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Sat, Jul 4th, 2009 @ 12:00am
Welcome to the World Series of Poker Main Event Day 1A. This is the event that everyone has been waiting for all summer, and it is finally here. Thousands of people have registered to prove their skills in this world famous event, and today survival of the fittest comes into play. The buy in for this No Limit Hold'em event is a hefty $10,000, but that is chump change compared to the first place prize of several millions of dollars. The exact prize pool for this event will not be determined until registration is closed after Day 1D.It wasn't a surprise that the halls were littered with people at the start of the event. Day 1A had a total of 1,116 players to register, 821 of those are still alive. There are still three Day 1 starts after today. After all four Day 1s of play are completed the total entrants will be announced.Today, there were several big name poker pros, as well as Hollywood entertainers. Some of the notable players for today's start included Gavin Smith, Tony G., Sandra Naujoks, Jason Mercier, Nikolay Evdakov, Eli Elezra, Greg 'FBT' Mueller, and Johnny Chan. Some of the Hollywood elite that joined the ranks included Jason Alexander, Nelly, Orel Hershiser, Brad Garret, and Jennifer Tilly.Even with all the stars scattered around the Rio Convention Center, the real excitement was on the tables. Some players experienced some bad beats and massive double ups. One player caught a straight flush with 8 9 T J Q, while his opponent hit the royal flush with T J Q K A. In an A A vs. K K situation, players were all in on an A K K board and aces were eliminated from the tournament with a bad beat story that could last a lifetime. The action continued for five levels of play, and at 10:20 p.m. PDT players were told that they only had three more hands to play. At the end of the night Eric Cloutier is the chip lead with 150,750. Jason Riesenberg, Jason Alexander, Lex Veldhuis, and Eli Elezra have healthy looking chip stacks in the top 50 which will come into use on their Day 2 start. Players that made it through Day 1A will return for Day 2A which starts on July 7,2009.Tomorrow a whole new set of hopefuls will come to battle it out for contention of a World Series title. Stay tuned to Poker Page for updates on the rest of the World Series of Poker Main Event.Full coverage of the Main Event Day 1A can be found by clicking here.Full coverage of the Main Event Day 1B can be found by clicking here.