$5,150 Championship Main Event Day 1 | 2008 WSOP Circuit Event - Lake Tahoe

11-14-2008 15:38 UTC-8

"Sorry, John"

Two-time WSOP Main Event champ and living poker legend Johnny Chan has just been eliminated from the tournament by amateur James "Drew" Marks.

The hand was relayed to us by friend of PokerNews, Mr. Tom Sexton. According to Sexton, Chan held {A-Clubs}

and was up against Marks' pocket threes.

The {Q-Clubs}

flop sparked the action, and Marks put Chan all in for his last 5,000. Chan made the call, and spiked his club flush on the turn when the {6-Clubs}

peeled off, but Marks filled up when the river delivered the {6-Spades}

.

Now that Chan's gone, we're left with two WSOP Main Event winners; Jerry Yang and Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson.

Tags: Johnny Chan

11-14-2008 15:45 UTC-8

Fear the Min-Raise

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Allen Kessler, under the gun, made a minimum raise of 200, making it 400 to go, before being reraised to 800 by the player in the small blind. When the action got back around to Kessler, he reraised to 2,800 as quick as the eye could see. The move prompted his opponent to fold their hand before the flop. Kessler sits with 22,000 after the sequence of events.

11-14-2008 15:57 UTC-8

Random Scoreboard Update

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Robert Suer - 42,000 (chip leader)
Michael Binger - 31,200
Robert "RCW" Cheung - 24,000
Mark Muchnik - 17,000
Jerry Yang - 6,600

11-14-2008 16:09 UTC-8

Fighting the Good Fight

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Max Pescatori and Allen Kessler recently approached WSOP supervisor Tom Sexton regarding Day 1's structure. Currently, the players are scheduled to go on a one-hour dinner break starting at 6:30 p.m. and play just one level upon their return.

Pescatori argued that he thinks players would rather play at least two levels after the dinner break, as it makes no sense to come back and play just one.

"If you surveyed the field, I guarantee like 90% of them would say yes. It will be bigger than Obama," joked the Italian Pirate.

No changes have been made to the schedule just yet. We'll let you know if the staff makes a ruling on the issue.

Tags: Max Pescatori

11-14-2008 16:18 UTC-8

Second

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When asked, the collective brains at table 31, led by Tim Vance, tried to piece together Jerry Yang's elimination hand. This is the result:

Jerry Yang picked up queens in the blinds, and had a couple of limpers come along, before raising an additional 1,000. The bet was enough to eliminate one limper. The flop spread {8-?}

and the former Main Event Champion shoved his remaining short stack towards the middle. Unfortunately for him, the remaining limper, Neal Cooke of Loveland, Colorado hit the flop as he held {9-?}

in the hole. The board ran out with no help to Yang and ended his day.

At the start of the day Yang gave the ceremonious call of, "Shuffle up and deal". In his address to the field, he remarked that he had never been to Lake Tahoe, but loved the city based on his trip so far. He now has more time to explore the beautiful piece of country that is known for it's skiing and many other leisure activities.

The eliminations of both Johnny Chan and Jerry Yang leaves Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson as the lone remaining world champion left in the field.

Tags: Jerry Yang

11-14-2008 16:27 UTC-8

15-Minute Break

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The tournament clock has been paused while the players embark on their second 15-minute break of the day.

Level: 5

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 25

11-14-2008 16:42 UTC-8

Play Resumes

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The players have returned from break and the cards are back in the air.

We wandered through the tournament area during the break and spotted the top two chip stacks sitting at the same table. Ty Stewart (58,000) and David "Big H" Paul are sitting just one empty seat away from each other. If these two get involved in a big hand, we could end up one with monster chip leader.

11-14-2008 16:50 UTC-8

Musical Chairs

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We lost another table during the break and as a result, Robert Cheung has been moved to the seat right in between Sabyl Cohen-Landrum and Jeff Madsen.

There are currently 108 players remaining in the tournament spread across 12 tournament tables.

Tags: Jeff Madsen

11-14-2008 17:05 UTC-8

Muchnik Sly Like a Fox

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Mark Muchnik and Dustin Fox are quickly developing a history with one another. This time around, it was Muchnik who got the best of his arch rival:

Aaron Kanter limped into the pot for 200 and when the action arrived on Fox, he kicked it up to 800. Everyone folded around the table to Muchnik, who tossed in a huge raise, making it a total of 6,800 to play. Kanter folded, sending it back around to Fox, who made the call.

The flop came {10-Spades}

and Muchnik open-shoved all in for his last 9,225.

"Do you really have it every single time against me?" Fox asked, as he considered the call.

"I may," was Muchnik's sly reply.

Fox asked for a count and eventually made the call, tabling {J-Clubs}

; Muchnik flipped over bullets - {A-Clubs}

.

The turn and river blanked out {K-Clubs}

,

, leaving Fox with just 14,600 in chips while Muchnik improved to 33,000.

Tags: Dustin Fox Mark Muchnik