Odin himself would have approved.

The legend of Scandinavian players at the poker tables is well known but several hundred years ago they also gave the world big men with beards and axes who terrorised the shores of Britain and Ireland. Things change of course and that legacy now takes the shape of the charity Viking long boat World Championships in Peel on the Isle of Man. PokerStars rustled up a team.

The team start rowing...

As you’d expect, they day was one of courage, ingenuity and a few ups and downs.

Entering in the men’s event an immediately 30 second penalty was incurred when one crew member was found to be a girl. But not letting something like that stop them the team weighed anchor and set off into Peel harbour, over looked by the magnificent and rather old Peel castle, where they would navigate around a buoy 100 meters away before heading back across the finish line. The rules were simple –the fasted team would be declared the winner.

PokerStars are no strangers to World Championships so you’d think this would be a breeze. There would be tales of glory surely, of a mighty ship cutting through the tide, crew members on the prow beneath the PokerStars ensign flapping in the wind?

Well, not quite. As Captain Bob of the Customer Relations department reported in the ship’s log:

“We never found out exactly how we did, but we know that we didn't make the top five out of the 20 entries. I'm pretty sure we beat the team dressed as Willy Wonka and nine Oompa Lumpas.”

But credit to all of the team for raising some well earned money for a host of local charities and by the looks of things having a ball in the process....

Back on dry land in front of Peel Castle, from left to right... Mike, Gary, Graham, Ste, John, Nicole, Tom, Captain Bob, Sam and Kevin

"We were only allowed two 20 minute practise in the weeks prior to the race, which isn't ideal preparation for a World Championship” said the Captain, in what is probably the first instance of a Long Boat Championship bad beat story. “Luckily we didn't have any delusions of victory and we were pretty glad we made it back to the harbour with everyone still in the boat."

Well done to everyone from PokerStars involved on the day. As yet there are no plans for an online version of the event.

Weekly Round 2 results (Saturday 2 August)

1. TheNewIRS (United States) -- $276.00
2. tai won on (United States) -- $164.00
3. poin1 (United States) -- $100.00
4. jjjy (Canada) -- $80.00
5. FARTOVIY (Russian Federation) -- $62.00
6. tavovil10 (Colombia) -- $50.00
7. ccoplaymate (United States) -- $39.00
8. mr.plumber99 (Germany) -- $30.00
9. nbubu (Germany) -- $22.20

801st easymade (United States) -- $0.60


Weekly Round 2 results (Sunday 3 August)

1. madloopy (Ireland) -- $276.00
2. deedee86 (Canada) -- $164.00
3. allr (United States) -- $100.00
4. clifford008 (United States) -- $80.00
5. J&MHETT98 (United States) -- $62.00
6. Adaletos (Germany) -- $50.00
7. aztiger (United States) -- $39.00
8. BONGO JR (United States) -- $30.00
9. unityirie (United States) -- $22.20

801st erint (United States) -- $0.60

Qualifying for one of the two weekly events is simple. All you need to do is play in one of the Astronomer freerolls shown in the PokerStars.net lobby and finish within the number of tables specified. They astronomer freerolls run several times a day so there’s never long to wait and if you’re successful your ticket into the Weekly Round 2 could see you win a cash prize.

If that wasn't enough, the true high rollers would retire to a hotel suite and play private games for more money than most people can imagine.

Now the European Poker Tour has given these high-rollers a tournament of their own.

When the Season 5 EPT London event kicks off in a few months, event organizers will not only host the scheduled EPT London event. They have also just announced a brand new £20,000 + £300 PokerStars EPT £1 Million Showdown, with a guaranteed £1,000,000 prize pool. If that doesn't attract the big action players, not much will.

That's not all. The London EPT event is getting a shot in the arm and the winner of the event is going to be pretty happy about it.

PokerStars is adding an extra £250,000 to the prize pool of this October’s EPT London event, making for a guaranteed £1,000,000 for the winner.

The PokerStars video blog team talked frequently with PokerStars players during the World Series, meeting great characters who had interesting stories. Perhaps the best stories though are reserved for the ‘PokerStars Six’, the half dozen PokerStars players who made it to the last table of the World Series. The ‘November Nine’ will play to a winner in November.

Here's what Darus Suharto had to say in the moments after he made the final table.

Watch WSOP 08: Darus Suharto WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

Dennis Phillips told us that in the last few days of the World Series that the ESPN crews were calling him "red hat." With his autographed St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap not hard to spot in the crowd. Otherwise, the accountant from Missouri is humble enough to blend into any poker tournament.

That all changed in the last hours of the World Series when Phillips emerged as the chip leader. Now he plans to go back to work for four months and look forward to what will be one of the biggest days of his life.
Here's what he told our video blog team as he got ready to go home.

Watch WSOP 08: Dennis Phillips WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

Perhaps better known online as ‘TenthPlanet’, Ylon Schwartz is no stranger to live poker. A regular on the East Coast live poker scene, Schwartz has been around long enough to have paid his dues. Now the chess expert, lover of all games, and PokerStars, is looking to get away for a while.

He took a few minutes to talk to us before escaping to places unknown in preparation for the November final table. Here's what he had to say.

Watch WSOP 08: Ylon Schwartz WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

It's one thing to be one of the top five cash game players from your home country but it’s another thing to be at the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker. PokerStars player Peter Eastgate happens to be both of those things.

In the blur that followed the minutes after making the final table, a stunned Eastgate talked to our video blog team. Here's what he had to say.

Watch WSOP 08: Peter Eastgate WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

David "Chino" Rheem is a young up-and-comer in the poker world. The PokerStars player had a big contingent of the game’s famous players on the rail cheering his every play as he made the final table.
The Californian talked to the PokerStars video blog team as he stepped away from the World Series for a 117-day break. Here's what he had to say.

Watch WSOP 08: David Rheem WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

In minutes that followed PokerStars player Ivan Demodov's making it to the final table he was still in shock. After coming all the way from Moscow to compete in his first major live tournament, Demidov could barely find the words to explain what had just happened to him.

Now, Demidov is set to become a superstar in Russia and around the poker world. Here is what he had to say in the moments after making the final table.

Watch WSOP 08: Ivan Demidov WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

Weekly Round 2 results (Saturday 19 July)

1. cabsta (New Zealand) -- $276.00
2. JTCapitan (United States) -- $164.00
3. clarence0224 (United States) -- $100.00
4. mconiglio (Portugal) -- $80.00
5. Gene34117 (United States) -- $62.00
6. caveman555 (United States) -- $50.00
7. Zonky_"daOG" (United States) -- $39.00
8. LisX (Russian Federation) -- $30.00
9. campeone (United Kingdom) -- $22.20

801st bluff doug (Canada) – $0.60c

The same number paid on Sundays WR2 which saw a Swede taking honours ahead of another table full of Americans. ‘dicaffe’ picked up $276.00 for the win with another 801 players paid out. ‘doliasholdem’ from Italy was the tail end Charlie, picking up 60 cents.

Weekly Round 2 results (Sunday 20 July)

1. dicaffe (Sweden) -- $276.00
2. Hoogie1234 (United States) -- $164.00
3. einsteiny (United States) -- $100.00
4. Dinkgirl (United States) -- $80.00
5. FiveMinMajor (United States) -- $62.00
6. Doc1732 (United States) -- $50.00
7. itscraig (United States) -- $39.00
8. aik23 (United States) -- $30.00
9. cleggman (United States) -- $22.20

801st doliasholdem (Italy) -- $0.60

In the Rio Amazon Room, there is no Monday. There is no July. Time and date are irrelevant. There is no news from around the world, lamentations about the economy, or even the usual banal discussion of the weather. It took rain in the desert to get anyone to notice the sky. In the thunderdome that is the World Series of Poker, all that matters is life and death at the World Series of Poker table. Once the fallen are carried out and given their due seconds of respect, all that remains is hope for the living.

This has been the case during the days that are defined by number instead of name. Through four day ones, two day twos, and the subsequent days three, four, five and six, even numerologists were stymied. Here, the calendar read Day 7 and that meant only 27 people remained with their life-blood chips. Everyone knew that two-thirds of that number would walk away with at least a quarter million bucks, but a lifetime of what-ifs about what could've been. Nobody could predict or control who would be here at the end of the night. All we knew is that nine people would be able to walk out of this room tonight with their chins up and their eyes set on a $9 million prize.

From here on out, they will be known as the November Nine--the final nine of 6,844 runners who started the 2008 World Series Main Event and emerged tonight with the right to come back in four months and fight for the championship bracelet. Among those players are the PokerStars Six, a tough combination of PokerStars players who will be part of history in November.

In all, PokerStars players have already cashed for more than $9 million combined in the Main Event. The PokerStars Six will have their chance at a total of another $32.6 million that's up for grabs in November.
Here is a look at the PokerStars players who will return to compete for poker's biggest prize.

Dennis Phillips -- (2,620,000)--Dennis Phillips is an accountant from St. Louis, Missouri who has done his home town proud. His has not yet been seen without an autographed St. Louis Cardinals cap and speaks fondly of his Show-Me State roots. Phillips is a regular at Harrahs St. Louis and plays live there as often as he can. It cost him $200 to get into this Main Event. He plans to leave Vegas and go back to his job for the four months between now and the final table in November. That, and he said, "play a lot of poker." Not a bad plan for the World Series chip leader.

