Day 1 of Event 54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em is a wrap with 265 players bagging their remaining chips. The day saw 3,221 hopefuls come out for the chance at bracelet glory, but as the levels increased the players decreased. The day finished with two players sharing the chip lead, both Jonas Mackoff and Clayton Fletcher finished the day with 148,500.

Most of the poker world's eyes focused on Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, but not everyone's. Today's event saw a slew of familiar faces such as Faraz Jaka, Bryan Devonshire, Jon Turner, Scott Montgomery, Shaun Deeb, and Bryan Micon all started the day with chips, but they did not end the day with any.

The money bubble burst in the middle of level 11 with the help of Alex Kravchenko, prompting cheers from all 325 players. Everyone from there on out was going to be walking away with a minimum $1,942.

Dutch Boyd made his presence known, taking a strong chip advantage over the rest of his table early on and maintaining and managed to finish the day in the middle of the pack. Chris Moorman came out of the woodwork late building his starting stack into a mountain of chips. A few other players coming back tomorrow are Justin Schwartz, Huck Seed, Matt Stout, Joey Weissman, and Sofia Lovgren.

All 265 players are expected to return tomorrow at 1:00 PM for Event: 54's restart. Play will consist of playing down until 9 players are left, or until 10 levels have been completed; whatever happens first. Stay tuned here to PokerNews for all your poker updates.

Two hands involving two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion Dutch Boyd.

In the first hand we caught him calling a short stack shove holding . His opponent held and after the board ran out Boyd had eliminated his opponent.

Then he raised to 2,500 in the cutoff, Jeff Fielder called on the button as did the big blind. The flop was , the big blind checked, Boyd bet 3,500, Fielder called and the big blind folded. The turn brought some mutual respect after both players checked and finally we saw the . Boyd made a bet of 7,000 and Fielder made a very quick call before turning over and Boyd slid his hand into the muck.

Jeff Fielder	106,000
Dutch Boyd	47,000	3,200

We don't know exactly how the betting went, but we know Alex Kravchenko and an unknown opponent got into a raising battle preflop that ended with Kravchenko's opponent all in and at risk.

Kravchenko:
Opponent:

The board came and with that Kravchenko was best, and the tournament had its bubbleboy.

Alex Kravchenko

85,000

50,000

As we trundle into the final level of the day we are probably going to burst the money bubble. There are 336 players left and forty-five minutes to lose twelve players.

The biggest stacks in the room include Jonas Mackoff (132k), Nick Abou Risk, (116,000), Andreas Heisenberger (100k) and Clayton Fletcher (97k).

Jonas Mackoff	132,000	52,000
Nick Abou Risk	116,000	30,000
Andreas Heissenberger	100,000	30,000
Clayton Fletcher	97,000
Owen Crowe	89,000	44,500
Will Jaffe	81,000	9,000
Andrew Dean	80,000	30,000
Chris Moorman	74,000	29,000
Justin Schwartz	70,000	-8,000
Joao Simao	66,000	-10,000
Mark Herm	61,000	-19,000
David Singotinko	39,000	1,000
Alex Kravchenko	35,000	10,000
Martin Finger	29,000	15,200
John Eames	28,000	5,000
Joey Weissman	27,000	-11,000
Mihai Manole	26,000	-1,000
Shannon Shorr	25,000	-11,000
Pratyish Buddiga	23,000	3,000
Paul Magriel	6,000	-59,000
Todd Terry	0	-9,750

There are 387 players left, and the time it takes to finish a soccer match, before this bad boy is over for the night. We have just trawled through the Golden section and this is what we saw.

We saw Gionni Demers apply maximum pressure to take down a decent sized pot without the need to play any post flop poker. The player on the button raised to 1,600, Demers three-bet to 4,400 from the small blind, the big blind four-bet to 11,300, the button folded and Demers moved all-in. The big blind fiddled, and thought for a few minutes, in absolute anguish, before eventually releasing his hand.

