Day 1a Finish Line

The Day 1a entrants have played their requisite nine levels, and they're done for the day. Not us though, no siree. We've got a fresh batch of faces scheduled to hit the felt at 7:00 P.M. for "Day 1b." Or "Night 1a" as we're calling it.

The first half of the day saw 468 players (including two former WSOP World Champions) take their seats for the Main Event. At the end of the day, there appears to be less than 250 of them remaining, though we'll have to wait for a full count at the end of the day. Among those who came and left quickly were Greg Raymer, Tristan Wade, and Jeff Banghart. Harrison Gimbel shot up to the top of the counts early, but he too fell by the wayside before the clock ticked down to zero.

The other World Champ, Jerry Yang is still in contention, and he'll return tomorrow with a slightly above-average stack. Jared Jaffee, Stuart Paterson, TJ Cloutier, "Captain Tom" Franklin, and Chris Tryba are among the couple hundred who survived, and they'll have the rest of the night to grind, or drink, or bet on the dogs before their return at noon tomorrow. We'll have full chip counts for the survivors as soon as they're available for us.

But for now, it's a break. It's dinner time until 7:00 P.M., but we'll be back for Night 1a of this event in just a bit over an hour.