Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

The fourth and final Day 1 flight has come to a close. Today saw the largest field of all four flights -- 2,391 -- fill the Amazon and Pavilion Rooms. Added to our first three days, the overall total of 7,319 players means this year's Main Event is the second-largest tournament in live poker history (behind the 8,773-player 2006 Main Event).

That field together creates a $68,798,600 prize pool to be divided up between the top 747 finishers. And come November, the one player from this group who manages to accumulate every last chip will claim $8,944,138, the gold bracelet, and poker immortality.

A number of notables chose the last starting day, and for some their starting day was also their finishing day. Phil Gordon was an early exit, as were John Tabatabai, Justin Smith, Michael Craig, Jose "Nacho" Barbero, and the top two finishers from the 2005 Main Event, Steve Dannenmann and Joe Hachem. Others failing to survive to Day 2 included John Juanda, Allen Kessler, Cliff Josephy, Sorel Mizzi, and Wendeen Eolis.

Meanwhile, David Benyamine, Bill Chen, Phil Ivey, Kara Scott, and Jason Mercier all jumped out to good starts today, though they were soon overtaken by Khamsy Nuanmanee. She would be the first to six digits, then would spend much of the evening near or at the top of the leaderboard.

At night's end, though, it was Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis making a late charge to claim the lead, with Steven Tabb, Julian Foussard, Dan Springfield, and Lestor Martinez also ending the night filling their bags with extra chips. And a quick glance down the leaderboard shows other familiar names such as Archie Karas, Vanessa Rousso, Josh Arieh, and probable 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela having done especially well for themselves today, too.

Of the 2,391 who started today's Day 1d, about 1,700 made it through, meaning we're still looking at more than 5,000 players whose 2010 WSOP Main Event dreams remain alive. Tomorrow those who made it through Days 1a and 1c will come back for Day 2a, with the rest (from Day 1b and Day 1d) continuing their tourney journeys on Day 2b.

Thanks for following our coverage today! And be sure to come back tomorrow at noon Vegas time when the cards go back in the air once again.

A horrible noise coming from the throat of a player alerted our reporter to the fact that said player was all in with   against Ross Boatman's  . The board had run out  . Boatman's stack increased to 38,000.

"There's no crying in poker," commented another player as the luckless gentleman busted out.

Wendeen Eolis, the first woman to ever cash in the Main Event, was all in and at risk with   and was unfortunately dominated by an opponent's  .

The   flop was all she wrote and after the turn and river came  ,   respectively, Eolis' tournament came to an end.

I joined the action on the turn of a      board, Tommy Vedes facing a bet of 5,000. After a brief pause, he threw in, reluctantly, it seemed, a single orange chip.

The river was the  , and after the initial aggressor had checked, Vedes reached into his stack and flicked 7,700 across the imaginary line. His opponent took a quick peek at his cards to make sure they hadn't turned into quads before making the fold.

Vedes climbs to 62,000 with the final whistle looming.

Andy Bloch committed his last 25,000 chips when he got all his chips in on a flop of  . He was called by the other player involved in the hand.

Bloch:  

Opponent:  

Bloch was well ahead of his opponent and kept his lead through the   on the turn and the   on the river.

Bloch has 50,000 chips with only a few hands left to play for the night.

Layne Flack was in the cutoff and put in a raise to 1,100. Eddy Sabat made the call from the button and the two saw a flop of    . Flack bet 1,500 only to be raised to 7,500 by Sabat.

After Flack made the call, the   appeared on the turn and both players checked, as they did when the   hit the river.

Flack turned over    but was behind Sabat's   . Flack dropped to 14,000 after the hand while Sabat is up to 60,000.

With about 7,000 in the pot, Jack Ury bet 2,000 and received a call from the button. When the   came on the river, Ury bet 1,800 and the button called.

Ury, who is 97-years-old and admittingly a little hard of hearing, didn't realize his opponent called and sat motionless waiting for action. The dealer asked Ury to reveal his cards but he didn't seem to hear her.

Finally the other players managed to grab Ury's attention and he flipped over    for two pair. It was good and he increased his stack to 43,000.

Dan Heimiller was at about 40,000 chips and got them all in the middle preflop against another player at his table.

Heimiller:  

Opponent:  

All Heimiller had to do was stay ahead, which he did with the board running out  .

With only 21 minutes left in the evening, Heimiller currently has 86,000 chips.

There's an assumption that the big stacks at the end of the day have enjoyed a hitch-free day, but that's not always true, as has been the case for Vanessa Rousso.

On her latest encounter, she faced a bet of what I believe was 3,000 on a     flop, her opponent leaving just 4,350 behind. After a brief fondle of her chips, Rousso put her foe all in for his tournament life before showing   . Her opponent tabled   .

The   turn and   river were both blanks, and after handing over the necessary chips, Rousso found her stack forced to absorb a minor dent. She remains, however, one of the larger stacks in the room with around 115,000.

Action folded to Michiel Sijpkens on the button and he raised to 1,000. The small blind folded and Eric Blair reraised from the big blind to around 2,500. Sijpkens, who had been among the chip leaders all day, raised to 7,600 only to have Blair make it 17,000 to go.

Sijpkens then announced, "All in," and Blair snap-called for his 69,825. Blair turned over    while Sijpkens showed   . If Sijpkens could win the pot, he would catapult past the 200,000 chip mark and likely be the Main Event chip leader heading into Day 2; meanwhile, Blair was playing for his tournament life. The significance of the hand was not lost on anyone in the vicinity as a crowd began to gather round.

Blair was clearly nervous but breathed a sigh of relief when the flop came    , giving him top set; however, Sijpkens could complete a straight draw with any jack. The dealer burned and turned the  . Neither player held a club so it didn't change a thing. The entire table looked on anxiously as the dealer put up the   on the river.

Sijpkens took a hit to his stack and he is down to 105,000. On the other hand, Blair took down a 140,000 pot and is one of the larger stacks in the room.