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

Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim says he’s comfortable gambling with a big stack here on Day 2a. That became clear during a hand just before dinner break. On a flop of 852, a player in early position bet 6.4K and another player moved all in for 24.8K. Hakim (pictured right) made the call and the original bettor folded:

Hakim: JT
Opponent: AQ

Hakim’s fate looked bleak until the J fell on the turn and 2 on the river. Hakim increased his stack to 185.5K. Also at his table is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, who is holding 100K.

Jeff “yellowsub” Williams’ hot streak continued when he and another player got it all-in on the turn for a 120K pot with the board reading 943 9 with Williams holding pocket queens to his opponent’s pocket threes. Jeff appeared to be on the way out the door, but a miracle Q on the river pushed the pot to Jeff and increased his chip stack to 20 times what he had two levels ago. Since then Jeff has taken a few hits and has 87.5K going into dinner break.

Doug “resilient” Smith took some time to fill PocketFives Live in on how he managed to double his already large stack. With the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 Doug (pictured left) raised in early position with A-K off suit and another big stack made the call. The flop came A-K-8 and Smith led out for 3.3K. His opponent made the minimum raise to 6.6K, and Doug reraised to 20K total. The other player then moved all-in and Smith made the call. His opponent held K-8 for a lesser two pair and the A on the turn left his opponent drawing dead. After the hand Doug was up to 168K and he has been building his stack even more since then. He has 185K as play ended before the dinner break.

Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann was sitting with close to 130K earlier in the day but has taken a hit in the past level. Heitmann and another player built a 30K pot preflop, with the other player all in holding TT to Heitmann’s 99. The pocket tens held as the board showed KJ3K6 and Heitmann’s stack dipped to 81K.

Right before the dinner break, the player in the hijack seat at Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach’s table raised to 2.5k and Richard made the call from the big blind. The flop came AJ5 and Richard checked over to the other player who bet 4k. Richard fiddled with his chips for a bit before raising to 10k. The other player called the raise and they saw the turn bring the T. Richard wasted no time in betting out with 15k and the other player gave up his hand which allowed Richard to add a few chips to his stack.

With the average stack at 96K, here’s a look at the unofficial chip counts as players went on their 90 minute dinner break:

Derek “arodss3″ Buanomo - 215K (pictured right)
Michael “DblupM0J” Johnson - 190K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 188K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 185.5K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 185K
Jason Gray - 180K
Joe “JOEYTHEB” Brooks - 170K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 131K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 123K
Kush Patel - 122K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 121K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 118K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 110K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 106K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 101K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 100K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 97K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 87.5K
Dani “Anksy451″ Stern - 80K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 77K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 71K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 70.8K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 63K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 58.5K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 50K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 47K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 36K
Jordan Morgan - 31K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 28.5K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 22K
Barry Greenstein - 19.5K
Shaun Deeb - 18K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 17K

• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak
• July 8, 2008 -- ‘Yellowsub’: Full Speed Ahead
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern

As Level 6 came to a close Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) moved all-in for his remaining 6K on the last hand before break and picked up the blinds and antes.  Well, what a difference a level makes.  When we checked in with Jeff at the beginning of Level 8 he was sitting with a more than ample 65K–over 10 times the stack he had 2 hours earlier.  PocketFives Live inquired to Williams just how someone goes from 6K to 60K in the span of a level he told us, “you run really well.  You get lucky in a couple of spots too.”  Jeff has been all-in for his tournament life on four separate occassions during Level 7 and each time he found himself scooping chips to add to his stack.  We’ll continue to track Jeff’s progress and keep you posted as we play through to the dinner break.

Rami “arbianight” Boukai has doubled up to 45K in Level 8 just before his table broke in the Green section of the Amazon Room. With blinds at 400/800, a player opened to 2,400 in middle position and Boukai shoved for 22,100 on the button. it folded back to the original raiser, who thought for two minutes before calling with 88. Boukai revealed QQ and avoided disaster when the board came out K47JK.

Here are our most recent chip counts:

Derek “arodss3″ Buanomo - 200K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 198K
Jason Gray - 172K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 161K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 126K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 110K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 106.5K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 83K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 72K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 70K
Shaun Deeb - 52K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 50K
Louis “MrWerman” Beeks - 46.5K
Carter “notashark” Gill - 25K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 8K

Recent eliminations include: Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka, Matthias “goodvibe” Neu, and Terry “Asiandude7″ Eichens

• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 8, 2008 -- Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes

Play concluded for Day 1A of the Main Event just after 1AM PST. Nearly half of the day’s entrants were eliminated in the 10K championship; 657 of 1,297 remain for Day 2 play. Day 1b will commence tomorrow at 12pm PST at the Rio, but before we get ahead of ourselves, here is a wrap-up of Level 5, which brought quite a bit of excitement for PocketFives players.

