After the first level of play on day 3 at the North American Poker Championship the most recent World Poker Tour champion has taken a commanding chip lead. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar is now over 700k in chips and talks of back to back titles are starting to float around. That may be a little premature since the players haven’t even reached the money yet, but a hot Rajkumar is definitely a player to keep an eye on as play works closer and closer to the money and the final table.

Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick (left), Jason Gray, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Shawn Buchanan and Phil “USCPhildo” Collins have all been among the early eliminations. Collins early double up was short lived and after losing a race to Marc “Myst” Karam he found himself walking along with Chidwick on the way out.

Collins and Karam raised back and forth preflop until Karam moved in and Collins called off the rest of this chips. The AQ for Karam flopped a pair of aces and that was all it took to send Collins on his way. Karam joins the chip leaders with over 500k chips after busting Phil.

• October 15, 2008 -- Fisler to the Lead, Vivek Out 16th
• October 13, 2008 -- Sorel Rallies, Youngblood Ousted
• October 12, 2008 -- Recent Winners
• October 14, 2008 -- Down to 27, Day 3 Complete

Play for day 1C at the North American Poker Championship is complete. End of day chip counts and details forthcoming. Darus Suharto, of November Nine fame, is trying to keep up with Ivan Demidov. Demidov, also a November Niner, made it to the final table of the World Series of Poker Europe a week ago and now Suharto shot to the top of the chip counts on day 1C. Whether he can make a deep run is yet to be seen but for now Darus is right up at the top with his 188,000 chips.

Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick (right) also came out of day 1C in strong position, with 165,700 chips going into his bag when play ended. A full rundown of the day 1C chip counts is Available Here.

Here is a rundown of some of the chip counts from Day 1C:
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 165,700
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 99,600
Mike “Timex” McDonald - 86,900
Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins - 75,600
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 72,800
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 49,500
Adrian “flmodesq21″ Gavile - 45,000
Daniel “poncholoco” Youngblood - 30,300

• October 12, 2008 -- Recent Winners
• October 14, 2008 -- Back to Back? Vivek Takes The Lead
• October 12, 2008 -- European Success
• October 12, 2008 -- North American Poker Championship Day 1C Gallery

The first couple of hours of play on Day 1C at the North American Poker Championship have been, as far as we can tell, pretty uneventful.  The field for today has it’s fair share of players that know how to close the deal on major tournaments, and have done so recently.

John Juanda is fresh of a World Series of Poker Europe Main event win and is in the field.  Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar took down the Boargata WPT event less than a month ago, Mike “SirWatts” Watson took his first major title at the Bellagio Cup WPT event in July.  Back in April Glen “Choron” Chorny made a name for himself in the live poker world with a victory at the European Poker Tour Grand Finale in Monte Carlo.

The EPT was also where another of the under 21 crowd claimed his first title.  Mike “Timex” McDonald jumped to the front of the live poker scene with his victory at the EPT Dortmund in February.  Add to the mix Daniel Negreanu who won another bracelet at this year’s WSOP and multiple bracelet winner from the 2008 WSOP and current WPT Legends of Poker champion John Phan and you have a field chock full of players who have won major titles in the last 9 months.

All of those recent winners are playing at the top of their games and looking to add to their poker resumes and bank accounts with a victory here at the NAPC.  There is a field full of other players more than willing to take out one of these players and make their own claim to a title of a major event.

Some other notables playing today include Peter “nordberg” Feldman, Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, Adrian “flmodesq21″ Gavile, and Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick.

• October 14, 2008 -- Sung and McDonald Out On Bubble
• October 14, 2008 -- Back to Back? Vivek Takes The Lead
• October 12, 2008 -- Day 1C Complete
• October 12, 2008 -- Lots of Chips

“It’s like a party in here,” an animated Daniel Negreanu said after he was moved to table three in the dungeon area and after pausing for a moment he followed up with “a really hot party.”  There are six tables in the room, all with lighting for TV overhead.  Between the high power lights putting off heat and the crowded room being slam full of players, dealers, media, floormen, TV crews, fans, and massage girls the temperature has been on the rise since the dinner break. 

The six tables in the Face to Face room referred to as the dungeon make up 2/3rds of the remaining tables.  The other three are out in the main part of the casino.  Before being moved into the dungeon area Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza (right) had another player all in with his set of tens in commanding position when all the chips went on the turn.  His opponent had only two outs with his pocket queens, but a queen on the river left Jeff to think about what might have been had he collected the 130k chip pot. 

Instead, he is having to deal with what is, which is a chip stack below the 85k average, but not critical.  He has been moved to the Tim “Tmay420″ West / Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar table that is the shortest table of the tournament in total chips with no huge stacks and plenty of smallish ones, including West who was able to again double up but still only has 16k.

Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick and David “Raptor” Benefield have both been eliminated.  Chidwick (left) was all in against Andy Black with pocket threes trying to hold up against Black’s AT.  The A-T-x flop left Chidwick chasing a set that did not materialize and just before the end of the level Stevie was eliminated.

Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman, Peter “#1Pen” Neff and Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery are going strong out in the main area.  Neff seems to have settled in around 125k while Montgomery has bounced back from an earlier blow and now is back up to around 60k.  A stoic Fischman has over 100k in front of him at the table.

Also getting some attention from the cameras in the dungeon are chip leader Brian “sbrugby” Townsend and Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman.  Near the end of the level Moorman was seen raking in a pot, but the crush of people around the table made it impossible to get any details on the hand. 

Around 80 players went to break, but the last 2 hour level will send more than a few of them home tonight with no chips to return to tomorrow.  Who will falter, who will survive, who will prosper?  Two hours left in day 2 to find out.

• September 29, 2008 -- Finish Strong, Day 2 Complete
• September 27, 2008 -- All Day For A Quarter, Day 1A Complete
• September 30, 2008 -- Juanda, Negreanu, Boosted J Lead The Way into Day 4
• September 30, 2008 -- Peter Prospers, Townsend Tumbles

The clock has ran out on Day 1B play at the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair. For many, the day ended early as they were eliminated. For others day 1 was all about survival, and for the select few chip accumulation was the story of their starting day.

Daniel Negreanu and Jamie Rosen both stayed solid throughout the last few levels, Daniel finishing with over 150k and Rosen coming in at 139,225. Brian “sbrugby” Townsend (left) was able to get a double up late in the day when his pocket aces held up. He finished with a solid 71,950.

Adam Junglen had to toss a few hands late in the day, losing some ground but still finishing with 41,100. In one hand there was about 4k in the pot preflop and Junglen bet 2,400 on the K86 board. He was min raised to 4,800 and after asking how much the other player had behind (45k) Junglen tossed his hand in giving up on the pot. A little later he opened a pot for 1,050 and the same player he doubled up earlier with pocket fives losing to T-9 moved in over the top for 10,875. Junglen folded showing KQ offsuit and postulating that his opponent had ace rag.

Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick (right) had a rough end of the day as well. On a flop of J98 both players checked but with the K turn the other player led for 3k and Steve called. The river was the 6 and this time the bet was 8k to Steve, who had only about 20k total. He made the call only to see the other player turn over the QT for the nuts. That hand left Steve with around the 11,075 chips he finished the day with.

Below are some select chip counts. Full official counts from combined day 1 results are Available Here.

Daniel Negreanu - 154,050
Jamie Rosen - 139,225
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 71,950
Barry Greenstein - 46,500
Adam Junglen - 41,100
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 41,025
Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza - 35,900
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 11,075

Day 2 play starts at 1pm local time tomorrow. There should be just over 180 players left in the field after the day ones are combined, with the top 36 making the money.

Here are the official top 15 chip counts going into day 2.  For full chip counts and seating assignments see the link above.

• September 29, 2008 -- Heating Up
• September 28, 2008 -- Lights On
• September 29, 2008 -- Finish Strong, Day 2 Complete
• September 28, 2008 -- After Dinner Mint