Poker, like many aspects of life, takes a combination of skill, timing, and luck.  Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar put the three together a little over a week ago to win the World Poker Tour event at the Borgata and take the top prize of $1.4 million.  Today’s World Series of Poker Europe Main Event field is full of players trying to work the same magic as Vivek had going across the ocean in Atlantic City.

Rajkumar himself is back at the tables, hoping to parlay his hot streak into another huge score.  The large buyin here (equivalent to $20,000) has brought out the heavy hitters from the live and online poker worlds, but satellites have also put some lesser known faces into the crowd.

With today being the larger of the two starting days (final numbers still coming as late registration is being held open for a while longer) the players are even more spread out around the casino with random tables put about anywhere a few square feet of open space can be found.  There has been some frustration from the last minute arrivals trying to scurry to their tables to get in the action without missing many hands.  The tables are numbered in a fashion that must make sense to someone, but who that person is nobody seems to know.  The order goes something like this: 7-2-13-3-9-6 for one area and 1-21-7-4-18 for another and on and on.  With the help of floor staff the players have mostly found their seats though and the tables went from being half full to pretty much being filled.

Now that all the seats are taken it will be up to the players to start emptying them back out.  The action seems a little slower in the early going today than yesterday, but with only an hour of play as a sample size it is too early to pass judgment.  Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis avoided an all in by folding the nut straight on a board that put three diamonds out on the river making a flush possible.

Stephen “stevie4444″ Chidwick is one of the players off to a good start.  He is off in one of the corner tables located by itself and not getting much attention.  Chidwick has accumulated some chips early on, looking to have around 30k in front of him.  Also at his table is Jason “JCarver” Somerville.

• September 28, 2008 -- Feature Table, Queen’s Kings Overthrown
• September 28, 2008 -- Win With The Queen High
• September 28, 2008 -- Early BustOuts
• September 28, 2008 -- Bag Em Up, Day 1B Complete

The players are putting their chips in the bags and heading for the doors as play for day 1A is complete. The chip leader at the end of day 1 looks to be Adam Weinraub with 150k. Weinraub won the WPT Celebrity Invitational in 2007 and has played a few WPT events on the West Coast since then. He will be going into day 2 with a healthy stack, though tomorrow’s larger starting field (expected) is likely to turn out a few larger stacks Weinraub will almost surely be among the top few chip stacks going into day 2 play.

Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld spent some time as the chip leader throughout the day, and finished up strong with 92,000. His stack should put him in the top 5 chip counts for the day and in solid position for day 2 play on Monday.

Full chip counts for Day 1A will be available later tonight or in the morning but for now here are some counts we were able to grab at the end of the day:

Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld - 92,000
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 73,600
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 68,625
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter (right) - 55,300
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 51,850
Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman - 45,450
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin - 29,775
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 16,650
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 11,350

• August 23, 2008 -- Around The Room
• August 25, 2008 -- Wrong Direction
• August 24, 2008 -- Winding Down
• August 23, 2008 -- Baron Back, Baker Baked

Day 1A play at the Legends of Poker is winding down. The players have about half an hour left before they will be done for the night. Players from todays flight get tomorrow off while the day 2B group take to the tables and the field will then be combined with all surviving players coming back on Monday.

Jason “JCarver” Somerville jumped up to 70k chips early and has been hanging around that mark for the last few levels. He recently grabbed a few chips from Miami John Cernuto on a board of QQT6A. Jason led at the river for 6,500 and Cernuto folded, saying later he had a queen while Sommerville claimed a straight and flush draw that got there on the river. “I’m just glad he didn’t shove the river” Sommerville said after the hand, saying he would have had to reluctantly fold.

Sommerville wasn’t the only player to get out of the gates quickly only to see progress stall. Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman (left) finished the first level with 50k and is right at the same amount as play winds down for the night. Both he and Sommerville are more than happy to finish the day with solid stacks though.

Different players have different goals for day 1 play. Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar mentioned he was just below the starting stack, and when jokingly asked if that was the goal for day 1 he replied that the trick is to lose half your starting stack and then get most of it back right near the end of the day so you feel like you are on a rush going into day 2.

