list of pros playing in this event includes Andy Black, 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang, T.J. Cloutier, Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, John Juanda, Humberto Brenes, Ted Lawson, David "The Dragon" Pham, 2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate, Hevad Khan, Vanessa Rousso, Gavin Smith and a whole lot more.

While we can't give you any "official" chip counts, we can say that we stopped by Bonomo's table and it looks like he's got a pretty healthy stack. So, that's our official chip count for Bonomo, healthy.

In other news, there are a couple of big names left among the 12 left standing in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed event, Huck Seed, Todd Brunson, Mark Gregorich and a couple of super-talented online poker players like Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin and Aurangzeb 'Ozzy 87′ Sheikh. Unfortunately, the $2,500 and $2,000 No Limit Holdem events have turned into friends and family affairs, so there's not really much to see there.

Stay tuned for more 2009 WSOP updates and information on how to qualify online for the WSOP through Bodog Poker and what you'll get when you do. Hint: it's a prize package worth over $12,000.