Owen Crowe - End of Day 1A chip leader

Finally! Here it is! The 212 players who survived Day 1A, sorted by chip count and we guessed correctly -- Owen Crowe turned out to be the end of Day 1A chip leader.

Well, here I am all fresh and raring to go and I still don't have the end of Day 1A chip counts. I will get them posted here, eventually....

I've been advised that it will probably be after 2am before the end of day 1A list comes out, so I'm not going to wait up for it. I'll get it posted here tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!

	Owen Crowe - Chip leader at end of day 1

Play has ended for today. Now it is just a waiting game for them to gather and compile the end of day chip counts. I'll get them posted here as soon as I get it.

General concensus is that Owen Crowe is going to be the end of day chip leader and your intrepid reporter (me) did manage to get a photo of him!

They are down to only 22 tables, which means fewer than 220 players remain with 15 minutes to play in level 6. Once the timer pops, the remaining players will count and bag their chips. Once a final list of the survivors and their stack sizes is available, I'll get it posted here.

Tomorrow at noon will be day 1B when the second half of the field begins their quest. With a projected first place prize of about $1.5 million, plus the $25K seat to the WPT Championship, this is a prize well worth playing for.

Level 6: Blinds 400/800 with 100 antes. Play has resumed. I managed to scour the room during the break to find the biggest stacks and the lead has definitely changed:

Vanessa Rousso has about 72K; Bill Chen has about 71K. Corey Cheresnick has dropped down to about 60K. Scott Clements has about 41K.

28 tables remain, so 280 players at most.

	Michael Farris

29 tables remain, so at most there are 290 players. The end of level 5 is coming up.

	Corey Cheresnick as brother Justin looks on

It appears that Michael Farris has moved into the chip lead with about 90K. Vanessa Rousso and Corey Cheresnick are both hovering around the 70K chip mark.

	Steve Paul-Ambrose mucks his hand

Defending PCA champion Steve Paul-Ambrose is at the river with the board showing K 7 3 8 3 . His opponent, the player on his right, moved all-in. Steve was in the tank for a couple of minutes (long enough for me to set up for the photo!) and then tossed his pocket 7s (for a set of 7s) face up onto the felt, surrendering the big pot.

	Mimi Rogers - felted in level 4

Mark Newhouse, Mimi Rogers, and Antonio Esfandiari have all busted out.

Level 4 comes to an end and the players are taking a break.

Only 34 tables remain, so at most, 340 players are still in action today. They only intend to play 6 levels, but if more than 225 players remain at the end of level 6, they will play another level tonight.

	Vanessa Rousso - builds her stack

Play has resumed in Level 4 with 200/400 blinds with 50 antes.

Vanessa Rousso has wasted no time accumulating chips. She's up to about 55K. Mimi Tran has about 44K. It is hard to pick out a chip leader in a room with 400 players, so for now I'll just tell you what I can.

Interview Insert: One of the players I interviewed today is 2004 WSOP Champion Greg Raymer. Greg is a member of Team PokerStars and is here supporting his team, but will not play in the PCA because it is a WPT event and he will not sign a WPT release form. He will be playing in the World Championship of Battleship Poker (where players play online, but face-to-face) which takes place in a few days and maybe some of the smaller events going on later in the week.

I've finished interviews for today and it is time for a tournament update! Players are on break at the end of level 3. About 440 players started today and these were among the crowd: Michael Binger, Bill Chen, Corey Cheresnick, Scott Clements, David Colclough, Antonio Esfandiari, Julian Gardner, Pete Giordano, Matt Glantz, James Lester, Kathy Liebert, Edward Moncada, Chris Moneymaker, Don Mullis, Yosh Nakano, Mark Newhouse, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Mimi Rogers, Vanessa Rousso, Joe Sebok, David Singer, Mimi Tran, Thomas Wahlroos, and Robert Williamson III.

Some highlights of early play:

In the first round, defending champ Steve Paul-Ambrose got his Aces cracked a lost a big pot, but still had about 15K.
Mark Newhouse was crippled early when he flopped trips but ran into a full house.
Mimi Tran doubles up with AK when all-in against pocket Kings -- with Ace on the flop.
Mark Newhouse continues to fight - gets back up to about 6K.
Kathy Liebert loses a big pot when she flopped top pair, but ran into two pair.
Joe Sebok has busted out.

Today is the first fight of the PCA which kicks off at noon. The buy-in to this event is $7,800 + $200, but most of the players here have won their entires on PokerStars for much less.

Players begin with 20,000 tournament chips and levels are 75 minutes long. Blinds will start at 50/100.

PokerStars sure knows how to throw a party! There was a reception last night for players who had already won their seats or pre-registered to the main event. Lots of food, drinks, and music. Of course the party was over when it was time to open the poker room. They do not have poker here at Atlantis, except during this event. The poker area opened last night about 8:30pm with a super-satellite for today's tournament.

Although they were supposed to have cash games, some snafu with the gaming license prevented that and there were only Sit-n-Gos. Cash games will begin today when tables open up from the main tournament.

In addition to Team PokerStars players, I also saw these players in the room last night: Wendell Barnes, (won his seat on PokerStars) Mark 'PokerHo' Kroon, (won his seat on PokerStars) John Racener, (was playing the $800 Single Table Satellites to try to win a seat) and Karlo Lopez.

I will be interviewing Team PokerStars players today from noon until 4pm, so tournament reporting will be thin, but with almost 500 players in the room, it is hard to do much day 1 action reporting, anyway.

	Kaelaine Minton