Players recently returned from the dinner break and cards were in the air shortly after 9:40pm PST at the Rio. Play will continue this evening until 180 remain or until we complete one more two-hour level.

Just before the crowd in the Amazon Room dispersed for their suppers, several noteworthy things occurred, not the least of which was the crushing and subsequent elimination of Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at right). Turner was recently reseated at the second featured table, just to the side of the ESPN arena. He was reunited with Jeremiah Smith, with whom he sat next to during yesterday’s play and who still guarded a huge stack.

In a hand that will inevitably haunt Jon for a long time, he raised preflop to 21K and the player on the button called him. The dealer flopped out AT8 and Turner, first to act, bet 41K. His opponent raised him to nearly twice the pot’s size and Jon pushed alll in for 340K more. His opponent thought for a long time before calling down with 89 and was completely dominated by Jon’s pocket aces, which had flopped top set. However, the Q on the turn gave his opponent a flush, and Jon was looking for the board to pair. The meaningless 4 came on the river and Jon was sent to the sidelines looking like his puppy had been stolen.

Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward (pictured at left) also experienced heartbreak on the very last hand before the break when he faced off with Gus Hansen. On a flop of AT5, Joe tossed 100K into the pot and Hansen made the call. The dealer turned the 9 and Joe checked; Hansen took the opportunity to bet 200K, which Ward check-raised for 385K more when he went all in. Hansen ended up making the call and showing A-T to Joe’s A-Q; and Joe’s pair of aces couldn’t catch a queen on the river to make a better two pair. He was eliminated in 218th place and will take home $38,600 for his efforts.

In better news, Andrew “tufat23″ Teng has managed to chip up substantially after break, more than quadrupling his pre-dinner stack, which had been down to 200K in the middle of the last level. He now sits much more comfortably with 800K in front of him.

Over at the table of doom, Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz joined Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert and Phil Hellmuth. It didn’t take long into the new level for Schultz to make a move. On a board of 652, Gaubert bet 45K and Shultz check-raised all in from the big blind from 94K more. Gaubert made with call with 99 and needed to come from behind to beat the 65 of Schultz. The turn and river bricked for Gaubert, increasing Andy’s stack to over 200K.

More chip counts (and hopefully, better news) to come shortly as we get this level under way!

• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
• July 12, 2008 -- Friedberg Busts, Beckman Builds Stack
• July 12, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good vs Pocket Kings
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?

After a little over an hour into play today at the WSOP Main Event it had been apparent that many of the players have the “go big or go home” mentality as we have heard the “all-in and a call!” shout coming from dealers numerous times all over the room. We’re already down to 408 of the 474 players that started the day.

Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen (pictured left) was caught in one of these confrontations, but she wasn’t the one at risk. She and a shorter stacked player got all the chips in preflop with Tracey’s 99 ahead of her opponents A3. The flop came T72 keeping Tracey in the lead but the A on the turn reversed things and the Q on the river changed nothing so Tracey doubled the other player up and dropped to around 380k in chips.

A player at risk during his all in was Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis who got all his chips in before the flop holding the QQ against another players TT. The board ran out K324J and Steve managed to double his stack up to around 350k.

Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen started the day with 576k in chips and seemed to be using his big stack to try and take out some of his weaker opponents. On a flop of T98 Rosen checked to his opponent who bet 40k. Jamie then raised to 100k and his shorter stacked opponent raised all in and Jamie made the call. The all-in player was ahead with the JT for top pair with an open-ended straight draw in the lead against Jamie’s 86 for a flush draw with a lesser-gutshot straight draw. The turn brought the A and the river was the 7 giving both players a straight but the all-in player held the better one and scooped up the pot knocking Jamie down to around 280k.

It didn’t take Jon “PearlJammer” Turner long to increase his 726k stack considerably in the first thirty minutes of play. The chips didn’t come easy however as Turner had to call an 85k river bet with his set of eights on a board with three hearts and a jack to a straight against his opponent Dustin Holmes. Turner’s hand was good, shipping him a pot near 300k. Turner won a few hands after that as well and is now near the one million mark.

