WSOP main event Days 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D

Before i get into the World Series of Poker main event id like to congratulate Gilbert Arenas on his new contract worth $111 million over 6 years. He was originally offered $127 million from the Wizards but told them to keep the $16 million and invest it into making the team better, a classy move that 90% of today's athletes would never even think about doing.
I would also like to express my amazement at the unbelievable tennis match that took place throughout the entire day yesterday. Federer-Nadal became an instant classic by going 5 sets and having a ridiculously dramatic tiebreaker in the 4th set. This match started at 9am ET, and battled through rain delays until it finally ended at 4:15pm ET and had a total match time of just under 5 hours. Players playing on Day 1D found themselves glued to the TV watching the end of this match instead of playing there hands at the table. Gus Hansen was quoted as saying that he lost 5 big blinds because he left his table to watch on the big screen in the Amazon Poker Room. Truly a classic.

2008 WSOP main event begins:

Now its time to get on to the poker action. It would certainly be rude of me not too mention the defending champion of the main event from last year, Mr. Jerry Yang. Yang was a tremendous surprise (and religious) winner and is out this year to prove he is no fluke. Yang adopted the self-appointed nickname ''the shadow", i have no idea what that even means, all i know about him is that he has a lot of ''friends for life.''
For anyone who says that the ''poker boom'' is dead, can shove it. This years main event numbers have just been announced, and there are just under 7,000 players in the main event, making it the 2nd largest poker tournament ever assembled. First place prize money will be just under $10 million and everyone at the final table will be instant millionaires. The total number of payouts this year will be 666 (no word yet on whether the number of payouts bothers Jerry Yang or his backers upstairs.... and if you understand that joke then you truly are a poker fanatic).

Pro Watch:

Every year i find myself rooting hard for the pros to have a deep run, just to make my following and viewing of the final table much more interesting. So heres some notable updates from days 1A-1D. (players started with 20,000 in chips and have each played one day)

Daniel Negreanu- eliminated on Day 1
Allen Cunningham- sitting on a solid 45,000 after Day 1
Johnny Chan- had a great day finishing somehow in the 60,000 chip range
Doyle Brunson- also survived day 1 but barely, has about 11,000 chips
Phil Ivey- no word yet on Ivey, i hope he showed up
Gus Hansen- on a roll with over 100,000 chips

and last but not least......

Phil Hellmuth- he has been eliminated on Day 1 in each of the last 4 years, but this year was a different story. He entered a few hours late as usual. He was wearing a dark green army suit and was accompanied by 11 girls dressed in army combat (one for each bracelet he has won). This of course stopped action in the poker room so everyone could watch Phil make his dramatic entrance. Dont worry hes at the ESPN feature table so it will all make the TV cameras when ESPN's coverage comes out at the end of July.
Phil made a great entrance and also had a great day, finally finding a way to survive day 1. Not only did he survive but he thrived. Getting his stack up to 75,000 before the day was over.

The chip leader after days 1A-1D is a man by the name of Steve Austin (seriously) who sits on about 140,000 chips. No word yet on whether he will be following the Jerry Yang strategy and adopting a nickname.... i think i know the one he would choose.

Thats all for blog # 1... all the players will take an off day on Monday and play will resume with Day 2A Tuesday and Day 2B on Wednesday, before finally all the players will be in the same room on Thursday. Make sure to keep checking on Po's blog for all your WSOP updates throughout the main event.

BASIC KNOWLEDGE..............