It's been an impressively fast day, with over two thirds of our runners imploding in just eight short levels of play.
Among those who didn't make it were a good number of the usual crowd of A-listers -- Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Katja Thater and Marcin Horecki all kicked the tournament bucket during this Day 1, or Night 1 as it could more accurately be called -- not forgetting a gentleman that half the field were convinced was actually Rick Astley (it wasn't).
Nevertheless, a sizable crowd of those same A-listers -- well, not exactly the same ones, but you know what I mean -- have made it through to Day 2. Marcel Luske, Daniel Negreanu and Annie Duke are still in on excellent stacks, and still in on more modest holdings are EPT Copenhagen winner Tim Vance, Italian pirate Max Pescatori and online legend Jon "pearljammer" Turner.
As previously noted, Allie Prescott appears to be our chip leader on, currently, around 45,000 -- but there are others in serious contention, and it's anyone's game come tomorrow.
We'll be back at 2pm; until then, it's goodnight from the Brasilia Room.
"Do you know that gent's name?" I asked Tim Vance, as he had been chatting in a most friendly manner with the gentleman who was by then in possession of a chip-leading 42,000. "Yeah, Allie," was the reply. "Er, does he have a surname?" I enquired innocently.
"HEY ALLIE, WHAT'S YOUR WHOLE NAME?"
Your blogger shrank in embarrassment.
"Allie James Prescott," said the chip leader.
"Allison Mary Prescott," Vance sort of repeated.
"My name's not Allison," said our new chip leader.
Allie James Prescott: chip leader on 42,000 as we go into the last three hands of the day.
These folks are all pretty heftily stacked right now.
Rick Schwartz: 32,000
Annie Duke: 29,000
Daniel Negreanu: 26,000
Doug Paxton: 32,000
Marcel Luske: 37,000
Chip leader at this time: Richard Sklar on 38,000.
Incidentally, Mr. Sklar called me over just after I counted his chips.
"I've got some real good news for you," he said, "I'm the one who bought President Obama into the main event."
Indeed, it turns out that Mr. Sklar some days ago had the good fortune to meet the President, and handed him an entry ticket to the WSOP Main Event. He tells us that President Obama's exact words were, "I might take you up on that." Mr. Sklar showed us a photo on his phone of the President to prove this. Extraordinary.
Were that not cool enough, it seems that Mr. Sklar stands to make a lot of money if the President does indeed show up to claim his seat. He has $40 with Chris Ferguson at 25,000:1 and another $2 with Phil Gordon at 100,000:1 that the President will play a hand at this year's WSOP. So that's a cool $1.2 million for Mr. Sklar if the President plays a single hand at this year's Main Event. We at PokerNews are thoroughly hoping that Mr. Sklar wins his bets. Marvellous.
Sam Grizzle: 18,000
Sabyl Cohen: 13,000
Norman Chad: 17,000
Nick Frangos: 7,500
Ben Ponzio: 6,700
Mike Matusow: 21,000
Farzad Rouhani: 5,500
Jon Turner: 25,000
Chris Bjorin: 16,000
Michael Keiner: 11,000
Marsha Waggoner: 18,500
Steve Jelinek: 11,000
Daniel Negreanu: 29,000 and firmly in contention for the chip lead
Scott Bohlman: 3,500
Andy Bloch: 10,000
Chad Brown: 15,000
Bryan Micon: 4,000
Andreas Krause: 5,000
Derek Raymond: 5,000
Dan Heimiller: 6,000
Holly Dave Stann: 13,000
Scott Seiver: 13,000
Max Pescatori: 8,000
Steve Wong: 20,000
Annie Duke: 24,000
Jim Geary: 8,000
David Sklansky moved in for his last 100 on fifth street with showing and found two callers. One of the two callers folded on sixth, and Sklansky and his one opponent flipped their cards.
Sklansky: ( )
Mr Opponent: ( X)
Mr Sklansky said not a word as he made his exit, leaving the Table Of Doom just a little less doom-laden.