Tim “TMay420″ West picked a good spot to get his last few chips in but was unable to outrace Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts. Brent raised to 15K in early position and West moved in for 51K. Roberts made the call with AQ, which was behind Tim’s JJ. The 643 flop added a slew of outs for Roberts, and the 4 left West needing help. The K fell on the river and West was eliminated, earning $27,020 for his performance. Roberts chipped up to 360K.

Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter, on the other hand, was able to dodge a bunch of outs to double his stack. David “Bakes” Baker raised to 14K in middle position and Porter moved all in for 46K. Baker made the call, showing JT and Porter flipped over A6. Porter got out of his seat when he saw the flop of KQ7, saying “Well, see you later!” but his hand was able to hold when the 8 and 7 filled the board. Porter is up to over 100K.

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe continued his onslaught by eliminating a player and climbing over the 1 million chip mark. Crowe got his money in on the turn with 99 on a board of 9247 and had his opponent drawing dead. He now has nearly 1.3 million, which is right near the top of the leaderboard.

Here’s a look at some chip counts midway through the first level on Day 4:

Peter “number1pen” Neff - 660K
Keith “damurdera3″ Fererra - 615K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 600K
David “raptor517″ Benefield - 540K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 475
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 415K
Mark “AceSpades” Radoja - 400K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 260K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 280K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 180K
Thayer Rasmussen - 153K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 150K
Hunter “The Hunt D” Frey - 105K
Clayton “clayton_27″ Newman - 140K

• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up

As hand-for-hand play continued well past the end of Level 14, players were either anxiously awaiting the money bubble or falling asleep at their tables. Play was frenetic as camera crews ran up and down the aisles, trying to capture players’ best and worst moments. However, cheers recently erupted in the Amazon room, signifying that 666 remain and everyone has made the money and are now guaranteed $21,230. Congratulations to all! As soon as hand-for-hand completes, players will take a 30-minute break to color up and take a breather.

Some players, like Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez (pictured at right) were trying to take advantage of the bubble to semi-bluff players off their chips and getting burned in the process. Senovio reported that he managed to lose 100K in chips over the last two levels, but spoke to his daughters for good luck once again at dinner and hopes it would charm his play going into the bubble.

Paul “comeonphish” Lieu decided to put his big stack to use bullying other players at the table while hand-for-hand play was underway. With the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 it folded around to Lieu who raised to 10K from the hijack. The player on the button then reraised to 35K and Paul eyed his stack before making the call. The flop was A76 and Paul led for 20K. The other player thought for moment before making the call. As soon as the 2 hit on the turn, Lieu grabbed a stack of orange 5K chips large enough to put his opponent all-in. The other player thought briefly before announcing, “Well, you better get a camera over here.” Another player asked if he was calling and he paused before verbally announcing his call. The player then turned over AA while Lieu showed 28. Paul needed a diamond on the river, but instead he got the 6 and he paid off the other player’s remaining 64.4K.

Other players were making extremely solid moves and chipping up. Jeff “jpapola” Papola has been on a rush approaching the money bubble, doubling up twice. He went from 50K to 100K when his A-J held up against K-J and later went from 100k to 230k when his kings held up against A-Q. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen also chipped up when he won a 400k pot off of Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey (pictured at left) when his A-K beat Frey’s jacks in an all-in preflop hand. The hand left Rasmussen with 420k and Frey with 60k.

Other players were making strong plays and getting completely flattened. As we reported earlier, the table where Jeremiah Smith sits with Jon “PearlJammer” Turner was incredibly dangerous. Jeremiah built his stack up to more than 1.2M in the last level and was apparently still on his heater.