Alexander Dovzhenko has just lost a blind squabble that has left him perilously low. The action folded around to the player in the small blind who moved all-in holding and Dovzhenko called in the big blind holding . The board ran out and Dovzhenko was down to just 8,000 chips.

Alexander Dovzhenko is a true live tournament grinder with over $1.5 million in earnings going back over an eleven year stretch.

Finally, we saw former Irish Open champion, James Mitchell, lose a substantial portion of his chips to Frank Piocos and this is how. There was a raise from early position and a call from Piocos on the button. Mitchell was seated in the big blind and he squeezed for a total of 4,800, the initial raiser folded but the button made the call.

Flop:

The flop looked perfect for both because Mitchell was holding and Piocos was holding . The turn and river changed nothing and Mitchell was down to 11,000.

Matt Livingstone	69,000
Michael Craig	55,000	10,000
Gionni Demers	50,000	-5,000
Yann Brosolo	48,000	-7,000
Sofia Lovgren	47,000	2,000
Jia Liu	40,000	-20,000
Matt Stout	35,400	3,400
Gianluca Rullo	30,000	-30,000
Chris Arvanitis	25,000	-19,000
Kevin Vandersmissen	19,000	6,000
Sam Holden	16,000	6,500
Tom McCormick	14,500	6,100
James Keys	14,300	-13,700
Darryl Fish	11,000	2,000
James Mitchell	11,000	-4,000
Alexander Dovzhenko	8,000	3,000
Pierre Neuville	0	-8,500

We don't exactly know how the action went, but the board read and Allen Kessler was being pushed a pot for his double up. Kessler had for a pair of jacks which was seemingly good enough, as his opponent had subsequently mucked.

Allen Kessler

20,000

6,000

The flop read and the small blind fired out a bet of 4,800 into Andreas Heissenberger in late position. Heissenberger made the call and added to the already large pot. We don't know how the action went preflop, but there was at least one raise and call, due to the size of the pot.

The on the turn slowed down the small blind, but seemingly awoke Heissenberger who bet out 7,000. The small blind made the call and both players were granted access to the river.

After the fell on the river the small blind again checked. Heissenberger opted to move all in, a bet that would essentially put the short stacked small blind all in. After a few quick seconds the small blind made the call.

Heissenberger:
Small Blind:

The small blind had two pair aces and fives, but that was only second best to Heissenberger's three of a kind fives. With that hand Heissenberger moves into the top 10 in chips.

Justin Schwartz	78,000	3,000
Andreas Heissenberger	70,000
Paul Magriel	65,000	-10,000
Sofia Lovgren	45,000	21,000
Chris Moorman	45,000	-3,000
Dutch Boyd	43,800	-4,200
Matt Stout	32,000	22,000
Alex Kravchenko	25,000	-600
Allen Kessler	14,000	6,200
Huck Seed	12,000	2,300
Darryl Fish	9,000	500

Players are now on their last 20 minute break of the night.

In a few minutes time we are going to lose the green chips, and it's about time because the stacks are starting to get pretty sizeable. A few of the players who have sizeable stacks include Gianluca Rullo (84k), Jonas Mackoff (80k), Mark Herm (80k), Joao Simao (76k), Will Jaffe (72k) and the new chip leader Nick Abou Risk with 86,000.

Players out include Jason Helder (hence the beefed up stack of Mackoff), Jason Wheeler (after running a set of kings into a set of aces…ouch!), Ylon Schwartz, Ogjnen Sekularac and a funny hand involving World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder Craig McCorkell and here it is.

We arrived at the table with the full board out on display.

Board:

The chips were being pushed in the direction of a player holding in front of him, and they were being taken out of the stack of an empty seat. The table told us that the seat belonged to Craig McCorkell. Once the count had been complete McCorkell (who had called a shove holding on the turn) still had around 500 chips left. John Eames - who was sharing a table with McCorkell rang him on his mobile number and told him to return to the table.

