Tournament Supervisor Bill Bruce has announced some registration numbers for the Main Event. There were 647 entrants for Day 1a and currently 550 are still alive.
A few dozen players have already signed up for the evening flight. We'll get you those numbers when we have them.
Dennis Phillips had gotten himself in a sticky situation early in the tournament. He was down to below 7,000 when he re-raised out of the small blind preflop to 1,600. His opponent called and the flop came 
. Phillips checked, his opponent bet 2,400 and Phillips moved all in. HIs opponent called and the hands were tabled.
Phillips: 
Opponnet: 
The board completed with 
and Phillips is sitting on 13,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
13,000
250
|
250 |
We passed by James Van Alstyne's table and saw a seat card in the spot where his chips were occupying. We gathered from the table that he was all in preflop holding pocket sevens and ran into pocket aces. The aces held and Van Alstyne was eliminated.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted | |
|
||
Patrick Ruth is having quite the day here in Choctaw. The Houston native told PokerNews a battle of the blinds led to an early double up for him.
He managed to flop bottom two pair and made the relatively easy call when the woman in the small blind shoved with an underpair.
Since then, he`s worked both aces and kings into a couple of decent pots without showdown and appears to at least be among the early leaders with triple the starting stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
60,000 |
Level: 6
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 25
We found a new player in the seat formerly occupied by Todd Brunson. We gathered from the table that he only spent about ten minutes at the table. Brunson opened with a raise and the player in the big blind called. Long story short, Brunson held 
and caught an ace on the flop. His opponent was holding 
and paired on the flop. The turn gave him two pair and Brunson was eliminated from the tournament. We hope to see him in the second flight.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted | |
|
||
With the Choctaw Casino just a stone`s throw from the Texas-Oklahoma border, it`s no surprise to see a pair of Texans rising towards the top of the counts in the early going.
Austin`s Ben Logan found a set of jacks against a pair of aces was enough to get his stack headed skyward in just the first few levels. He has continued chipping up as the day has progressed and having the best of it most of the time has left him sitting on a 40k stack here in the fifth level.
In the meantime, San Antonio`s Richard Lee has amassed a little over 45k without getting in a single big pot.
``No double ups,`` he explained. ``Just chipping up.``
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
45,500 | |
|
|
40,000 |
There are still a dozen tables in the second tournament room. As of now they are breaking tables internally and not sending players to the main tournament area. These players are at a distinct disadvantage with only a fraction of the chips in play compared to the main room.
Level: 5
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
28,500
8,500
|
8,500 |
|
||
|
|
28,000
8,000
|
8,000 |
|
|
28,000 | |
|
|
||
|
23,600 | |
|
||
|
22,400
2,400
|
2,400 |
|
22,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
|
||
|
|
20,000 | |
|
|
||
|
17,300 | |
|
16,775
3,225
|
3,225 |
|
|
13,250
6,750
|
6,750 |
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