The early flights of Day 1 made it look as though this year's World Series might not be as big as last year's. Saturday called that pessimism into doubt. Today erased it completely as the Rio filled with the final flight of Day 1. By the end of it all, a calculator spit out the final number.

The 2008 World Series is being contested by 6,844 players, all fighting for the lion's share of the $64,333,600 prize pool. Of those players who started, 666 (seriously...) will walk away with at least $21,230. The last person standing--four months from now--will bank $9,119,517.

The road to that money though is a long one. Before we can even consider the final nine players who will return in November for the final table, we must get ourselves through the next couple of weeks. That means getting through the next few days. After a day of rest (and one rather big party you can read about below), we will be back for Days 2A and 2B.

You will recall us mentioning before, PokerStars qualified 2,008 players for the 2008 World Series Main Event. Of those qualifers, more than 1,000 brought their money to cage, bought their seat, and started the long, long fight for the big money. Hundreds of those qualifiers, not to mention more than a few members of Team PokerStars Pro, remain among the field going into Day 2. We can't think about what will happen in the next round of play, though, without taking a look back at what happened today.

The hallways were sweaty this morning as the final runners made their way to the Amazon, Tropical, and Brasilia rooms. Among those fighting through the crowd were Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri, Hevad Khan, and Victor Ramdin. Dario exited in the last level of the night, but Khan and Ramdin finished strong.

Those Team PokerStars Pros will join Barry Greenstein, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, Chris Moneymaker, ElkY, Joe Hachem, Noah Boeken, Isabelle Mercier, and Victoria Coren in Day 2.

The 27 members of Team Pokerstars Pro are putting on a pretty impressive showing, but in sheer numbers, the PokerStars qualifiers are standing out. At this point, it's hard to single out a runaway story, but a few players from Day 1D are getting some big attention. Sumeet Batra, Paul Loh, Phillip Liou, Anton Allemann, and Bill "Miros" Purle all looked strong toward the end of the day and were maintaining chip counts in the 100,000 range, well better than double the average stack.

Anton Allemann

Bill "Miros" Purle

Finally tonight, we saw some special faces in the crowd. Pro baseball player David Wells UFC legend Chuck Liddell, and television producing great Sam Simon all made their way into the Rio, and unfortunately back out tonight.

One of the greatest stories coming out of the World Series so far is the friendship between Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker and a player named Donald Hobbs. Moneymaker and Hobbs became friends last year when Moneymaker visited Hobbs in the hospital after a car crash. Since then, Hobbs has become his protege and both players are playing the main event. Moneymaker finished with a nice stack yesterday. Today, a random draw put Hobbs on the featured table alongside Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth. Hobbs exited with two minutes left in Day 1, but left with more than a few stories to tell.

If you've not yet had a chance to check out the new PokerStars.tv, get thee there quickly. Even we were a tad startled by how many people want a look inside Hevad Khan's house (not to mention a chance to see his private chef cook breakfast while he multi-tables online). Don't forget to watch until the end so you can get the the password for the PokerStars.tv freeroll.

Selected chip counts for Day 1D can be found on our 2008 World Series Chip Counts page. When the official list comes out in the morning, it will be posted in the same place.

Beyond the coverage you'll find here, we have additional World Series news on our German, Swedish, and Brazilian blogs.

This is normally the point at which we tell you we'll be back tomorrow for another full day of World Series coverage. Alas, that ain't gonna happen. We, like the rest of the World Series, are taking the day off from poker. That doesn't mean, however, we won't be doing a little reporting tomorrow. See, after a long wait, it's time for us to get to the PokerStars Burlesque Party at Rain on Monday night. We're all going and have some inside access to the event that no one else will have. So, check back here late tomorrow night for a look inside the hottest party in Vegas. Oh, and if you happen to be in Vegas for the World Series, come join us for free food, free drinks, and Dita Von Teese.

Need an invite? Download it HERE.

If you missed our coverage from Day 1D, we've collected all the links here.

The Field Swells
Victor Ramdin in good position
The fastest gun in town
Getting here the hard way
The big Danzer in the desert
The view from the virtual rail
Star of the small screen
Til bust out do us part
Boomer, Homer, bust outs and hopefuls

For a look back at the whole of Day 1, see any of the summaries below.

Day 1A
Day 1B
Day 1C

Photography ©2008, Joe Giron/IMPDI