Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

It's official -- 187 players have survived Day 1 action in Event 36, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. All 187 players have already made it into the money, led by Owen 'ocrowe' Crowe at 170,000 in chips. The overnight top ten: Owen Crowe 170,000 Danny Wong 114,500 Leonid Yanovski 106,500 Jim Mackowiak 103,400 RW Best 103,200 Richard Deeb 99,600 Duncan Bell 99,300 Chris Klodnicki 99,200 Bryan Paris 94,900 Cody Slaubaugh 92,700 Play resumes in Event 36 at 2pm PDT on Friday

Just before the bubble, as J.C. Tran was doubling up on virtually every hand, he tried bullying Jennafer Liebig with a big raise and the bubble just a few spots away. She shoved in the last of her chips and chased Tran out of the pot. She showed A-K and said, "I'm not scared of you." She just doubled up again with A-Q vs. Q-10 on a queen-high flop and she'll go into play tomorrow with around a 40,000 stack.

About ten minutes ago, it was brought to our attention that there was a player who had left the tournament awhile ago due to an emergency. His chips had been blinded off for awhile now, and ten minutes ago they were down to 300. With antes being 100 per player, anticipation was high that this player would not last very much longer. What was slightly unexpected was that he would end up being our bubble boy. Under the rules here, any player not in his seat and all in is an instant muck. Sure enough, this player's chips were all in, the cards were dealt, and he hadn't returned to the Amazon room. As his chips were scooped up by the player who won the hand, our Tournament Director announced, "Congratulations!" over the loud speaker and was met with a triumphant cheer from the remaining 198 players.

Issac Haxton moved in under the gun for his last 16,900 and was called by the player in the big blind. Haxton then learned that his     were way behind his opponent's    . The flop came      , the turn was the  , and just when it looked like Haxton's night would come to an end the   spiked on the river to give him the pot. He's now up to 36,000.

We're down to 207 players and we've almost reached the money, but the players at Table 2 are in a party mood already. They called for a cocktail server and everyone ordered Coronas, with a few players asking for shots of Patron. It's not the tensest table as the money bubble approaches.

We still have nearly 40 minutes left in the evening and we're already down to just 210 players. We reach the money at 198, which means we have just 11 players left before we go hand for hand. We very well could reach the money tonight, but it could be close.

We don't specific details about the two hands that led to Shorr's elimination, save this one -- he had pocket aces cracked two hands in a row. And he's out.

Alex Jacob raised from the small blind with    , and the player in the big blind moved all in. Jacob called and found he was up against    , and when the flop came       Jacob lost a big chunk of his stack. He now sits with 28,000.

After the last story, we felt inclined to give you another: A player at table 18 was facing a raise preflop and looked down to see pocket aces. He immediately pushed all in and his opponent insta-called. Unfortunately for Player 1, they were both holding pocket aces. They chopped the pot and on the very next hand the same player, facing another raise preflop, looked down to see pocket kings. Player 1 shoved all in and his opponent insta-called and tabled pocket aces. The kings lost and the player was eliminated.

We've just come back from our break, and about five minutes after the announcement that cards should be in the air, we were greeted with, "Players in today's $1,500 event, can I have your attention?" which was quite a surprise, as we weren't expecting an announcement about anything in particular. "We have a player who has lost his table. He's can't remember where he was seated before the break. If you recognize this player from before the break, please help us get him to his seat." The remaining 280 players here all began to chuckle, thinking it to be a joke. But it wasn't. There was a man standing near the TD desk who needed to be pointed the right direction. After just a few moments, the kind players at table Blue 16 signaled that his seat was with them, and he made his way in their direction. While walking to take his seat, the crowd let out a little applause that the lost poker player had found his way.