With a cheer that echoed over the Nevada mountains, 270 players from the 2776-player event became the first people to cash in an open event of the 2006 WSOP.

It came with no small amount of trepidation. Fellow blogger Craig Cunningham just told me he met two people who made it into the money with no more than three chips in their hand. Even better, one of those players mucked aces pre-flop in his bid to make it into the money.

The team from PokerStars has a number of people who survived to make it into the cash. Isabelle Mercier, Greg Raymer, Vaughan "sickboy6" Machado, Jason "strassa2" Strasser, and several other people flying the PokerStars flag are now playing to make it to the big cash.

(UPDATE)

We're about to play two more levels before breaking for the night (and by we, I mean the people playing cards--not me). Here are some chip counts from PokerStars players I've been watching tonight:

Jason "strassa2" Strasser: 26,000
Greg "Fossilman" Raymer: 35,000
Vaughan "sickboy6" Machado: 7,000
Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier 12,000
Bruce Yamron (a PokerStars friend): 10,000 (down from a high of 20,000 after getting cracked set under set)

When the next level begins, players will be playing at 600/1200 with a 200 ante.

12:00am: Well, as tends to happen in the poker world, things have taken a turn for the worse. Isabelle Mercier, who had narrowly survived a bubble bust-out, has now exited the tournament. Greg Raymer, who was cruising with one of the larger stacks, has apparently doubled up someone. Raymer's stack now sits a little above 10,000. However, with the morning hours comes faith. Jason "strass2" Strasser is no slough to be sure. The Duke University student has played online and in Europe for some time. However, this is the first year he's been old enough to play in the WSOP. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out, then, that this is Strasser's first WSOP event EVER. So, it's gotta be nice to have a nice stack and a good potential to make Day 2 of this event, eh?

12:44am--With one level left to play this morning, I'm pleased to report that Greg Raymer is feeling much better. Tuan Le came in for a raise from late position and Raymer (in the blinds with about 16K in his stack) pushed all in. Le thought for a while before calling.

Funny thing: Raymer had just said a few minutes earlier, he didn't want to go into tomorrow short-stacked. He said he'd rather play tomorrow's event than go into Day 2 of Event #2 with a short stack. Maybe that made Le's decision to call with A3 event easier. What's more, Le was ahead of Raymer's QJ.

However, as Raymer said, "If it took you that long to call, I know I'm not that far behind."

A jack on the turn doubled Raymer up and gave him the chips to keep playing his game.

1:11am--The reporting of good news, I've decided, is akin to talking about a rush. Or talking about Fight Club. Just as surely as Raymer doubled up, he got cut in half and is basically back where he started before the Le double-up. In other bad news, it appears Jason Strasser has headed to the tournament payout line. Still, for his first WSOP event ever, it's quite an accomplishment to make the top 170 out of 2776. Nice work, Jason.

1:23am--Okay. Let me begin by saying that this is in no way good news (see previous update). That said, Greg Raymer just flopped a set against Eric Froelich's AK and doubled up. Now, Raymer is better off than he was AFTER the Le double-up. That is all.