One of his latest victims is David “davidp18″ Peters (pictured at left), who has been struck by lightning. After Peters opened under-the-gun to 8k, tournament chip leader and former poker reporter Jeremiah Smith put him all-in for his last 160k after he stuck out two orange 100K stacks. Peters called with the QQ and was way ahead of Smith’s 96. Or at least he thought. Smith apologized in advance and jokingly referred to it as a standard race situation before the flop dropped. Smith’s optimism was understood when the flop came T87, flopping Smith a straight with a flush draw. Peter’s dire situation caught a ray of hope when the T peeled on the turn but the A on the river capped off what has been a Jamie Gold-like run of cards for Smith, who was awestruck in the aftermath of an incredible scene which captured in its entirety by the ESPN crew.

Here are some more unofficial chip counts at the bubble:

Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 600K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 530K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 500K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 485K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 480K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 440K
Thayer Rasmussen - 420K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 370K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 330K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 260K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 260K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 245K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 235K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 217K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 193K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 160K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 160K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 145K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 145K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack - 140K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” - 110K
Jason Gray - 100K
Ben “astrolux85″ Roberts - 95K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 80K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 80K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 80K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 63K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 62K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 46K

• July 11, 2008 -- Olly Olly Oxen Free!
• July 11, 2008 -- Money Makin’, Super Tables Breakin’
• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 10, 2008 -- Clements At Risk Early

Plenty of media encircled Jeremiah Smith’s table as he was racking up a ridiculous stack as we quickly approach the money bubble on Day 3; when we first caught up with the former Poker Wire writer, he had built a fortress of more than 800K chips (that we could count). Greg “FBT” Mueller sauntered over to the table, took one look at Jeremiah’s stack, licked his lips and laughed. However, near the middle of the last level, PocketFives witnessed another run of cards for Jeremiah; he picked up aces twice and kings once in three consecutive hands, winning huge pots every time. PocketFives guesses his chip count now hovers just below the million mark.

However, he’s not the only huge stack at the table; eight out of nine players seated at the felt were well above the average stack of 186K. Seated immediately to his right is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at left), who built a smaller castle of chips and was double the average with 350K. He reported to PocketFives that he also won a big pot earlier this level in the following hand: A player on the button raised 7.5K preflop and Jon reraised him to 26K, which he called. The board came a rainbow A-K-8 and Jon led out for 29K. His opponent called, the dealer turned a ten, and Jon bet out 49K. After taking what Jon said was forever to tank, the player reluctantly folded and the chips were shipped his way.

Also at the table sat Ryan “Daut44″ Daut, who was involved in a huge hand when another player at his table raised, only to have Ryan re-raise. The other player made the call and they saw the flop come QT7. Both players got all their chips in the middle and Ryan’s AA had been out-flopped by his opponents TT. The K came on the turn, giving Ryan a few more outs, but the K on the river couldn’t improve his aces and he was sent to the rail just short of the money. Adam “Roothlus” Levy ran over to the table and was disappointed to see that Ryan had been eliminated. Levy is doing well and is currently sitting on a stack of 440k. Also recently moved to the table? David “davidp18″ Peters.

Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured at right) didn’t take very long to get involved in a huge pot after the dinner break. With blinds at 1.5K/3K/400, a player opened for 9K and Agarwal re-raised to 30.2K. Kush Patel re-reraised all-in directly behind for an additional 85Kgoogle.com. Having Patel covered by 70K, Agarwal called after the action folded back to him but was in bad shape when Patel showed KK to his AK. Patel was looking good when the board read QTTQ but was sent to the rail when the A dropped on the river. Agarwal’s stack shot up to 310k after the hand.

Agarwal and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna were talking about Agarwal’s call afterward and mentioned that it would be a good spot to re-raise Agarwal all-in from Patel’s perspective since Agarwal re-raised someone who had been very active preflop and that his hand would look very strong. Agarwal also mentioned that he was getting extremely compelling odds to chase down queens as well as possibly being up against the same hand. Either way, Agarwal was extremely happy with the result.

Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson had been sitting near 100k in chips for a good portion of the day. He had finally chipped up to a close-to-average stack of 160k when the following hand took place. After preflop betting, all the chips of a shorter-stacked player went in the middle with Johnson attempting to knock him out. Unfortunately for Johnson, his KK was up against the other players AA. The flop made the other player’s hand even stronger when it came down AT5 leaving Johnson drawing to runner runner outs. One of those possible cards came in the form of the K on the turn, but the 8 on the river wasn’t the second card he needed and his stack dropped back to 110k. He seemed rather disappointed but is still alive as bubble play approaches.

Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) found himself the benefactor of a generously large pot when, with the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 he raised to 8K on the button and the big blind called. When the flop came out 7-7-5, the big blind checked and Neff bet 11K. The big blind then quickly moved all-in for 130K total. Peter obliged the other player by making the call with A7 and the other player turned over 35. After the player was eliminated, Peter added the pot to his stack, which has now increased to 395K.

UPDATE: Play has now gone hand-for-hand in the Amazon Room as only 674 players remain. The money bubble will burst shortly, as 666 players cash. Stay tuned!

In our attempt to try and take over the world in total chip count domination, here are the recent unofficial counts from PocketFives writers’ tired eyes:

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 620K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 510K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 500K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 480K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 440K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 420K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 440K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 430K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 395K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 350K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 320K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 310K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 254K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 250K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 230K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 230K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 242K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 200K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 200K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 195K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 194K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 190K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 190K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 170K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 170K
Jason Gray - 170K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Bruce “cornellxc11″ Hyde - 140K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 110K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 110K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 102K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 90K
Jeff Papola - 90K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 85K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 75K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 67K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 60K

• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?
• June 3, 2008 -- Stacked 5k Mixed field, Sowers Bad Beats Dicken
• July 12, 2008 -- Double Trouble

We’re just minutes away from the start of Day 1b and Outkast’s “Hey Ya” is echoing through the Amazon Room as players are finding their seats. Nearly 1,400 entrants participated yersterday and more are expected today despite it being a national holiday. Some notables registered for Day 1b are Micah “mordan” Hendricks (pictured right), Steve “MrTimCaum O’Dwyer, Matt “SamENole” Smith, Tom “SBRounder” West, Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth and even Steve “gboro780″ Gross, who won two tournaments on Full Tilt last night.

Jon “PearlJammer” Turner headlines a slew of P5ers who survived Day 1a yesterday. Turner has 89,450 chips and was one of the chip leaders as the evening concluded. Here’s a look at the rest of the P5ers that will play Day 2, which will restart on Tuesday, July 8:

Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa - 73,000
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 71,050
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 70,000
Joe “latestlines2″ Ward - Did not report but we think he’s around 70K
Jason “JasonGray” Gray - 69,400
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 68,800
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 62,400
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 62,300
Steve “stevesbets” Jacobs - 60,925
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 58,275
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 57,400
Eric “jakz101″poker Crain - 49,850
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 48,925
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 47,750
Dan “ansky451″ Stern - 47,100
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 44,425
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 41,757
Aaron “aaronbeen” Been - 41,550
Joseph “JOEYTHEB” Brooks - 38,525
Zach “CrazyZachary” Clark - 37,850
Kevin “Kice32″ Iacofano - 37,525
Joshua “Squintngo” Goldstein - 36,600
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 35,800
Anna “pokerpixie” Wroblewski - 34,125
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 30,775
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 30,250
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee - 29,450
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 27,550
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 27,200
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 24,650
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 23,775
Brock “t_soprano” Parker -21,700
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 21,500
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 18,800
Carter “notashark” Gill - 16,100
Andrew “fergwrx” Ferguson- 13,500
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 10,950
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 10,850

• July 12, 2008 -- Looking Back in the Rearviewmirror
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?
• July 11, 2008 -- Olly Olly Oxen Free!