2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela has had a pretty abysmal series so far by his standards, and after a bad call in this last hand, he has not started the Main Event off well either.

We came into a hand on the turn with the board reading and the player in the big blind open-shoved for 23,100. Kassela was understandably a little taken aback and he went into the tank for some time. Eventually he made the call and his opponent tabled and Kassela just said, "you're crushing" as he flipped over his The river was the and Kassela has fallen to just around 7,000. Not a good start to the day

Frank Kassela

7,400

-22,600

We caught up to the action at Table 52 to find a player in early position make it 500 to anyone who wanted to see a flop. Action was next on Nelly who sat there contemplating what he wanted to do next. Before Nelly could decide on how he wanted to play the hand the next player to act moved all in for 6,000. The dealer informed the player that it wasn't his turn and gave him his chips back. Nelly then smooth called. The player who tried to go all in out of turn then attempted to fold, but the table stopped him and an argument began about what that player is allowed to do so the floor was called. After being explained the situation the floor ruled that the player was indeed all in.

Action folded around to Nick Binger who sat in silence for a few moments, before he realised he was still in the hand. He folded and told the table "I thought I folded ages ago". The action eventually folded to the player in early position who angrily folded his cards. Nelly then instantly called the all in and cards were tabled.

Nelly:
Opponent:

The cards then came out and Nelly was awarded the pot as his pair aces trumped his opponents pair of fours.

Nelly

15,000

0

We joined the pot on a
Opponent:

The turn and river failed to improve Steve Z's overpair, and he has been sent to the rail here early in Day 1d.

A lot of talk at the tables about what the final tally is going to be for entrants at this year's Main Event -- and, of course, what that final prize pool will be. A player over in the Yellow section was just telling his table how he'd finished around 200th back in 2005, for which he noted he'd won about $39,000.

Interestingly, just a table over from that player is sitting someone with a pretty specific memory of the 2005 WSOP and its prize pool. He's wearing headphones, though, and so didn't hear the conversation nearby. There sits Steve Dannenmann, who finished second to Joe Hachem that year to win a cool $4.25 million of that event's $52.8 million prize pool.

In 2009, Charlie Elias lived his poker dream and played in the WSOP Main Event, along with 6,483 other players right here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Nobody expected the then-26-year-old floor tiler from Sydney to go deep, but he defied the odds and finished up in 53rd place, taking home USD $138,568.

In the same year, Jonathan Werthheim (248th place - $32,963) Craig Ivey (267th place - $32,963) and Emma Grace (404th place - $27,469) all made the money, before Nick Filippopoulos (487th place - $27,519) and Phil Faux (577th place - $24,079) made their run to fortune and fame in 2010.

This year, 14 players from all around Australia have flown into Las Vegas to take their shot at poker stardom, thanks once again to the Australian Poker League, the world's largest freeroll pub poker provider.

Amongst the pack in today's Day 1d flight are Adam Hills, Kevin Gardner, Thor Sutherland, Cameron Shepherd, Zoran Stanojevic, Shane Shalders, Chris Alleaume and Khai Nguyen, while Shivan Abdine, Alex Sandys, Sarah Loft, Troy Brindle, John Azzi and Eli Bakirtzidis have already played on Day 1b.

The PokerNews Live Reporting team will do their best to keep an eye out for them during the Main Event, but you can also click here for exclusive coverage.

Over on table 298, we found Aussie online phenom Kristian "Bada Bing" Lunardi and an opponent on the button go heads-up into a flop of . Lunardi checked to the button who bet 800 and Lunardi called, before both players checked their option on the turn of the .

Lunardi then led out for 1,825 on the river of the , but that was enough for the button player to lay his hand down.

Kristian Lunardi

34,600

4,600

Carter King and one opponent from under the gun went to a flop of . The UTG player checked and King bet 750. His opponent called and the turn came . King's opponent check-called 900 and the river fell . The UTG player checked a third time and King bet 2,300. His opponent called fairly quickly and mucked when King tabled . King is around 47,000.

This past spring, Patrick Houchins finished 3rd in the WSOP-C Main Event at Caesars Atlantic City. He took home $62,893 for is efforts, and is looking to parlay that into millions here at the Main Event.

