Ben Lamb continued his extraordinary run at the 2011 World Series of Poker by finishing atop the chip counts on Day 1b of the Main Event.

Although overall attendance numbers were down for the second straight day, that didn’t stop Lamb from stomping his competition and finishing with 188,925 chips. 

So far Lamb has cashed four times at the WSOP for over $1.3 million, made three final tables and won one bracelet.

Phil Hellmuth finally overtook Lamb in the WSOP Player of the Year Race when he finishes second in the $50k Players Championship on Wednesday night. It was Hellmuth’s third second-place finish at the 2011 WSOP.

It appears that Lamb is not giving this one up without a fight and Hellmuth may have to make a deep run if he wants to seal the deal.

Attendance Down 28%

Of course Lamb wasn’t the only story on Day 1b of the 2011 Main Event. Overall attendance numbers were indeed down compared to last year’s Day 1b.

This year 985 players bought into the Main Event, which is down significantly from last year’s 1,489.

Over two days the Main Event is down approximately 28% with only 1,882 registered players compared to last year’s 2,614.

The declining numbers didn’t keep big name pros David Ulliott, Allen Cunningham, Patrik Antonius, Scott Seiver, David Baker, Ashton Griffin, Vivek Rajkumar, Kevin Saul, Mike Matusow, John Duthie, Carlos Mortensen and Amnon Filippi from buying in.

Notable Bustouts

2010 November Niner Michael Mizrachi provided the traditional shuffle up and deal but busted in the late stages of the day.

Some of the other notable bustouts on Day 1b included Justin Smith, Tuan Le, Nicolas Levi, Andre Akarri, Dario Minieri and Noah Schwartz.

Chip Leaders

On the other hand Kevin Saul, Carlos Mortensen, Sam Stein, Bob Safai, Sam Simon, Patrik Antonius, John Racener, Dan Kelly, Mike McDonald and Max Lykov rose to the top of the chip counts.

By the time the dust had settled on Day 1b there were approximately 626 players who had bagged up chips for the night.

The remaining players won’t play until Tuesday when they’ll combine with the survivors from Day 1d to form Day 2b. 

The 2011 WSOP continues through July 19. For comprehensive coverage live from Las Vegas check PokerListings’ 2009 WSOP Live Updates brought to you by PartyPoker.