Chris “cbdr3799″ Dombrowski continued to be very active in the first half of Level 8 and PocketFives caught up to the action at his table as he was raising under the gun to 2.3K. Three players called in position - both the blinds and the button. The flop came T9J and he bet 5K into the pot, getting one other call. When the turn brought the J, Chris fired out 8.5K more and his opponent called again from the small blind position. At the 6 on the river, Chris moved all in for 9.5K more and got a call; he showed down KQ and the other player mucked. Chris doubled and now sits at 55K.

A few tables over, Frank “Round42″ Rusnak (pictured at right) reported that he’s the object of batting practice — one of his tablemates just happens to be Jose Canseco’s ex-wife and baby’s momma, Jessica. The pair were confronting each other as PocketFives watched Jessica reraise his preflop 1.9K bet to 6.8K. She stared him down and he gave her a hard time, but flashed a big smile to PocketFives.

Frank recently took down a decent sized pot when a player under the gun raised to 2.1K, Rusnak called in middle position, as did the player on the button. The flop Q75 and all three players checked. The 7 on the turn prompted the initial raiser to check again and Rusnak bet out 4.7K. The player on the button then reraised to 9.7K and Frank thought momentarily before making the call. Both checked after the K came on the river and Rusnak announced, “I have a pair.” The other player stared at him, waiting for him to turn over his cards. Frank revealed 99, his opponent mucked, and he is now up to 80K.

Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania had courteously doubled up several players at his table throughout the day today and recently he finally had the same courtesy extended back to him when he and another player got it all-in on a flop of 952 with Mohsin holding pocket sixes with the six of hearts while his opponent had A-K with the king of hearts. No heart came on the turn or river and Charania doubled up to 49K.

Despite starting the day with a less-than-average stack of 23K, Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert has been on a hot run of cards, elevating his stack all the way up to 123K. Although it would be easy for him to tell PocketFives he’s just been playing above the rim and chipping up, Wolpert said that he’s just been sucking out, including snapping of pocket aces with his pocket tens.

Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at left) has just been eliminated from the Main Event — and in an ugly fashion at that. We caught up with Bogdanski betting 12K on a board of A43J5 and his opponent moved all in, having Gary covered. Gary leaned back in his chair and said “I can’t fold, I call,” to which the other player replied “You lose.” He flipped over 42 for a straight flush and Gary angrily showed his T8 before heading out of the Amazon Room.

Dan “voff” Deveau avoided disaster just before his table broke in the Brasilia Room. With blinds at 400/800, Deveau raised to 2.3K from under the gun and a player in late position raised to 6K. Deveau asked for a count of his opponent’s stack before making the call with QQ. The board came out T36 and Deveau checked to his opponent, who bet 10K. Deveau quickly folded and the other player showed his AA. Dan is still stitting comfortably with 70K.

Here are some other unofficial chip counts in Level 8:

Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 184K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 180K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 175K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 160K
Darren Elias - 155K
David “Bakes” Baker - 155K
Aaron Steury - 140K
Brandon Schaefer - 137K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 135K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 134K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 123K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 111k
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 110K
Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde - 110K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 95K
Thayer Rasmussen - 84K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 80K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 80K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 80K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 80K
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin - 75K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 65K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 62K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 61K
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 58K
“BodogAri” Engel - 57K
Chris “cbdr3799″ Dombrowski - 55K
David “HosniMubarak” Tazbaz - 53K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 49K
Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin - 48.5K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 40K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 40K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 35K
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser - 35k
Bryan Micon - 35K
Ben “BSUChamp” Grice - 33K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 32K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 30K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 28K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 27K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 24.5K
Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast - 23K
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 20.5K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 17K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 17K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 16K
Ladbrokes team pro Azad Pirooti - 16K

• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 9, 2008 -- Martin Handed DisGusting Beat
• July 6, 2008 -- BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
• July 9, 2008 -- Divine Intervention

The World Series of Poker is finally here!  Tournament play begins at noon today with the $10k Pot Limit Hold ‘Em Championship.  Players are beginning to filter into the Rio’s Amazon Room, where cash games and satellites have already been running for the past couple of days.  With the larger buy in, today’s field will likely be a little smaller, but several notable players have already been spotted wandering around the convention center. 

Some of the players we will be following today include Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, and several others.  Be sure to keep checking in here at Pocket Fives Live throughout the day for updates.  We wish all the players luck and are looking forward to a great kick off to the Series.

• May 31, 2008 -- No Luck for the Ladies
• July 9, 2008 -- Dreams Dashed or Doubled Up?
• June 30, 2008 -- Micon Is Gone
• June 30, 2008 -- Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO