World Series of Poker: Among the Chip Lead-- Chris Ellison

by Craig Cunningham

You surely can't win the WSOP Main Event on Day 1, but you can definitely lose it. Ask Phil Hellmuth that. Chris Ellison, PokerStars qualifier from Detroit, hasn't lost it today, but he has built a sizable stack to put him among the chip lead by 10:00 PM Saturday evening. Chris qualified through a double shootout and stood at $45k behind PokerStars qualifier Akshay Kumar at $68.5k. "I built a big part of my stack on a key hand," said Chris. "I limped in with 4-5s, and a good sized stack called. The flop came 3-4-5, I led out, he raised to $4k, and I called. 2 came on the turn, I checked, and he checked. River was a 5, I went all-in, and he called with pocket 3's. The bigger boat got me up to $30k, then I took more when I busted brettfavre from PokerStars. I had A-J, flop came A-J and some rag, turn was a rag, I moved in, and he called me with A-K." PokerStars cannibalism is inevitable, but at least Chris is planning to put them to good use.