When McCorkell got back Eames raised to 1,200, McCorkell moved all-in blind and the rest of the table allowed them to have a showdown. Eames showed pocket fives and McCorkell turned over pocket queens. The player to Eames left then tells him that he folded a five leaving just one out in the deck - cue the board.

Board:

Eames hits his one outer which pays for the price of the phone call needed to get McCorkell back to his seat.

Nick Abou Risk	86,000
Muhamet Perati	84,000	19,000
Jonas Mackoff	80,000
Mark Herm	80,000
Joao Simao	76,000	9,000
Justin Schwartz	75,000	18,000
Yann Brosolo	72,000
Will Jaffe	72,000	5,000
Andrew Dean	50,000	5,000
Chris Moorman	48,000	25,800
Owen Crowe	44,500	6,500
David Singotinko	38,000	28,000
Joey Weissman	38,000	14,000
Shannon Shorr	36,000	28,000
Mihai Manole	27,000	6,000
Alex Kravchenko	25,600	11,600
John Eames	23,000	10,000
Pratyish Buddiga	20,000	9,000
Martin Finger	13,800	5,300
Todd Terry	10,000	-3,000
Ogjnen Sekularac	0	-9,000
Jason Wheeler	0	-24,000
Ylon Schwartz	0	-6,000
Craig McCorkell	0

A player in early position raised it up to 1,400 and action folded to Paul Magriel who three-bet to 4,400. The rest of the table folded and it was back to the initial raiser who four-bet to 9,200. Magriel allowed for a couple of minutes to drain off the clock while he decided what to do. In the end though Magriel announced "all in", a bet that would put his opponent all in for his remaining 7,000. The early position player made the call and was at risk.

Magriel:
Opponent:

The flop came sling-shotting Magriel into the lead as he grabbed hold of an eight. The on the turn secured the victory, and Magriel's opponent was drawing dead. A meaningless fell on the river and Magriel just moved up to one of the top stacks in the room.

Magriel has yet to cash at this year's World Series of Poker, but if he keeps running like he is cashing in this event should be a breeze.

Paul Magriel

75,000

69,500

As we enter the final stretch we have 540 players remaining and an average chip stack of 17,894. We have just walked through the Gold section of the Brasilia room and here is the news.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder, David Diaz, is out. He was eliminated pre flop when his could not find the magical card combination required to beat the of Gionni Demers. Demers who finished 20th in last years Main Event for $302,005 now has 55,000 chips.

Michael Craig has dropped down to 45,000 and Chris Arvanitis remains on a steady 44,000. Joining the top of the chip counts in the Gold Section are Gianluca Rullo (60k) and Jia Liu (60k).

Gianluca Rullo	60,000
Jia Liu	60,000
Gionni Demers	55,000
Michael Craig	45,000	-14,000
Chris Arvanitis	44,000	-1,000
James Keys	28,000	3,000
Sofia Lovgren	24,000	0
James Mitchell	15,000	5,000
Kevin Vandersmissen	13,000	-2,000
Matt Stout	10,000	500
Huck Seed	9,700	-5,300
Sam Holden	9,500	-1,000
Pierre Neuville	8,500
Tom McCormick	8,400	-2,600
David Diaz	0	-9,000

Players are on a 20 minute break.

Dominik Nitsche is out but at least he has escaped compulsory Rorschach testing after being driven completely mad by the player to his right. Nitsche lost when he shoved and ran into some cowboys looking for a fight in a saloon, but who cares about that? Back to Nitsche and his delicate mental state. The player to his right kept stacking his chips in a way that Donald Trump would not appreciate. Then he would balance his tic-tacs on the top. The tic-tacs would fall every few hands or so and everytime they did Nitsche started to squint like Dreyfuss from the Pink Panther. We think the elimination is the best thing that could have happened to the young German - enjoying his first ever World Series of Poker (WSOP - otherwise he would have hit him over the head with his pencil case.

