Now back from dinner break and midway into Level 4, some players were feeling a bit squeezed by their short stacks and put to difficult decisions. PocketFives caught up with Dan “wretchy” Martin (pictured at right) in the Green section of the Amazon room sporting a stack of 2.8K, asking P5s to abstain from counting it out. It seemed like his friendly table image was working to his advantage, however, laughing as he shoved and raking in a few uncontested pots as we watched. He was definitely in emergency mode, but we all saw what happened to Matt “MattG1983″ Graham after he was down to one big blind last night — it won him a bracelet!

Nearby in the Green section sat Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz. We caught up with action at the table in a very interesting hand where Kevin was put to a decision for most of his chips. Before the flop, both the big blind and the small blind were in the hand, as well as two early limpers. The cutoff raised to a total of 3.1K with about 3K behind and Kevin sat on the button. Shuffling his chips, Kevin queried his opponent: “What was your name online?” He answered, “CG2212. Does that help you?” Kevin joked, “No.” His opponent took his sunglasses off and Kevin paused quite awhile to count out his chips before throwing his hand in the muck. Ultimately, one of the players in the blind shoved and got the call from the original raiser; the blind held A-K to his opponent’s pocket fours. Kevin, relieved, explained that he held A-Q and caught the sunglass tell; when the flop spiked an ace, his opponent was sent to the rail.

Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) told PocketFives at dinner break that he couldn’t wait for his table in the Orange section to break. Considering the lineup has featured everyone from David Benyamine to Brock “t_soprano” Parker to Roland De Wolfe to Gavin Smith, who can blame him? Upon returning from break, he first won a decent-sized pot off Brock with a full house. Then, with the blinds at 150/300 with an ante of 25, he picked up aces and raised preflop to 850. The small blind called and Roland De Wolfe made it 3K from the big blind. Peter shoved all in for the remainder of his 18K chips. The small blind folded and Roland called off his last 6K with pocket queens. Neff’s hand held up and subsequently, he got his wish when the table broke. Considering his hot streak, did he speak too soon?

Eric “jakz101″ Crain managed to double his stack when he got all his chips in preflop with KQ against his opponent’s 66. The board ran out 943Q9 and Eric’s queens and nines were good enough to take the pot; he has continued to build since then. In a recent hand, the board read 98667. Although we missed the action, it appeared that both players checked it down the whole way. When they both checked on the river Eric said “Dude, I flopped a straight but I’m going to check.” He flipped over his 75 which was good enough to take the pot. As he raked in the chips he said “I was hoping to get in a check-raise on the flop, then I didn’t like the turn, and I really didn’t like the river. Did you have outs?” The other player laughed and said no, so it seems that if Eric had fired off a bet at some point he would have taken the pot regardless. Eric is now sitting with 40K and in good spirits.

Jason Gray and one opponent saw a flop of JT3. When Jason checked, his opponent bet out, only to have Jason go all in for 13.5K. The other player made the call with his QJ only to find that he was behind Jason’s KK. The A on the turn and 7 on the river were harmless to Jason’s kings and he doubled up to around 30k.

Anna Wroblewski has been busy building up her big stack. Her most recent addition in chips came when another player pushed all in on a flop of T95. Anna debated for awhile before making the call with the KT for a pair of tens with a flush draw. Although she was behind her opponent who held the T9, the K fell on the turn, giving Anna a better two pair and the 5 on the river changed nothing so Anna knocked out a player and her stack grew to over 70k.

Ken “isuck123″ Goldin (pictured at right) did not fare as well during the last level. He reported that he had pocket ladies in the big blind and reraised Kido Pham on the button from 1K to 3.6K. When the flop came 7-high with two clubs, Ken shoved for 14K more and Kido called with 94. When the turn spiked the A, Ken was sent to the rail.

Also eliminated in the level was Joe Sebok, whose day came to an end when he shoved the remainder of his chips in preflop with pocket jacks and ran into another player’s pocket queens. The player with queens ended up making quads and Joe was eliminated.

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up
• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
• July 3, 2008 -- Maimone Busts

The energy jolting through all paths leading to the Amazon Room is palpable.

The halls are packed with people, security guards are influx, and camera crews are around nearly every corner.

This must be the unveiling of the biggest spectacle in poker, the WSOP Main Event.

With four starting days to accomodate what will be the largest field in this year’s WSOP, the 10k NL WSOP #54 Main Event will play five 2-hour levels, with a dinner break after the third level of play.

A host of P5′ers have already confirmed their seat assignment for Day 1A including Craig “MrCasino” Gray, Nick “fu_15″ Maimone, Dan “wretchy” Martin, Blake “Balla -B13″ Cahail, Justin “looshle” Pechie, Ken “isuck123″ Goldin, and Andrew “fergwrx” Ferguson to name a few. 

• July 4, 2008 -- Peter Cries De Wolfe
• June 29, 2008 -- Katz and Cahail Bust Out
• June 16, 2008 -- Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner?!
• June 14, 2008 -- Gray Done For the Day

Plenty of players came prepared for today’s rebuy event, armed with a stack of yellow rebuy chips.  Negreanu’s stack of yellow chips rivaled the size of his starting stacks and many others have followed suit.  Play has been loose so far and several players’ have begun the process of building their stacks.  Jared “TheWacoKid” Hamby chipped up early when he got it all in pre-flop with K4.  Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi has already built up his stack to over 30K by frequently moving all-in, often blind.  Ken “isuck123″ Goldin also doubled up early courtesy of Vanessa Rousso (pictured at left) and now has 8K.

Like yesterday’s mixed hold em event, the field today is loaded with good players and several tables boast a number of known live and online pros.  Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy is seated at the same table as Negreanu and Bart Hansen.  Kevin “Bel0wAb0vE” Saul is seated one table over and the two PokerXFactor instructors have been keeping an eye on each other’s progress.  Be sure to check out our text message updates on the left side of your screen, as Bax has frequently been texting in some of the crazier hands.  Other stacked tables include:

 - Ken Goldin, Vanessa Rousso, and Alex Jacob
- Mike Matusow (looking very svelte we must say), Adam “adam_mc” McGregor, and James Mackey
- Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, and Jason “JCarver” Somerville
- Bill Gazes, Jennifer Tilly, Robert Mizrachi, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman
- David Benyamine, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, and Michael “Martine23″ Martin
- Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, and Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck
- Brandon Cantu, Jason Gray, and Tim Vance

• June 4, 2008 -- Action Continues in Event #5
• June 26, 2008 -- Six-Handed Players Making Moves
• June 20, 2008 -- All in a Table Draw
• June 18, 2008 -- Good Neighbor Policy