Just recently, on a board of , he slid out a pot-sized bet against two opponents. They both called, and showed flushes; , and . Houchins tabled the almighty for a full house however, and raked in a nice pot to put him at 45,000 chips.

And just like that, Tom Dwan's 2011 Main Event is over.

He raised to 525 in early position and was called by Frank Rusnak in the big blind. The flop fell and Rusnak check-called 900 from Dwan. The turn card was checked by both, leading to the river. Rusnak bet 1,250, but was raised to 4,600 by Dwan.

After about 30 seconds Rusnak re-raised all in with the bigger stack. Dwan had a decision for his remaining 7,000-ish and called after about another 30 seconds, but saw the bad news when Rusnak tabled . Dwan quickly exited the area before the cameras arrived to see his hand, , turned over.

Frank Rusnak	49,000	0
Tom Dwan	0	0

From under the gun, Patrick de Koster raised to 450. Ryan Julius flatted from middle position before action folded around to the player on the button. The button made a reraise to 2,100. The two blinds folded and then action was back on de Koster, the original preflop raiser. He tanked for a minute, but eventually folded his hand. Julius also folded.

With approximately 2,700 chips in the middle, the board read between one player and Ryan Julius. After his opponent checked, Julius fired a bet of 1,650. His opponent only took a brief moment to folded and allow Julius to win the pot.

We most notably covered Julius in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Circuit Regional Championship in Hammond in October of last year. Julius went on to finish in 17th place in that event for $26,882. Earlier that year, Julius won the $3,000 Chicago Poker Classic Main Event for $182,247.

Ryan Julius

32,700

2,700

Vanessa Rousso opened with a raise to 500 from middle position and it folded back around to the player in the big blind who called. The flop came and both checked. The turn was the . Rousso's opponent fired 1,200, and Rousso called.

The river brought the and another bet from Rousso's opponent, this time for 1,500. Rousso called the bet, tabling for kings, good enough to beat her opponent's .

Rousso is off to a good start today, having chipped up to 42,000 during the first two hours-plus.

This is a doozy of a chart, but it contains some fun facts we thought you might interest you. While we're a long way from the final hand of the 2011 Main Event, it is never too early to reflect on the hands that helped shape poker history:

Final Hand Details of WSOP Main Event

Year	Winner	Winning Hand	Prize	Entries	Runner Up	Losing Hand
1970	Johnny Moss	N/A	Silver Cup	7	Winner by vote of peers	N/A
1971	Johnny Moss	Unknown	$30,000	6	Puggy Pearson	Unknown
1972	Amarillo Slim Preston		$80,000	8	Puggy Pearson
1973	Puggy Pearson		$130,000	13	Johnny Moss
1974	Johnny Moss		$160,000	16	Crandall Addington
1975	Sailor Robert		$210,000	21	Bob Hooks
1976	Doyle Brunson		$220,000	22	Jesse Alto
1977	Doyle Brunson		$340,000	34	Gary Berland
1978	Bobby Baldwin		$210,000	42	Crandall Addington
1979	Hal Fowler		$270,000	54	Bobby Huff
1980	Stu Ungar		$385,000	73	Doyle Brunson
1981	Stu Ungar		$375,000	75	Perry Green
1982	Jack Strauss		$520,000	104	Dewey Tomko
1983	Tom McEvoy		$540,000	108	Rod Peate
1984	Jack Keller		$660,000	132	Byron Wolford
1985	Bill Smith		$700,000	140	T.J. Cloutier
1986	Berry Johnston		$570,000	141	Mike Harthcock
1987	Johnny Chan		$625,000	152	Frank Henderson
1988	Johnny Chan		$700,000	167	Erik Seidel
1989	Phil Hellmuth		$755,000	178	Johnny Chan
1990	Mansour Matloubi		$895,000	194	Hans "Tuna" Lund
1991	Brad Daugherty		$1,000,000	215	Don Holt
1992	Hamid Dastmalchi		$1,000,000	201	Tom Jacobs
1993	Jim Bechtel		$1,000,000	220	Glenn Cozen
1994	Russ Hamilton		$1,000,000	268	Hugh Vincent
1995	Dan Harrington		$1,000,000	273	Howard Goldfarb
1996	Huck Seed		$1,000,000	295	Bruce Van Horn
1997	Stu Ungar		$1,000,000	312	John Strzemp
1998	Scotty Nguyen		$1,000,000	350	Kevin McBride
1999	Noel Furlong		$1,000,000	393	Alan Goehring
2000	Chris Ferguson		$1,500,000	512	T.J. Cloutier
2001	Carlos Mortensen		$1,500,000	613	Dewey Tomko
2002	Robert Varkonyi		$2,000,000	631	Julian Gardner
2003	Chris Moneymaker		$2,500,000	839	Sam Farha
2004	Greg Raymer		$5,000,000	2,576	David Williams
2005	Joe Hachem		$7,500,000	5,619	Steve Dannenmann
2006	Jamie Gold		$12,000,000	8,773	Paul Wasicka
2007	Jerry Yang		$8,250,000	6,358	Tuan Lam
2008	Peter Eastgate		$9,152,416	6,844	Ivan Demidov
2009	Joe Cada		$8,547,044	6,494	Darvin Moon
2010	Jonathan Duhamel		$8,944,310	7,319	John Racener

As Level 2 began, 2010 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Frank Kassela took his seat over in the Black section. Of the hundreds of tables at which he might've been seated, Kassela finds himself at one that includes not one but two WSOP bracelet holders -- Barry Greenstein (with three) and David Daneshgar (with one).

In fact, Kassela, who won two bracelets last summer, is sitting right in between them!

Kassela had a memorable Main Event last year, barely making the cash and thus ensuring himself a tie for the WSOP POY with Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi. Mizrachi was actually at Kassela's table when the latter busted last year, sitting on a very short stack himself. Of course, the Grinder would go on to make the final table and nearly catch Kassela for the POY before falling in fifth.

Jack Effel has just finished the day's bracelet ceremonies, which included presenting the $50,000 Poker Players Championship bracelet to Brian Rast, who is the only person to have won two bracelets at the 2011 WSOP.

With the formalities complete, the cards are back in the air!

Day 1d was expected to be the biggest of all four starting days, and that certainly seems to be the case. Both the Amazon and Pavilion Rooms are jammed pack, and the field appears to have surpassed expectations. While we won't know the official numbers and prize pool information until later tonight, it appears all the worries that this year's Main Event would draw subpar numbers was nothing more than hysterics.

With all that said, we've reached the end of Level 1 which means players are now on their first 20-minute break of the day. While the blinds (50/100) are quite small compared to the starting stack of 30,000, that didn't mean the action was any less fierce, as Prahlad Friedman found out just minutes into Day 1d when he lost all but 3,150 of his stack when he turned a set of sixes against the straight of Frank Jordan. The river blanked and Friedman was crippled; however, he has managed to survive the first level.

Day 1d has also brought out some of the best in the game. John Juanda, Phil Laak, Daniel Alaei, Darvin Moon, Tom Marchese, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Dwyte Pilgrim, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Vanessa Rousso, and even rap superstar Nelly.

In addition, former WSOP Main Event Champs Huck Seed (1996), Robert Varkonyi (2002), and Jamie Gold (2006) have all entered the field in the hopes of capturing their second world championship title.

The players will be back in 20 minutes as they are slated to play another four levels here on Day 1d.

We reported earlier that Tommy Vedes was sitting in a nice leather desk chair instead of the standard rigid, uncomfortable Rio chair. According to one of our reporters who talked to Vedes, he said he bought the chair at Office Max for $200 and it's "totally worth it." After five weeks of sitting in these same old chairs, it's starting to look like a brilliant idea to this reporter. I might have to steal it during the break....

We caught this hand on the flop between Steve Zolotow and another opponent. The flop came and Zolotow bet 450 and got a call. The turn came and both players checked. The river came and both players checked again.

"I'm not good enough to value bet this," his opponent said. Zolotow tabled .

"I heard there were a lot of eights in this deck," Zolotow said.

"How many eights are there?" his opponent asked.