246 players of the 580 that started day 1B made it to the end still holding on to some chips. Here they are, sorted by chip counts, with their day 2 table and seat assignments. They will return Monday at noon to join the survivors of day 1A.

Gavin Griffin has been on a downward spiral for a while and he finally got his chips in with Q5 only to run into AK. Gavin is gonzo.

Play has concluded for tonight with 30 minutes remaining in level 7. 28 tables remain, so somewhere around 250 players survived and will return Monday at noon for day 2. They have begun the bag & tag process. Once the chip count list is available, it will be posted here. (Because of the size of the field, the media was advised not to expect the list until morning.)

It appears that Brian Lindsay is the chip leader with 225,875. Asa Smith is right on his heels with 223,775.

The final official player count for day 1b was 580, making the total number of entries 1,136. The official prize pool and payout information will not be available until tomorrow, but we were advised that the prize pool is about $8.5 million and first place will pay about $2 million. 120 players will get a piece of the pie.

Day 2 begins at noon on Monday!

	JC Marines

Brian Lindsay has come from nowhere and built his stack to 185k. J.C. Marines is the current chip leader, however, with about 195k.

Level 7: Blinds 500/1,000 with 100 antes. Play will continue for 45 minutes of this level, then they will wrap for the night. 32 tables remain holding 288 or fewer players.

	Vanessa Rousso - rousted

Vanessa Rousso moved in for her last 10,075 and Michael Benedetto made the call. Everyone else got out of the way and Vanessa showed A7 off. Michael's pocket Jacks were way ahead. The board came 6 4 3 K 8 and VR gets the rest of the week off.

Allen Kessler got his last chips in with pocket 6s and was racing against T8.  An 8 on the river washed away Allen's chips. Ryan Daut, 2007 PCA champ, was on the other end of a similar race when he shipped his chips in with J8 only to get called by a player holding pocket 7s.  This time the pocket pair held up and Ryan joins the crowds packing the side games.

	Asa Smith

On the river with the board showing T 5 3 Q 5 Asa Smith moved his chips all in anbd TJ called all-in quickly. Asa showed 7 6 for the flopped flush. TJ said "that's good" and mucked his hand, heading for the rail. (Rumor from the media in position to see TJ's hand is that he held pocket Jacks with the J .)

With that pot, Asa Smith became the chip leader with about 135k.

Level 6: 400/800 with 100 antes. Play has resumed. 40 tables remain; 360 or fewer players.

Another level in the books and another break in progress.

	ZeeJustin prior to departure, idling between Tom McEvoy & Lee Markholt

ZeeJustin got his chips in with KQ only to get called down and shown AK. No miracles today and Bonomo is gonzo. Vanessa Selbst has also departed.

	Gavin Griffin

Gavin Griffin's chip-gathering-machine is idling now. He's sitting on about 110k and is still the chip leader.

On the turn with the board showing Q 6 5 7 , the small blind checked to TJ Cloutier, who fired 8k. After a bit of thought, the small blind made the call. The river was the J and again it was checked to TJ, who fired 15k. The small blind mucked, surrendering the pot. TJ chipped up to over 60k.

44 tables remain -- 396 players at most. Average stack is about 29,300.

Level 5: Blinds 300/600 with 75 antes. Play has resumed.

End of level 4 and players are taking a well-deserved 10 minute break.  These folks will not becoming back for level 5:  Cliff Josephy, David Williams, Casey Kastle, Steve Buckner, Mark 'PokerHo' Kroon, and Jeff 'Mr. Rain' Banghart.

	TJ Cloutier

In a battle of the blinds, the small raised enough to put Greg Raymer (big blind) all in (about 6k).  Greg made the call, showing pocket 6s.  The small blind held AQ and Greg was racing for his tourament life.  Unfortunately for the WSOP Main Event Champ, an Ace came on the turn ending his race and his tournament.

TJ Cloutier is up to about 50k now. The unofficial number of entries today is 580 and of those, 441 remain, making the average stack about 26,300. Here are some other random chip-guesstimates:
Allen Kessler 11,500
Jon Friedberg 28k
Isabelle Mercier 15k
Tom McEvoy 16k
Lee Markholt 27k
Eric Cajelais 26k
Ryan Daut 16k
Bill Edler 26,500
Matthew Hilger 28k

	Jason Reisenberg - felted

Jason Reisenberg is a poker floor person at the Wynn, Las Vegas, and he won his seat in this event online. Unfortunately, he busted out in level 3.  Now he gets to spend the rest of his trip enjoying the island.

