Level 4 of Day 1C saw a rash of eliminations starting with Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right). Devonshire had been towards the top of the leaderboard for the majority of the day, but lost a monster pot for his entire stack when he and another player got all-in with the same nut straight, but his opponent had the freeroll to hit the spade flush. The spade came on the river, Bryan was eliminated, and Day 1C found itself a brand new chipleader. Unfortunately, no one found REAL ULTIMATE POWER as a result.

Phil “USCPhildo” Collins was also eliminated this level when he and Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin got involved in a three-way hand. With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Eric raised to 800 under the gun and Collins reraised to 2.4K. The player in the small blind and Baldwin both made the call. The flop came down 982 and both the small blind and Eric checked to Phil. Collins thought for at least a minute before moving all-in for nearly 15K. The player in the small blind tanked briefly before moving all-in behind Phil and Eric quickly folded. Collins showed AQ and needed some help against the other player’s JJ. The turn and river came 42 and Phil gave us a friendly, “See you next year!” as he headed for the door.

Amit “amak316″ Makhija, who had been shortstacked for much of the level was also eliminated when his two pair failed to hold against his opponent’s straight draw.

Meanwhile, Ladbrokes team pro John Kalmar (pictured at left) has been struck by lightning. With a board that read AJ23 and a more-than-14K pot in the middle, John’s opponent bet 10K and he went in behind for his entire 37K stack. After calling over the floor to determine if he could expose one of his cards to Kalmar, his opponent tanked for a long time before the clock was called. Finally, he made the the call and John flipped over pocket twos against his opponent’s A3. When the 3 came on the river, John was sent to the rail on a stretcher.

Chris “cmoney3″ Kline has apparently developed quite the table image at his table. A player in early position raised to 900 and three other players called behind him. Kline then moved all-in from the small blind for 8,650. The initial raiser seemed quite frustrated with Kline’s move and accidentally revealed the K as he tossed his cards in the muck. Everyone else folded as well and the man claimed he folded AK.

Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at right)reported during Level 4 that he considered one of his recent plays an emotional victory; he finally won a race. Gary told PocketFives that he held A-Q and bet 900 preflop, only to be met with a 4,400 raise from one opponent. He managed to flop an ace and get his chips in good, winning the pot and chipping up to 24K before the last level of the evening. He and Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti have both been checking PocketFivesLive for action updates on their iPhones, especially now that David “davidp18″ Peters is also at their table. We’re wondering what the over/under is until they realize that Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings has also sat down to the table.

Meanwhile, Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen hovered around the 20K mark and saw a flop with four-way action. The board came KJA and all players checked. The T came on the turn and Hung raised to 1K. Two players called and the 8 came out on the river. Again, Hung bet 1K to induce a fold from one other player, but one opponent called him, flipping over K-Q to Hung’s QQ. They chopped the pot and Hung added a few chips to his stack.

Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania added 10K to his stack after picking up a pot at the end of Level 4. With 5K in the middle preflop, Charania called a bet of 1.5K on a board of KT2. The K came on the turn and Charania called a bet of 2K. On the river, Charania’s opponent check-called a bet of 4K and Charania showed K8. The other player mucked. He is now at 88K, and at the opposite end of the table from Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal. “I don’t want to double him up,” Charania said of the short-stacked Agarwal as they both went on a 20-minute break.

Also afraid of doubling others up at his table was Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell, who sat at an intimidating table with Michael Binger and David Singer. He reported to PocketFives that he managed to chip up to 45K with pocket aces versus K-J on a jack-high flop. He lamented that he hadn’t gotten the full value for his aces, however, because he put his opponent on a set. Because of the recent addition of Michael Binger to the table, he said he planned on blinding off to the end of the day. We can’t blame you, Justin!

We caught Ezra Galston taking a small hit to his stack on the last hand before break. On a board of A435Q, Galston was facing a bet of 2.7K from an opponent. He contemplated for three minutes before making the call and mucked his cards when his opponent showed AJ. Galston is now at 19.5K.

Here are some notable unofficial chipstacks at the end of Level 4:

David “Bakes” Baker - 130K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 88K
Darren Elias - 86K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 67K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 49.5K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 45K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 37K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 34K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 32K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 30K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 27.5K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 27.5K
Jason “mkind0516″ Laso - 27K
David “Davidp18″ Peters - 26K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 26K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 24K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 24K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 23K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 22K
Patrik “Hoffs28″ Hoffman - 21K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 20K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16.5K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 14K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 13.5K

• July 5, 2008 -- Main Event Day 1c!
• July 6, 2008 -- Hamby Busts; Sad Pandas at the Rio
• July 9, 2008 -- Dreams Dashed or Doubled Up?
• July 9, 2008 -- Divine Intervention

Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich felt the excruciating pain of a one-outer in the past hour. At the 150/300 level, a player in early position limped and Rich (pictured left) raised to 1300 in middle position. It folded to the big blind, who reraised to 3,000 and Rich made the call after the limper folded. The flop brought AJ5 and both players checked. The turn was the 7 and the big blind checked to Rich, who bet 3,300. He was then check-raised all in for 6500 more and made the call with AQ, which had the big blind’s KK drawing to one card in the deck. Sure enough, the K appeared on the river and Rich leaped out of his seat in disgust. He was left with 14K after the hand.

