Nick “fu_15″ Maimone’s (pictured right) tough start to Day 1A of the WSOP Main Event got even worse when he was all-in with aces on a 10-9-3 flop against pocket queens and lost when the third queen peeled on the turn.

Adam “akat11″ Katz cringed when he discovered he was playing across from David Pham at his starting table. Katz can breathe a little easier now that he has built his stack up to 29k and Pham has went the other direction with only 5k.

Eric “jakz101″ Crain’s stack seems to perpetually lead the life of a yo-yo in nearly every tournament P5’s has followed him at lately. Crain chronicled his richter scale-like path to P5’s of his first three hours of play. He started out getting up to 25k then got down to 10k, then got up to 20k, then down to 16k and is currently back up to the 20k starting stack.

Stay tuned to see where Crain’s roller coaster turns next.

Brock “t_soprano” Parker’s table became a little easier with the departure of David Benyamine, whose A-Q ran into AA on an ace high flop. Parker’s table still features Roland De Wolfe and Peter “number1pen” Neff however.

Here’s a list of players’ stacks

Steve “CornellFiji” Ware - 38k
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 35k
Faraz “The Toilet” Jaka - 30k
Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis - 26k
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - 22k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 22k
Aaron Been - 22k
Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul - 20k
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 18k
Shannon Shorr - 18k

• July 3, 2008 -- Slaubaugh Busts in Level 1
• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
• July 4, 2008 -- Peter Cries De Wolfe
• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham

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

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

Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan (pictured at left) lost the entirety of his 18K stack on the last hand of play before the rebuy period ended in the $1K No Limit Hold Em with Rebuys.  As the clock was expiring, the dealer began to deal out the hand, leaving Danny’s table to play out one more as everyone else began to add-on and clear out of the Amazon Room on a 30 minute break.  When Ryan picked up pocket 10s he got it all in against not one, but two other players who held A-10 and A-Q respectively.  When an ace came out on the flop, the 26K pot was shipped A-Q’s way and Danny was left with no other option but to start all over again with the minimum amount–6K. 

Jason Gray took a bit of a hit to his stack when, on a flop of Q76 he called the 2.5K all-in of his opponent while holding TT.  Gray turned out to be in bad shape against the other player’s KK.  The {4c] on the turn and 4 on the river did not improve Gray’s hand and he is back under the 10K after the completion of the hand.

Nick “fu_15″ Maimone (pictured at left) had 12.5K coming back from the break, but he took a huge hit when he got it all in with on a flop of 10-5-4 with pocket aces against his opponent’s pocket fives for a 22K pot.  He got the remainder of his chips in a few hands later, but his opponent rivered a straight on him and Nick was sent to the rail.

Here are some more unofficial chip counts from some of the numerous P5ers remaining in the field:
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 50K
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 22K
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 17K
Chris “moorman_1″ Moorman - 16K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 14K
Eric “p3achy_keen” Lie - 13.5K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 12K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 12K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 11K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 9.5K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 9.5K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 9K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 8K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 8K
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - 8K
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 8K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 7K

Over in the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event, Chris “SKOAL” Falconer was eliminated in 68th place when he got it all in with A-2-7-7 against another player’s A-A-Q-7 and the board came out 10-3-3-3-J.  He earned $2,751 for his finish.

• June 25, 2008 -- Shorr Thing
• June 26, 2008 -- Mackey Riding High
• June 25, 2008 -- Tamayo Runner-Up, SKOAL Survives Bubble Burst
• June 25, 2008 -- Bad Moon Rizen

With the 2.5k Pot-Limit hold-em/Omaha tournament about to start, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan (pictured right) made a bold move preflop that will likely keep him out of WSOP Event #24.

During level 5 with blinds at 150-300-25, an early position raiser made it 1k and Nick “fu_15″ Maimone called. Ryan went all-in for 4.5k only to have a player behind him reraise all-in.

The action clear out back to Ryan who was up against about the best possible hand he could be up against given the action, with his AT not far behind his opponents 99.

As the player’s cards were exposed a player at the table mentioned that now Ryan could go play in that other tournament if he lost.

Ryan’s wish to play the mixed event was likely vanished when the board ran out 863T5. Ryan could still make the tournament if he busts before the end of the first break.

Playing to Ryan’s immediate was Maimone, who’s accumulated one of the bigger stacks of the tournament at 28k.

“I didn’t want to have like nine big blinds and just miss out on the tournament,” said Ryan, mentioning that he doesn’t really like AT in that spot.

Jason “JCarver” Somerville busted when he shoved A8 in late position for 2100 and ran into Theo Tran’s KK in blind.

Here are some other key chip counts near the end of level 5.

Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 30k
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 16k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 12k
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 12k
Court Harrington - 12k
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 7k
Phil Hellmuth - 4k

• June 13, 2008 -- Harrington on Helium
• June 12, 2008 -- Greenstein Cracks Competition, Somerville Sinking
• June 13, 2008 -- Titan Tom
• June 26, 2008 -- Six-Handed Players Making Moves