Day 2A has come to a close here at the Amazon Room; congratulations to the 465 who remain for Day 3! The last level of the evening brought both glory and heartbreak to PocketFivers as their run for the bracelet and the huge main event prize pool continued. Day 2B begins tomorrow at noon and PocketFives will be back to report on the action!

Tim “tmay420″ West (pictured at right) and Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano were moved this evening to the ESPN Featured Table in the poker arena and commentary about their hands could be heard throughout the Rio. The last hour of the day was a huge one for Tim, who turned on the heat and managed to double up through great aggressive play. In one hand, we saw Tim bet out 6.5K into the pot on a board that read K7847, enticing his opponent to play. He did in fact make the call and Tim showed down K9 to win the pot. Shortly afterwards, Tim raised to 3.2K preflop and got one caller. The flop came QAT and both players checked to see the T fall on the turn. His opponent bet out 5.5K and Tim called to see the 4 roll off on the river. His opponent checked, Tim bet 12.5K and he was reraised after a long tank to 27.5K more. Tim called him down and showed AK to best his opponent’s 96 busted flush draw. He raked in the pot and increased his stack to 188K.

Meanwhile, in the Green Section, there was exciting action all night at Eric “jakz101″ Crain and Derek “arods33″ Buanomo’s table. Eric joked to PocketFives about all the swinging; the table was loosest we witnessed all night. In one hand, both players went heads up: On a board that read J98KQ, Derek bet out 8.5K and Eric raised to 21.5K more. Derek easily made the call with his red pocket tens and Eric mucked his hole cards, shipping the big pot Derek’s way. Derek moved up to 165K, finishing the day just under that at 157.5K.

Eric (pictured at left) didn’t let the beat phase him, however, and in a subsequent hand, he called a raise on the button with 10K in the pot. He raised 5K after a flop of 66T and was called. The dealer laid the T on the turn and Eric bet out, inducing a fold. He slyly showed his hole cards to P5s and giggled: 25. After the hand, he was at 250K. At least he’s keeping it interesting for Mom at home. Eric finished the night with 315K and we can’t even begin to guess what happened to gain him the extra 65K in chips.

Jeff “yellowsub” Williams took a substantial hit to the stack he had spent all day building when one player raised, a player reraised behind, and Jeff put in a third raise to around 45K. The initial raiser folded, but the reraiser made the call with about 75K behind. The flop came ace high, the other player bet 25K and Williams raised enough to put him all-in. The other player made the call with A-Q while Williams held Q-Q. The turn and river were no help to him and Jeff was knocked back under 50K.

Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney (pictured at right) had been short-stacked for quite awhile and when the player second to act raised preflop, Brendan thought for a bit before making the call. The flop came T43. The other player checked to Brendan, who bet 5.8K, which represented more than one fourth of his stack. The other player then check-raised with a huge stack of orange 5K chips, more than enough to put Brendan all in. Brendan looked exasperated. He tanked for a bit and asked the other player “You got tens? Ace-king of diamonds?” Brendan shuffled his chips and said “I can’t fold… I call.” His opponent said “Nice call” as he flipped over his AK for ace high, which Brendan had beat with his KK. That is until the turn brought the A to put the bluffer in the lead. The 2 on the river couldn’t save Brendan and he was sent to the rail near the end of the day.

Here are some notable unofficial chip counts near the end of Day 2A:

Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 400K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 315K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 210K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 188K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 187K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 180K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 175K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 168K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 164K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 157.5K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 140K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 140K
Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold - 66K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 139K
Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz - 126K
Kush Patel - 120K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 119K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 116K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 106K
Jason Gray - 100K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 98K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 92K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 75K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 70K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 64K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 47.5K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 40K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 35K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 28K

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme