Day 2 of the Epic Poker League's second event is in the books, following a busy day at Palms Casino, which witnessed several big-name eliminations and a the surge of a new chip leader.

The day started with a large number of well-known pros still in the run for a piece of the $2.3 million combined prize pool, but as play progressed a large chunk of the field would eventually hit the rail, leaving the remaining number of survivors at just 23.

Among those who failed to make it to Day 3 were Ben Lamb, David Baker, Steve Brecher, Hafiz Khan, Chau Giang, Lee Markholt, Nicolas Levi, Justin Bonomo, Greg Mueller, Mike Matusow, Matt Graham and Huck Seed, according to updates from the Epic Poker website.

Also hitting the rail on Day 2 was Phil Hellmuth, who ended his tournament run holding against Allen Bari's . Bari flopped a king, and left Hellmuth all but drawing dead, and with no help coming on either turn or river.

In the other end of the chip counts, WSOP bracelet holder Fabrice Soulier on the final level of the day began a run for the top spot by eliminating James Mackey, soon after taking advantage of his big stack to establish a 453,500 end-of-the-day lead.

Closely following Soulier are David Steicke in second place with 436,000 and Erik Seidel, who continues his incredible 2011 run, in third with 353,000.

Play will resume tomorrow at noon, Las Vegas time, as the 23 runners return to take a seat at one of the last three tables still in play.

From then on, tournament directors have decided to play down to the final eight-player table tomorrow, no matter how long this may take.