Now let's get back to someone in full control of all their faculties. Neil Channing has just been battered down to 5k. Here he is explaining how in his own tweet.

SenseiChanning Neil Channing Ouch. Lost 13k pot with the AA vs 6d7d. Man waited intil turn to shove his flush draw. Back to 5k. Had been starting to enjoy today. July 01 2012

Neil Channing	5,000	-8,000
Dominik Nitsche	0	-8,000

Dutch Boyd seems to be involved with every pot when we walk by, recent we found him involved in a had with a board reading . Boyd's opponent was first to act and he opted to check. Boyd did the same and both players were witness to the on the turn. It was here that Boyd's opponent bet out 3,600. Boyd took his time pondering his best option before making the call.

The on the river saw Boyd's opponent take a some time off the clock before checking. Boyd then slowly put out a casual bet of 4,000. The early position player went into the tank, draining a minute or two away before eventually throwing his cards into the muck.

Dutch Boyd	48,000	17,000
Joey Weissman	24,000	-4,000
Huck Seed	15,000	1,000
Todd Terry	13,000	4,500
Allen Kessler	7,800	-1,700
Victor Ramdin	0	-12,000
John Pham	0	-2,000

With 670 players left and an average stack of 9,600 let's give you some news from the Silver Section.

The Brazilian Joao Simao and the American pairing of Will Jaffe and Jason Helder are both making good progress with 67,000 and 55,000 respectively. Also Justin Schwartz has just taken a big pot from Steven Van Zadelhoff to move up to 57,000.

Muhamet Perati is a player who is getting lost in the midst of his growing stack of ante chips. Here he is moving up to 65,000 with the mighty proving that when you run hot…you run hot.

The cutoff raised to 725 and Perati called in the big blind. The action checked through to the turn on a board of before Perati bet 1,125 and his opponent quickly called. The river card was the and Perati fired a second salvo worth 3,800. His opponent started to make strange shapes with his face, but he finally called. Perati flipped over the and his opponent mucked.

The English duo of Chris Moorman and John Eames are sitting on side to side tables. Moorman currently has 22,200 chips and Eames has 13,000 after losing a few in the following hand.

A player in early position raised to 900, Eames three-bet to 2,100 in the cutoff and an older gentlemen flew into the pot with an all-in shove from the blinds. The original raiser folded and the decision was back on Eames.

"Could you have thought about it just for a little bit," Eames said before reluctantly folding his hand.

Players who seem to have waved bye-bye to this event include Andreas Hoivold, Ray Henson, David Peters, Isaac Haxton, Leo Margets, Leonid Bilokur, Nacho Barbero and Luca Moschitta.

Joao Simao	67,000
Will Jaffe	67,000
Muhamet Perati	65,000
Justin Schwartz	57,000	29,000
Jason Helder	55,000
Andrew Dean	45,000	0
Owen Crowe	38,000
Jason Wheeler	24,000	17,000
Chris Moorman	22,200	5,200
Mihai Manole	21,000	14,000
Alex Kravchenko	14,000	2,000
John Eames	13,000	1,000
David Singotinko	10,000	3,000
Ogjnen Sekularac	9,000	-2,500
Martin Finger	8,500	1,250
Shannon Shorr	8,000	3,000
Ylon Schwartz	6,000	800
Adam Levy	4,000	-1,700
Andreas Hoivold	0
David Peters	0	-4,000
Ray Henson	0	-3,000
Isaac Haxton	0	0
Nacho Barbero	0	-6,500
Leonid Bilokur	0	0
Leo Margets	0	0
Luca Moschitta	0	-6,000

We reported earlier how Alessio Isaia had flopped a straight only to be outdrawn by the full house of Chris Arvanitis. He then quadrupled up before being eliminated by Williams Spohn. We don't know the exact details but Isaia was all-in holding pocket treys and Spohn held . The flop ran out with a Broadway straight and the man with $2 million in live tournament earnings is out.

Alessio Isaia

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