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

It didn’t take long for Peter “number1pen” Neff to get involved with some of the other notable online players populating his new table. As we last reported, Neff is seated with Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen. With the blinds at 300/600 ante 75 Neff and Stern were heads up in a hand where the flop came down AT9. Peter bet out 2.6K into a 5K pot from under the gun and Dani raised to 7K on the button. Neff asked for a count of the remainder of Stern’s chips, learned he had around 65K behind, and made the call. Peter checked when the J came on the turn and Dani fired out 13K. Peter thought for a couple of minutes before calling. The K on the river prompted another check from Neff and, after some thought, Stern bet 26K. Neff thought for a couple of minutes once again before eventually announcing “call.” Dani turned over 99 and Peter showed TT for the better set. The hand left Stern with 27K and pushed Neff up to 140K.

Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann surpassed the 100K mark after knocking a player out of the tournament. A player moved all in with 88 and Heitmann called with JJ. The KQT76 board was kind to Heitmann, who is now at 130K.

Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor recently busted out and the player who eliminated him relayed the information of the hand to us. The flop came A-7-4 with two hearts and the player bet 2k and both Taylor and a third player made the call. The turn was the 3 and the player who bet the flop bet 7k and Taylor pushed all in. Taylor had A-2 (we aren’t sure of the suits) and the other player held 6-5 for the nut straight which was good enough to send Taylor to the rail.

Zach “CrazyZachary” Clark (pictured right) was sent to the rail after he moved all in with A2 on the flop of J73 and couldn’t outdraw his opponent’s KK.  Craig “MrCasino” Gray was one of the other casualties of Level 8 as well.  Here’s a look at others who who have been more fortunate, along with their chip counts as Level 7 comes to a close:

Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 198K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 170K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 142K
Paul “ComeOnPhish - 133K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 120K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 116K
Jason Gray - 107K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 85K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 84K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 75K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 69K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 64K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 59K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 56K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 55K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 52K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 48K
Jordan Morgan - 46K
Justin “looshle” Peachie - 42K
Shaun Deeb - 42K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 40K
Paul “Beanie” Nobles - 40K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 39.5K
Carter “notashark” Gill - 35K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 33K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken” - 28.5K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 27K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 27K
Aaron Been - 24K
Ralf “Pelzzi” Pelzner - 23K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 21K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reigngold - 17K
Matthias “goodvibe” Neu - 10K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 8K
Barry Greenstein - 5.5K

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack

Andrew “fergwrx” Ferguson was the victim of a tough beat just five minutes into play on Day 2a and has been eliminated from the Main Event. Ferguson (pictured right), who started the day with 13.5K, got all of his chips in the middle with JJ on a flop of T43. His opponent held QT and was able to come from behind by hitting the T on the river to send Ferguson home.

Paul “ComeonPhish” Lieu, seated a few tables over in the Blue section of the Amazon Room, has climbed to over 100K with pocket jacks in Level 6. We missed the preflop action, but a player moved all in and Lieu and another player called. The flop brought 743 and Lieu led out for 5K. His opponent called to build a sidepot. Lieu bet 10K when the 7 came on the turn and the other player folded. Lieu flipped up JJ while the short stack showed AK. The 2 fell on the river, shipping the entire pot to Lieu and increasing his stack to 115K.

Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim is also seated in the Blue section and has done some moving early today. He added 10K to his stack when his opponent called a 3,300 bet from Hakim on a board of K3636. Hakim showed QQ and the other player mucked. Then Jeff eliminated two players at his table when he got involved in a three-way all in preflop. His KK needed a lot of help as the other two held AA and 33, but the K spiked on the flop and his set held to increase his stack to over 140K.

Peter “number1pen” Neff was sharing a table with Stu “thedonator” Paterson. We caught Neff raising to 1350 in middle position with the blinds at 250/500 ante 50. The player to his immediate left then reraised 2,150 on top. It folded back around to Peter who put in a third raise to 20K, more than enough to put his opponent all-in for his last 14K or so. The other player made the call with TT, which was behind Neff’s JJ. The board ran out 927JT and the other player was eliminated. After the hand, Peter was up to 70K after starting the day with 48K. Paterson was eliminated shortly after when he ran his AT into QQ preflop and was unable to improve.

TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka is also making moves early. Slifka is seated at a table with Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken and eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel. We caught up with Slifka and Seidel heads up on a flop of AQ2. Seidel had checked in the big blind on the flop and Slifka bet out 2K from the button. Seidel then reraised to 5.5K total and TJ made the call. Both checked the 9 on the turn. The river came 7 and Seidel checked again. Slifka moved all-in for his remaining 15K and Erik thought for at least a minute before laying down the hand and conceding the pot to TJ, increasing his stack to 30K.

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 8, 2008 -- Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern
• July 5, 2008 -- SirWatts’ Tourney Future Bright

Now back from dinner break and midway into Level 4, some players were feeling a bit squeezed by their short stacks and put to difficult decisions. PocketFives caught up with Dan “wretchy” Martin (pictured at right) in the Green section of the Amazon room sporting a stack of 2.8K, asking P5s to abstain from counting it out. It seemed like his friendly table image was working to his advantage, however, laughing as he shoved and raking in a few uncontested pots as we watched. He was definitely in emergency mode, but we all saw what happened to Matt “MattG1983″ Graham after he was down to one big blind last night — it won him a bracelet!

Nearby in the Green section sat Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz. We caught up with action at the table in a very interesting hand where Kevin was put to a decision for most of his chips. Before the flop, both the big blind and the small blind were in the hand, as well as two early limpers. The cutoff raised to a total of 3.1K with about 3K behind and Kevin sat on the button. Shuffling his chips, Kevin queried his opponent: “What was your name online?” He answered, “CG2212. Does that help you?” Kevin joked, “No.” His opponent took his sunglasses off and Kevin paused quite awhile to count out his chips before throwing his hand in the muck. Ultimately, one of the players in the blind shoved and got the call from the original raiser; the blind held A-K to his opponent’s pocket fours. Kevin, relieved, explained that he held A-Q and caught the sunglass tell; when the flop spiked an ace, his opponent was sent to the rail.

Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) told PocketFives at dinner break that he couldn’t wait for his table in the Orange section to break. Considering the lineup has featured everyone from David Benyamine to Brock “t_soprano” Parker to Roland De Wolfe to Gavin Smith, who can blame him? Upon returning from break, he first won a decent-sized pot off Brock with a full house. Then, with the blinds at 150/300 with an ante of 25, he picked up aces and raised preflop to 850. The small blind called and Roland De Wolfe made it 3K from the big blind. Peter shoved all in for the remainder of his 18K chips. The small blind folded and Roland called off his last 6K with pocket queens. Neff’s hand held up and subsequently, he got his wish when the table broke. Considering his hot streak, did he speak too soon?

Eric “jakz101″ Crain managed to double his stack when he got all his chips in preflop with KQ against his opponent’s 66. The board ran out 943Q9 and Eric’s queens and nines were good enough to take the pot; he has continued to build since then. In a recent hand, the board read 98667. Although we missed the action, it appeared that both players checked it down the whole way. When they both checked on the river Eric said “Dude, I flopped a straight but I’m going to check.” He flipped over his 75 which was good enough to take the pot. As he raked in the chips he said “I was hoping to get in a check-raise on the flop, then I didn’t like the turn, and I really didn’t like the river. Did you have outs?” The other player laughed and said no, so it seems that if Eric had fired off a bet at some point he would have taken the pot regardless. Eric is now sitting with 40K and in good spirits.

Jason Gray and one opponent saw a flop of JT3. When Jason checked, his opponent bet out, only to have Jason go all in for 13.5K. The other player made the call with his QJ only to find that he was behind Jason’s KK. The A on the turn and 7 on the river were harmless to Jason’s kings and he doubled up to around 30k.

Anna Wroblewski has been busy building up her big stack. Her most recent addition in chips came when another player pushed all in on a flop of T95. Anna debated for awhile before making the call with the KT for a pair of tens with a flush draw. Although she was behind her opponent who held the T9, the K fell on the turn, giving Anna a better two pair and the 5 on the river changed nothing so Anna knocked out a player and her stack grew to over 70k.

Ken “isuck123″ Goldin (pictured at right) did not fare as well during the last level. He reported that he had pocket ladies in the big blind and reraised Kido Pham on the button from 1K to 3.6K. When the flop came 7-high with two clubs, Ken shoved for 14K more and Kido called with 94. When the turn spiked the A, Ken was sent to the rail.

Also eliminated in the level was Joe Sebok, whose day came to an end when he shoved the remainder of his chips in preflop with pocket jacks and ran into another player’s pocket queens. The player with queens ended up making quads and Joe was eliminated.

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up
• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
• July 3, 2008 -- Maimone Busts

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