Day 1B at the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair has been rough on a lot of players.  Buddies Brandon Cantu and Jeff Madsen were both able to quickly free up their afternoon for some sight seeing in London.  Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan cleared out a seat at his table under the steps (yep, the table is actually located under a staircase) that has since been filled in by Mike “Timex” McDonald.

While one title winner is doing well another has been sent packing.  Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad’s defense of her title in this tournament is coming along nicely as she continues to build chips.  Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (left) can still live in the glow of his recent WPT victory, but his dreams of back to back major titles will have to be put on hold for a while. 

Rajkumar isn’t the only recent WPT champion to find himself on the rail of the WSOPE Main Event today.  Mike “SirWatts” Watson captured his WPT title in July at the Bellagio cup, but like Rajkumar and the other eliminations he won’t be adding any WSOPE hardware to his collection this year. 

With two full levels in the books the players with chips remaining will be back at the tables for 2 more hours of play before going on dinner break.  Registration will also be officially closed at the end of the next level.

• September 28, 2008 -- Fish and Chips
• September 28, 2008 -- Running Good
• September 28, 2008 -- Bag Em Up, Day 1B Complete
• September 28, 2008 -- Feature Table, Queen’s Kings Overthrown

Poker, like many aspects of life, takes a combination of skill, timing, and luck.  Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar put the three together a little over a week ago to win the World Poker Tour event at the Borgata and take the top prize of $1.4 million.  Today’s World Series of Poker Europe Main Event field is full of players trying to work the same magic as Vivek had going across the ocean in Atlantic City.

Rajkumar himself is back at the tables, hoping to parlay his hot streak into another huge score.  The large buyin here (equivalent to $20,000) has brought out the heavy hitters from the live and online poker worlds, but satellites have also put some lesser known faces into the crowd.

With today being the larger of the two starting days (final numbers still coming as late registration is being held open for a while longer) the players are even more spread out around the casino with random tables put about anywhere a few square feet of open space can be found.  There has been some frustration from the last minute arrivals trying to scurry to their tables to get in the action without missing many hands.  The tables are numbered in a fashion that must make sense to someone, but who that person is nobody seems to know.  The order goes something like this: 7-2-13-3-9-6 for one area and 1-21-7-4-18 for another and on and on.  With the help of floor staff the players have mostly found their seats though and the tables went from being half full to pretty much being filled.

Now that all the seats are taken it will be up to the players to start emptying them back out.  The action seems a little slower in the early going today than yesterday, but with only an hour of play as a sample size it is too early to pass judgment.  Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis avoided an all in by folding the nut straight on a board that put three diamonds out on the river making a flush possible.

Stephen “stevie4444″ Chidwick is one of the players off to a good start.  He is off in one of the corner tables located by itself and not getting much attention.  Chidwick has accumulated some chips early on, looking to have around 30k in front of him.  Also at his table is Jason “JCarver” Somerville.

• September 28, 2008 -- Feature Table, Queen’s Kings Overthrown
• September 28, 2008 -- Win With The Queen High
• September 28, 2008 -- Early BustOuts
• September 28, 2008 -- Bag Em Up, Day 1B Complete

The official number of players for Day 1A came in at 161, making the field a little smaller than the organizers had hoped for but not too far out of line for the expected total field of around 400. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar is one of the recent eliminations, falling to Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld. Al had pocket aces with the A and Vivek flopped a flush draw with the KQ. Zeidenfeld’s aces held up to send Vivek to the rail halfway through day 1A.

After adding Vivek’s chips to his stack, Alvin is now up to 75k and among the leaders. Here are some other counts from around the room:

Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld - 75k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 60k (right)
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 52k
Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman - 46k
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 40k
Alec Torelli - 35k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 35k
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery - 34k
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin - 33k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 32k
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 32k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 29k
Jason Gray - 28k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 26k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 24k
Bryan Devonshire - 25k
Isaac “Mr Menlo” Baron - 20k
David “Bakes” Baker - 5,700

Recent Eliminations:
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar
Craig “Mr Casino” Gray

• August 24, 2008 -- Legends Of Poker Day 1A Complete
• August 23, 2008 -- Big Stacks
• September 28, 2008 -- Running Good
• August 24, 2008 -- Winding Down

After only 90 minutes of play some large stacks have already emerged. Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld and Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman are both over 50k going into the second level of play.

Al picked up some chips when he flopped top set with queens against Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (right) who flopped a flush draw and picked up more outs with an open ended straight draw and a flush draw after the turn. Neither of the draws completed on the river and Vivek had to fold when Al moved in. After picking up the 47k pot Zeidenfeld was up to around 60k and among the chip leaders early on.

Werman also ran well in the first level, chipping up significantly and is going into the second level with high hopes.

Rajkumar won a big coin flip to get back above the starting stack. He was all in preflop with AK against Lee Watkinson’s pocket queens. Vivek flopped a king and was around 35k after winning the pot.

All the chips had to come from somewhere though and Joe Sebok was among those eliminated in the early going. Sebok picked up a lot of big starting hands but couldn’t get them to hold up and found himself sidelined early with no hopes of another deep run at the Bike this year.

• August 23, 2008 -- Back At The Bike
• August 23, 2008 -- Around The Room
• August 24, 2008 -- Legends Of Poker Day 1A Complete
• August 24, 2008 -- Winding Down

Despite rebuilding his short stack to a more respectable level at 28k, Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (pictured right) lost it all back in big confrontation with Clonie Gowen in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50.

Gowen raised to 4.5k and Daut reraised to 15k and Gowen called. Gowen checked to Daut on a 873flop, and Daut went all-in for 13k and Gowen called. Daut tabled the AAKQ ahead of Gowen’s 6354 double-draw that he had murked with higher diamonds. Daut lost to Gowen’s straight outs when the board ran Q and the 6.

David “Raptor517″ Benefield lost a near 100k pot, dipping his 175k stack, one of the biggest stacks left, to around 120k. Benefield flopped a set eights to his opponents pockets aces and a nut flush draw and lost when his opponent hit a runner-runner straight.

Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left with the average stack at 60k.

Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 130k

Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 80k

Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 40k

Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 14k

The $1.5K No Limit Hold Em WSOP Event #49 is losing players at a feverish pace.  There are currently 29 players remaining–slightly more than 1% of the intial 2,700 person field.  Recent eliminations include Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar in 35th place and Hevad “Rain” Khan.  Khan was involved in a 4-way limped pot when the flop came Q98 Khan and another player got it all-in.  Khan held KQ while the other player had 67.  The 5 brought the other player their straight and Hevad was sent to the rail.
 
Some notable chip counts of the remaining players include JC Tran (380K), Andy Black (305K), and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (170K).

• June 30, 2008 -- Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO
• June 29, 2008 -- Clements Takes an Early Lead
• June 30, 2008 -- Gomes, Johnson Go 1 and 2 in $2K Event
• June 30, 2008 -- VanDuyn Not Friendly to Friends