Table 42 is the in the first row of tables inside the side entrance that most players use to get into and out of the room. In the last 15 minutes two seats at the table have emptied out as both Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (right) and Justin “Looshle” Pechie have been eliminated.

Fricke ran his pocket aces into the flopped quad eights of John D’Agostino and by the river of the 8-8-5-5-K board Jimmy had a bad feeling but ended up with the last of his chips in the middle anyway.

Both Pechie and Fricke made disappointed exits from the tournament area with their heads down. Both of these guys have shown the resilience and skill needed to succeed in tournament poker though, so expect to see them back in the tables at a major tournament soon, and well beyond day 1.

• November 6, 2008 -- Somerville Cracks Aces
• October 11, 2008 -- Moving To Vegas, Quads for Schwartz
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 4, 2008 -- The Toilet-0 Dethrones His Opponent

Justin “looshle” Pechie (pictured at left) managed to double up shortly before the last break of the evening.  With the blinds at 500/1,000 ante 100 a player raised to 2.5K preflop and Pechie called on the button with pocket tens.  The flop came 322 and the initial raiser checked to Justin who bet 6K, which the initial raiser called.  After the J hit on the turn, Pechie’s opponent bet 7K and Justin raised to 16K total leaving 24K behind.  The other player then pushed all-in and Pechie thought for some time before making the call.  It turned out to be a great call as the other player held AT for just ace high.  The river was the K and Justin doubled up to 100K.

Eric “jakz101″ Crain had been one of the bigger stacks throughout the day, but got as low as 100K during Level 9 of play.  He told us he was able to steal enough chips to get back up to 150K and then he got involved in a big hand that put all of his chips at risk. 

A player raised to 3K under the gun and Eric made the call on the button.  Kido Pham reraised to 15K and both players made the call.  The flop came 10-7-6 with two hearts and Pham checked.  The initial raiser bet 28K and Crain raised to 82.3K total.  Kido folded and the other player shoved all-in for 30K more.  Crain made the call and showed A5 while the other player had pocket jacks.  The K came on the turn and the board paired on the river.  Pham appeared rather distraut after the hand and claimed he folded pocket kings, meaning he would have filled up on the river and scoop the massive pot.  Instead Crain took the hand down and now has 350K.

The Table of Doom we reported on in the earlier part of the day, but some of its players have been reunited in the Blue section.  Dani “Ansky451″ Stern and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki (pictured at right) are playing at the same table once again and will likely not move before the end of the day.  Klodnicki was sitting with over 200K, but took a bit of a hit when, with the blinds at 600/1,200 ante 200 the player in the cut off open raised to 14K leaving just over 15K behind.  Klodnicki was on the button and reraised enough to put the other player all-in.  She quickly made the call with pocket kings, which had Chris’ A-K in bad shape.  A king on the flop left Klodnicki with very few outs and the turn and river failed to help him.  After the hand he was down to 187K.

Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein is now seated next to Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and they were chumming it up when we approached the table.  After Jeff took down a huge pot when he hit runner-runner for a king-high flush, he said he’s rather be lucky than good any day of the week.  Trying to keep up with his neighbor, Josh attempted to take down a pot preflop when he raised to 4,200 in early position.  It folded to the button who moved in for 20K more.  After thinking awhile, Josh folded and the button showed AK.  He said he made a good laydown and it wasn’t the right spot to gamble for his chips.

In other news, Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward managed to donate a large part of his stack to his tablemate this level.  When prodded for more information about what happened, Joe kindly requested that PocketFives report the following: “I got stupid.”  …we guess that’s just one of his latest lines.

Here are some of the most recent chip counts with around an hour left to play in Day 2A:
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 355K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 185K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 165K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 140K
Jason Gray - 140K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 118K
Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz - 113K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 100K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 165K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 130K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 165K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 100K
Bobby “gettin deep” Hodson - 74K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 38K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 45K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 39K

• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak

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

A large crowd gathered around Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman’s table in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Freeman (pictured right), who was sitting with over 330K chips, got it all in preflop with Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and Albert Iverson, one of the tournament chip leaders. The hands:

Freeman: KK
Albert Iverson: AK
Williams: JJ

Players from every table (including the Stud Hi-Lo tournament going on in the same room) came over to watch the pocket kings of Freeman hold as he jumped out of his seat and got a fist pound from Eric Froelich. Even Men “The Master” Nguyen walked over and asked us “How you get it in with ace-king?” Williams was eliminated in 34th place and earned $14,904.

Freeman is the first player to hit the 750K mark in the tournament and is the chip leader by over 200K. Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen has also made his way back to 350K by outracing Nicolas Levi. Rosen’s QQ was able to hold against Levi’s AK and Levi was eliminated.

Also holding strong with 27 players remaining are Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (260K) and Eric “E-Fro” Froelich (175K). Eliminated in the past hour were Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen, Randy “Randers” Haddox and Justin “looshle” Pechie.

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Low that we mentioned is now in Level 4. Bryan Micon, Chris “SKOAL” Falconer, Bryan Devonshire and Brett “Gank” Jungblut are among the early chip leaders.

• June 27, 2008 -- Freeman Chip Leader in $1K Rebuy
• June 26, 2008 -- Online Players Looking to Run Deep
• June 25, 2008 -- “The Toilet” Makes Flush
• June 26, 2008 -- Rosen Rises in Event #44

Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, who built up an impressive stack yesterday, has just doubled up to join the chip leaders of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Sitting on the button with blinds at 1500/3000, Rosen re-raised a player in middle position preflop with J5 and the player called. On a flop of J43, Rosen was check-raised all in by his opponent and he called instantly. Jamie was in excellent shape to pick up one of the biggest pots of the tournament as his opponent revealed his 77. The 5 on the turn and 4 on the river helped earn Rosen a pot worth more than 350,000.

Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka was just seen smiling as he raked in a monster pot to join Rosen at the top of the leaderboard. Jaka got involved in a three-way preflop all in against AK and 65, having both players covered, and his AT got the best of it in the end as the board came T9335. He is now up to 340,000 chips.

Justin “looshle” Pechie and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams have also increased their stacks in the past level. Williams raised to 7,200 under-the-gun and was re-reaised all in by a player in late position for 26,000 more. Williams called with AJ after working through the math and pumped his first when his opponent showed A6. Both players missed the board completely but Williams’ ace-jack high was best and he chipped up to 105,000.

Pechie got his QQ in preflop and was able to hold as he flopped top set and is now at 150,000.

Michael “mossified84″ Skomack and Mike “SirWatts” Watson were eliminated in the past hour.

Here’s a look at some other chip counts as we’re now down to 72 players left in Event #44:

Eric “E-Fro” Froelich - 120K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 116K (pictured right)
Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen - 115K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 87K
Stu “thedonator” Patterson - 80K
Randy “Randers” Haddox - 49K

• June 26, 2008 -- “Whoa! Who Won that Pot?”
• June 25, 2008 -- “The Toilet” Makes Flush
• July 4, 2008 -- The Toilet-0 Dethrones His Opponent
• June 28, 2008 -- Seat Open!