 Justin “truesyalose” Trusdell, who had been sending chips over to David Singer earlier in the day, just shipped more to Steve Jelinek. Jelinek raised to 900 on the button and Truesdell called in the big blind. The flop brought 952 and Truesdell led out for 1,100. Jelinek called and saw the A fall on the turn. Bother players checked and the river was the K. Truesdell bet 1,500 and Jelinek raised to 6,500. Truesdell stared him down for a minute, asking the player if he had the nuts or nothing, and finally folded to cut his stack down to 13.5K.

Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen had quite a wild ride during this level; when we caught up with him before last break, his chip count had soared to 42K.  However, when we went back to the Brasilia Room to check on his play, he sat with only 3.5K in chips in front of him.  Though he was down, Keven was definitely not out as he played aggressively and was unafraid to put all his chips in the middle.  In one hand, from middle position, he pushed his whole stack in the middle and the action folded around to him.  The very next hand, Keven again pushed all his chips out and got a call from the small blind for all 4,350 of his chips.  Keven flipped KQ to his opponent’s JJ, but the board ran out K7629 and he doubled up to nearly 10K.  Still short, Keven was still looking to make a move, but a lot more comfortable in the meantime.

Ezra Galston got a double up at his table when he and another player got it all-in preflop with Galston holding AK to his opponent’s AJ.  The board ran out QT449 and shot Ezra’s stack up to 34K.  Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured right) also picked up a few chips without having to go to showdown in a hand where he picked up pocket kings. With the blinds at 100/200 a player raised to 700 and Adam flat called in the cut off and the big blind called as well.  The flop came 9-7-5 rainbow and it checked around to Levy who bet out 1.4K.  The big blind folded and the initial raiser flat called.  Adam told us after the fact that he was afraid his opponent may have flopped a set on him, but when the K hit on the turn his hand improved vastly, but also put two spades on the board.  The other player bet out 2.1K and Levy raised to 6K.  His opponent thought before folding what he claimed was pocket queens and Adam took down the pot.  He currently sits with 23K.

We also caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, who had a story for us. Graham raised to 750 with A-Q and a woman in seat one made the call. A player in seat 6 then moved all in for more than 11,000. Graham, fearing only the woman behind him, laid the hand down and the woman called with a pair of tens. The “idiot” who moved all in, as Graham referred to him, had K-Q and was eliminated when his hand failed to improve. Matt then said that if he had called he would have been sent packing, as the woman admitted she would have called Graham’s all in as well and would have made a set of tens to trump Graham’s pair of aces. Nice laydown, sir.

Here are the chip counts of some notable P5ers midway through Level 3:

Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 67k
Brian Devonshire - 54k
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 50.5K
Darren Elias - 50K
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 50k
David “Bakes” Baker - 47.5K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 44k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 41k
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 38K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 35K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 33K
Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo - 29k
David “Davidp18″ Peters - 26k
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 26k
Leo “SuperFluous Man” Wolpert - 23k
Joseph “WSOPJoe” May - 23K
Court Harrington - 22.5K
Jon Wein - 22K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 18k
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 17K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 12K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 12K

Out: Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver

• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
• June 26, 2008 -- Treacherous Tables in Rebuy
• July 6, 2008 -- BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
• July 5, 2008 -- Main Event Day 1c!

The insanity begins today. More than 2,000 players have registered for Day 1c already with two hours of registration still open. There’s a possibility more players will participate today than the first two days combined, making for what should be a hectic and exciting day at the Rio.

Some players in attendance already are Darren Elias, Phil “USCPhildo” Collins, Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal and Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell, who is seated at at table with bracelet winner David Singer. We’re expecting a massive crowd of P5ers today, so be sure to check in frequently for updates!

Mike “SirWatts” Watson finished up last night as one of the chips leaders of Day 1b with 104,425. Here’s a look at the official chip counts of some others that made it through to Day 2:

Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 82,000
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 78,675
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 62,750
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 41,275
Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson - 28,350
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 27,350
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 26,300
Greg “okstate345″ Cox - 20,925
Shaun Deeb - 16,550
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 15,250
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 10,700
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 10,250
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 8,225

• July 6, 2008 -- BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
• July 12, 2008 -- Double Trouble
• July 11, 2008 -- Olly Olly Oxen Free!
• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen