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

First and foremost, we here would like to profusely apologize to Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg (pictured at left).  Earlier today we reported that Christian had been eliminated during Level 7 of play.  Well, the details of Fockenberg’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and he is, in fact, alive and well with a hearty 79K.  With so many tables being broken and players being moved around sometimes the breaking order changes on us and mistakes are made.  Such was the case with Christian, so don’t worry friends and family of Fockenberg–he is just fine.

Now that we have reported on someone we lost, now it is time to tell you about someone we found amongst the 612 players remaining in the Day 2A field.  Hunter “The_Hunt_D” Frey, who is one of our chip leaders with 384K.  When we found Hunter, he kindly recalled the hand that launched him to the top of the leaderboard.  Frey was involved in an 8-way limped pot with the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 holding 2-3 when the flop came A-3-3 with two diamonds.  One of the other players led out for 6K and another player called before Hunter raised to 17.5K.  Both players made the call and the turn came Q.  The initial better then shoved all-in for his remaining 90K and the third player in the hand thought for some time before folding.  Frey told us he tanked on the decision before making the call.  The other player showed A-K, the river was no help to him, and Hunter shot up to 400K.

We have also lost our “Table of Doom” that featured Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Peter “number1pen” Neff.  Their table was recently broken, but not before Stern reraised one of the other players preflop inducing him to fold.  Before he threw his hand away he turned up K6 and joked, “I ought to show since the table is about to break.”

While that table may have disappeared, we may have another table of doom brewing over in the Blue section.  Mike “SirWatts” Watson had a fairly easy day when he played on Day 1B and seemed to flop sets at will during the early levels and he was hoping Day 2 would be in the same vein.  However, every time his table loses a player, they bring over yet another known pro to add to the already stacked table.  First it was the big stacked Jason Gray (pictured at right) and when we last checked on the table Brandon Adams, who started today 2nd in chips, was unpacking several racks of chips.  Mike also told us there are some other online players at the table as well.

Tim “tmay420″ West continued to sit at a table with Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano and remained steady throughout the last level, hovering around the 100K mark and taking relatively few risks.  When we caught up with Tim’s table, he was raising a min-betting opponent preflop to 6K more with 8K already in the pot.  After awhile in the tank, his opponent folded and he took the pot down to increase his stack to 105K.  Eric “jakz101″ Crain sat nearby, expressing frustration when his flopped straight flush draw bricked out and he lost a 100K pot.  Eric still has 210K in front of him and is confident he will reclaim his lost chips.

When PocketFives caught up to Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson (pictured at left), his strategy seemed to be similar - he reported that he got pocket kings twice in the last level and each time bet out to see what risks he faced.  In one situation, he said that he raised 5K under the gun with kings and was called by four other players preflop.  When the dealer spiked an ace, players checked around.  Hodson said he bet at the turn to see where he was, and was insta-raised by another player.  He folded and said though he’s gotten no value out of his kings, he minimized his loss and is happy with his 72K chipstack.  At a table full of recreational players, he said his strategy for the rest of the night was to play extremely tight through Level 9 and turn up the heat in the last level of the evening.

Here are some unofficial chip counts from midway through Level 9 of play:
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 384K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 210K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 200K
Jason Gray - 190K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 184K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 180K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 172K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 160K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 155K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 142.5K
Peter “number1pen” - 122K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 122K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 118K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 99K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 90K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 90K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 87.5K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 79K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 79K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 75K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 65K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 49K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 45K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 44K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 43K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 39K

Recent eliminations include Shaun Deeb, TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka, Steve “McNallyville” McNally, and Barry Greenstein.

• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern