The largest denomination chip in play on the day 1s here are the Bellagio are the blue 10k chips. There are also grey and pink 5k chips and with the 50k starting stacks there are plenty of both of the large denomination chips moving around the room.

Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (left) spent the last couple of hours without either in his stack, working with only the brown 1k chips and the orange 500 chips along with the smaller denominations. With the blinds at 200 / 400 and a 50 ante a player opened for 1,200 and another player called. Kevin also matched the bet from the big blind and the flop came 653. Kevin checked and one of the other players put out a bet of 2,500. Saul gathered his chips and pushed them all into the middle, a bet of somewhere around 12k. The other player snap called and showed the 78 for about every draw you could think of while Kevin was hoping to fade a lot of cards to have his 95 hold up.

The A was one of the blanks Saul needed but the 6 on the river completed the flush draw and busted Saul midway though day 1B.

Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (right) came up on the bad end of a flush too, only moments after Saul’s elimination. As I walked up a player had the 52 exposed in front of him with a board showing a club flush on the river while Friedberg was counting out chips to send over.

The total pot ended up being around 60k, but after the hand Jon still had 40k chips left. The “what could have been” look was clear on Jon’s face for a brief moment, but by the time the cards were shuffled and the next hands was dealt he was right back into his normal game face.

• June 11, 2008 -- Take It to the Limit
• April 20, 2008 -- WPT Championship Day 1B
• July 12, 2008 -- Friedberg Busts, Beckman Builds Stack
• July 7, 2008 -- The Titan Can’t Sink