PokerStars chip counts for Day 1B will be availble once they are released by the WSOP and compared with PokerStars lists.

by Brad "Otis" Willis

After watching, breathing, eating, and sleeping poker for the past fifteen hours (lo, the past five weeks), even I find it odd that, as I type, I have the 2003 World Series of Poker on in the background. In my room, a respite from the exciting and sometimes sick action downstairs, I can't help but look back on the event three ago and think about how it changed this old gamblers' convention. Moneymaker's win just changed everything.

In Day 1B of this 2006 WSOP, once again, more than 2000 players sat down to fight for their posisiton in Day 2.

In a late-night chip count taken just before players broke for the night, Team Blog's C.J. Hoyt found a number top players still in action. Among them, Team PokerStars' Humberto Brenes, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, 55Lucky55, Sean "Biggies05" Johnson, Ashkay "groupco" Kumar, Mark "sideshowgil" Gilbert, and Rob "ledstudent" Lederer.

However, the story of the night for the PokerStars players was Cory Butler, who by night's end had worked his stack up to almost $100,000.

Cory Butler

For much of the tournament's late hours, the story was about an action-packed player from England, Akshay Kumar. As Howard Swains reported in this story about about Kumar:

"He only hit one two outer!" cheered a supporter as Akshay popped out for a break an hour or so ago. He was referring to one of those dreaded kings against aces showdowns so popular at the main event of the World Series, accounting for what seems to be about 90 per cent of bust outs. The blinds were just 100-200 at the time, Akshay was all in. And he had the kings.

By the end of the night, Kumar's stack had dropped back, but he still had a better than average stack.

Indeed, this entire day was about seasoned pros and relative amateurs vying to be the next Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem (who happened to be hanging out at the PokerStars booth at the Gaming Expo). Team Blog kept an eye on as many as we could. In fact, Mad Harper wrote of Kyle Finn: "It's a familiar story - accountant does well at poker and gives up job. Except - unlike Chris Moneymaker - PS qualifier Kyle "phidelt799" Finn has decided to jump ship before winning the World Series, rather than after."



Here are all the PokerStars qualifier updates and profiles from Day 1B:

The Breakfast of Future Champions (C.J. Hoyt)
The Best of Times the Worst of Times -- Hugh Kirton (Howard Swains)
Poker Royalty -- Tom Parker-Bowles (Howard Swains)
PokerStars Qualifiers Meet at Chris Ferguson's Table (Craig Cunningham)
Catching Up With the Joneses (Howard Swains)
Among the chip lead: Chris Ellison (Craig Cunningham)
Dinner Break Chip Counts (Dr. Pauly and C.J. Hoyt)
Sitting with Phil Ivey (Craig Cunningham)
Action stations and Akshay Kumar (Howard Swains)
In the Steps of Moneymaker - Kyle Finn (Mad Harper)
Late night chip counts (C.J. Hoyt)
The Boys from Down Under (Ali Lightman)
Ron Hewlitt (by Mad Harper)
Thang Tran -- 1K FPP qualifier (by Craig Cunningham)
Eric "LavaDrake" Zabek (by Dr. Pauly)
Lee Sullivan (by Mad Harper)

C.J. Hoyt kept tabs on the featured table today and took a liking to an admittedly likable Steph "windough" Klempner. He wrote: "If you're wondering how I got all this information without talking to her, it's easy. She's got the biggest gallery of fans of anyone at the TV table. Her parents, Bernie and Barbara Greenspan, are in from Cleveland. Her sister, Becky Nessel, is here from San Francisco. And about a half dozen more friends are here from her home games in New York."



Here are the reports C.J. wrote on the featured table today:

Flushed Out -- Mike Conti (C.J. Hoyt)
The Featured Table's Best Feature (C.J. Hoyt)

Once again, it has been another long 15-hour day and the 900 or so players who made it through to Day 2 will finally get to pick up a little rest.

To catch up on everything that happened during Day 1B, visit the following links:

WSOP PokerStars Day 1B Photo Gallery

PokerStars Day 1B Coverage Index