Other chip counts:
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld - 95k
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery (right) - 75k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 68k
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 58k
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 50k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 42k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 39k
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 38k
Alec Torelli - 33k
Isaac “mr menlo” Baron - 30k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 28k
Jason Gray - 24k
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin - 24k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 18k
Bryan Devonshire - 18k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 16k

• September 27, 2008 -- All Day For A Quarter, Day 1A Complete
• August 24, 2008 -- Legends Of Poker Day 1A Complete
• August 23, 2008 -- Baron Back, Baker Baked
• August 23, 2008 -- Around The Room

The official number of players for Day 1A came in at 161, making the field a little smaller than the organizers had hoped for but not too far out of line for the expected total field of around 400. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar is one of the recent eliminations, falling to Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld. Al had pocket aces with the A and Vivek flopped a flush draw with the KQ. Zeidenfeld’s aces held up to send Vivek to the rail halfway through day 1A.

After adding Vivek’s chips to his stack, Alvin is now up to 75k and among the leaders. Here are some other counts from around the room:

Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld - 75k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 60k (right)
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 52k
Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman - 46k
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 40k
Alec Torelli - 35k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 35k
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery - 34k
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin - 33k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 32k
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 32k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 29k
Jason Gray - 28k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 26k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 24k
Bryan Devonshire - 25k
Isaac “Mr Menlo” Baron - 20k
David “Bakes” Baker - 5,700

Recent Eliminations:
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar
Craig “Mr Casino” Gray

• August 24, 2008 -- Legends Of Poker Day 1A Complete
• August 23, 2008 -- Big Stacks
• September 28, 2008 -- Running Good
• August 24, 2008 -- Winding Down

Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured at left) came into the Main Event Day 2b with a below average stack of 25k. After the first few levels, Agarwal went on a rush, increasing his stack to over 100k. Agarwal won a big hand off of Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania earlier in the day to get the bulk of his chips. Agarwal raised to 1,300 preflop, Charania made it 3,300 and Agarwal called.

The flop came 6T7 and Agarwal check-called Charania’s bet of 4,500. The turn was the 9 and Agarwal bet 14k. Charania raised him all-in for his last 20k and Agarwal called, tabling the 54 for a flush. The river held for Agarwal’, which bested Charania’s pocket jacks that didn’t have a heart draw on the turn. Mohsin currently sits with 20k.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy has more than doubled his stack to over 200K this afternoon in the Brasilia Room. Josephy hit that mark when he called a player’s all-in bet with QQ and had his opponent’s QT dominated. The flop brought no help to the other player and Q on the turn left his opponent drawing dead. Josephy has been one of the more active players today and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.

Michael “BraveJayhawk” Jensen was recently eliminated when he reraised all-in for his remaining 17.5K after a player ahead of him raised and another made the call. The player who flat called held AQ and Michael turned over QQ. After the flop came J65, Jensen looked to be in good shape, but the A on the turn left him drawing to one out. When the K came on the river, he was eliminated.

Jason “JCarver” Somerville (pictured at right) hit the exit after he got crossed up in an interesting battle of wills with his opponent. Somerville raised to 1,800 preflop and his opponent called out of the blind. Somerville’s opponent bet 2k into him on a 9-9-5 flop and Somerville called. The turn was a ten and Somerville raised his opponent’s 7k bet to 18.5k and got called. The river was a king and Somerville put his opponent all-in for 35k after he checked to him. Somerville’s opponent called and revealed a straight with Q-J, rivering Somerville’s K-J high, which was best until the river. To make matters more comical, Somerville’s opponent added, ‘I played it perfect, I trapped you,’ Somerville later told PocketFives. Somerville was left with 5k and busted shortly after the hand.

Here’s a look at some chip counts as players went into a 40-minute break after Level 7:

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 200K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 185.5K
David “Bakes” Baker - 165K
Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde - 122K
Aaron “gotcha55″ Kanter - 113K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 94K
“BodogAri” Engel - 80K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 80K
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 75K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 64k
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 60K
Jason “strassa2″ Stasser - 60K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 60K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 60K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 58K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 53K
Simon Marlow - 52K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 38K
Ladbrokes team pro Azad Pirooti - 36K
James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell - 30K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 28K
Bryan Micon - 28K
Greg “DuckU” Hobson - 26K
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 24K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 24K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 22K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 15K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 13K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 9K
Jason “MKind16″ Laso - 6K

• July 10, 2008 -- Beckman Moves Up Leaderboard
• July 6, 2008 -- BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
• July 10, 2008 -- King is Dead
• July 9, 2008 -- Dreams Dashed or Doubled Up?