Gavin Griffin is up to 114k and I believe is the current chip leader. Here are some other random chip approximations:
Greg Raymer 6k
Barry Greenstein 27k
Vanessa Selbst 18k
Joe Hachem 33k
ZeeJustin Bonomo 6k
Daniel Negreanu 24k

Level 4: Blinds 200/400 with 50 antes. Play has resumed.

	Annette Obrestad - busted

Thomas Wahlroos made a check-raise-all-in-bluff on the river with nothing but Ace-high and got called by a player holding JT (board read 8 7 2 9 Q) for the straight. The Wahlroos left with egg on his face. Coo coo cachoo.

After a raising war, Annette Obrestad found herself all in with JT suited against AK offsuit. She got no help from the board and the WSOPE main event champ was eliminated.

Gavin Griffin turned a flush to crack pocket Aces and grow his stack to about 70k.

End of level 3 and players are taking a break. 55 tables remain, which means 495 or fewer players remain.

	Kevin 'imalucksac' MacPhee

Looks like Vito Braneiforte is the chip leader with ~67k. Wojciech Bobrycki is next with about 63k, and Kevin 'imalucksac' MacPhee is third with about 55k.

Level 3: Blinds 100/200 with 25 antes. Play has resumed.

Eric Cajelais got his Aces cracked by A4 on a board of J 4 4 8 6. Warren Silversmith cracked a set of Aces with pocket 8s when the board came A 8 7 8 x giving Warren quads.

Level 2: Blinds 100/200. Play has resumed.

First casualty of the day, on the first or second hand: At the river, the board read Q T 2 5 2. David Hamilton got it all in against Jose Lopez. David held pocket Kings for Kings-up, but Jose held pocket Queens for Queens full to take the pot. David didn't seem too disappointed as he left -- time to enjoy the sun, I guess.

First well-known casualty of the day, about an hour in: Max Bassil raised to 300 from the cutoff and Bernard Lee jacked it on up to 1,650 from the small blind. Max called. Flop was 7 6 3. Bernard fired 2,250 and Max called. Turn was a Ten and Bernard fired 4,250; Max called. River was a 7 and Bernard moved all-in. Max insta-called. Bernard held pocket 9s for two pair; Max showed 87 for trip 7s to take the pot and give Bernard the rest of the day off.

Level 1 has ended and players are taking 10.

Time for some name dropping. In today's field are (in no particular order): Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Jon Freidberg, Cliff Josephy, Thomas Wahlroos, David Williams, Annette Obrestad, Isabelle Mercier, Vanessa Rousso, Eric Cajelais, Tom McEvoy, Lee Markholt, Ryan Daut, Mark 'PokerHo' Kroon, Barry Greenstein, Justin Marsh, Joe Hachem, Jeff Banghart, Bernard Lee, Bill Edler, TJ Cloutier, Will 'the Thrill' Failla, Hevad Khan, Jim Pechac, Noah Boeken, Gavin Griffin, Matt Hilger, Rob Hollink, Casey Kastle, Vanessa Selbst and Allen Kessler. There are still some empty seats in the room and registration is still open, so more could be arriving.

Level 1: Blinds 50/100 Cards are in the air.

Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy drew first blood on the first hand. At the river, there was about 3k in the pot and the board read T 5 3 4 7 -- four to a straight and making a flush possible. Greg Anda fired 2,050. The Bax went into the tank for a couple of minutes, aplogized to the table for taking so long, then finally made the call, showing pocket Kings. Greg held pocket Queens and Cliff took it down.

Another batch of hopefuls will get down to business at noon today as day 1B kicks off. Among them will be former world champs Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer. Daniel Negreanu will also be playing today. This promises to be another pro-ful event, so stay tuned!

Kaelaine Minton Reporting

Kaelaine is one of the hardest working reporters on the tournament cicruit, and she can play poker, too!  She won the 2007 World Poker Open Media Tournament at the Goldstrike in Tunica, besting a field of 50 to win the event and the WPO gold bracelet!   Her motto is "will do anything poker-related for money".

Contact Kaelaine