After patiently waiting the entire level, Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) finally got his last 5K all in from the big blind after the player on the button raised to 1.2K. He was in great shape with A-K versus his opponent’s A-5. The flop came Q-7-2. When a queen came on the turn, Jeff looked nervous, fearing a chop, but an ace on the river sealed the deal and he doubled up to 10.5K in chips.

Another big double-up came for Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach, who had been sitting on a short stack for quite awhile. He got involved in a hand with one other player and Richard’s AQ bested his opponent’s AT on a A9792 board. He doubled up to 28K.

PocketFives also caught up with Joe “latestlines2″ Ward who was in the small blind and engaged in a hand with one other opponent. The board ran out 4-A-K-9-T and Joe’s A-6 held up to increase his stack to 56K. Shortly afterward, Joe also got involved in a hand when the board ran out J6J96. He bet out on the river and was called; both players showed A-Q for the chop, but they each picked up the blinds, antes, and a couple of limpers’ chips, so Joe increased his stack to 68K.

Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein (pictured at left), on the other hand, was feeling a little suppressed as he explained that his table was extremely nitty, yet the table next to theirs kept the camera crews running over every other hand with their all in action. Nitty or not, Josh’s stack stayed strong at 43K and he will continue on to Day 2 after attending a wedding in Chicago during his break.

Recent eliminations include Adam “akat11″ Katz, whose pocket queens couldn’t catch his opponents pocket kings, and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, whose all-in preflop K-J couldn’t best his opponent’s K-Q. Also suspiciously missing from their seats? JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu, about whom we haven’t heard any news.

Congrats to all players who played valiantly through Day 1a! Though official chip counts will be released later this evening, here are estimates at the end of Level 5:

Michael “dblupM0j” Johnson - 114K
Mark “pokerbok” Vos - 106K
Jeremiah Smith - 99K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 70K
Jason Gray - 69.4K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 57.4K
Joe “latestlines2″ Ward - 68K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 55K
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 54K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 50K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 50K
Peter “number1pen” Neff- 49K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 43K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 37.6
Kevin “Kice32″ Iacofano - 37.5K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 35.8K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 32K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 26K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 21K
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 21K
Barry Greenstein - 21K

• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
• June 25, 2008 -- Nit Watch 2008

Because play ended last night in the $2k NLHE event #48 right after the bubble burst, the “all-in fest” that usually occurs immediately following was saved for today. Less than 30 minutes after play began two tables had already been broken and David “ComptonMasta” Barter and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin are amongst the early casualties.

Bryan “Devo” Devonshire was also eliminated when his pocket fives ran into pocket jacks and failed to improve.

60 players have been eliminated in the first 75 minutes of play today and the other short stacks will obviously be looking to make moves soon so the high number of eliminations is likely to continue through the early part of the afternoon.

In the $1.5k NLHE event that started at noon today Justin Bonomo (pictured right) has jumped out as one of the early chip leaders with 14k while Theo Tran, Jeff ”yellowsub” Williams and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul have already been eliminated.

Eric “Rizen” Lynch was guarding a short stack when PocketFives caught up to his table on a T-7-4 flop.  Eric moved all in with Q-8 after the flop and managed to double against pocket jacks when he spiked a queen on the turn.  Another player at his table asked, “Is there a bounty on you or something?” before Eric laughed and collected the pot.  Other players faring less profitably include Dave “davyg” Gyarmti, who had accumulated up to 5.2K in chips until his pocket kings were cracked by pocket nines.  He was down to 1.8K at the break.

Other PocketFives members spotted in the event include David “seal” Eisenstein, Scott “thebasher007″ Stubbs, Nick “FU_15″ Maimone, William “gptbigguy” Looper, Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau, Micah “mordan” Hendrix, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Steve “willywoo” Nolan, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, Eric “erbloore” Bloore, and Matt “SamENole” Smith. Some chip counts for other players are listed below.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 3.5K (pictured left)
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 4K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 5.2K
Chris “big huni” Hunichen - 4K
Andriy “tormos” Pavlyuk - 6K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 4.5K

• June 28, 2008 -- Rizen Out
• June 25, 2008 -- Shorr Silences Minneapolis Meehan
• June 16, 2008 -- Pop Goes the Bubble
• June 29, 2008 -- Saddling Up for HORSE