Ivan Demidov -- (24,400,000) -- Ivan Demidov is from Moscow Russia. "We're having a good year," he says of himself and his countrymen. This year, he placed 11th in the $1,000 rebuy event. Both a tournament and cash game player, Demidov is a 27-year-old online semi-pro. A friend and backer helped him raise the $10,000 to get into the event. The 2008 World Series is his first major live tournament. Demidov has a degree in math and is looking to bring home the big numbers for mother Russia.

Peter Eastgate -- (18,375,000) -- Peter Eastgate is a 22-year-old PokerStars player. He is known as a fearless but volatile player, among the top five online pros in Denmark. He mainly plays high-stakes cash games - $200-400 short-handed or heads-up. Jacob Rasmussen, who came 5th at EPT4 Dortmund, was asked if Peter Eastgate was the next Gus Hansen. He said, "Not really. It's more like Gus Hansen is the first Peter Eastgate." Eastgate has said all along he won't think about the final table until he makes it. Now, he has.

Ylon Schwartz -- (12,525,000) -- A native New Yorker -- born in Manhattan and now living in Brooklyn -- Ylon Schwartz is a chess whizz and a poker player with 11 previous cashes in World Series events dating back to 2005. He's equally at home playing chess in the super-competitive games in New York's Washington Square Park, idling the time in Golden Nugget low limit ring games or tearing up the major poker tournaments in the east coast casinos of Atlantic City and Foxwoods. You can find him playing as TenthPlanet on PokerStars.

Darus Suharto -- (12,520,000) -- Darus Suharto is from Toronto, Canada. He is an accountant who loves his job so much, he would find it hard to quit, even if he won the World Series Main Event. He would like to find more time to play poker, but because he spends so much time working, most of his tournament poker experience comes from playing online. He qualified for his seat on PokerStars and has already forgotten about his modest cash from the World Series in 2006.

David “Chino” Rheem -- (10,230,000)-- David “Chino” Rheem has had a great year, taking 5th place in the $5k NL tournament in June for $93,624. The 28-year-old from Miami, Florida has enjoyed a string of tournament successes recently including five WSOP cashes in the last three years. This includes $327,981 in the 2006 $1,000 NLHE event. In the main event David was among the chip leaders each day, and rallied superbly when a series of bad hands almost eliminated him in the latter stages but bounced back to make the November Nine.

Team PokerStars Pros were also out in force at this year's WSOP, including former world champions Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem, as well as poker legends Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein. Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin lasted longest with a 64th place finish for $96,500. Three other Team PokerStars Pros also cashed - Hevad Khan (240th) for $35,383; Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (370th) for $28,950 and Vanessa Rousso (625th) for $21,230.

Kara Scott, presenter of the PokerStars European Poker Tour, was sponsored into the main event by PokerStars and was thrilled - in her first ever WSOP - to make 104th place for $41,816. Kirill Gerasimov from Russia and Jan Heitmann from Germany, also both backed by PokerStars, both cashed in 439th and 585th place respectively. PokerStars also sponsored celebrities such as Jason Alexander from "Seinfeld", Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon, "ER" actor Mekhi Phifer, MMA fighter Chuck Liddell, MLB greats David Wells and Orel Hershiser and Indy stock car racer Gualter Salles.

This feels at the same time a conclusion and delayed satisfaction. We will all leave this giant convention center tonight with a feeling that we are finished. Yet, we all know that in four short months the real contest will begin with the biggest money and fame on the line.

So, at this hour we cannot say goodbye. We can only say goodnight and see you later. It's been yet another astounding World Series for PokerStars and the PokerStars Blog. Over the course of the next several months you can expect to see a lot more on the PokerStars Six. Until then, thanks for reading and congratulations to all the PokerStars players for their performance here at the 2008 World Series.

By the PokerStars World Series blog team in Las Vegas...

It had to happen and now it has. We have reached three tables in the World Series main event.

Three tables, 27 players, one more day until we reach the final nine. Along the way, there were all the twists and turns we expect as we reach the business end of these monster tournaments. We had vast crowds, mountains of chips, huge checks being written and countless stories. We even had a rainstorm.

But when the clouds cleared we were left with a sharper picture of where this thing is headed -- and as ever, PokerStars players feature heavily in any reportage.

What started as a 79-strong field of players at noon ended with three tables in less than twelve hours. Among the remaining 27 are eight PokerStars players. Here they are with their approximate chip counts.

David “Chino” Rheem -- (8,280,000)-- David “Chino” Rheem is having a great time since he arrived in Vegas. Not only did he take 5th place in the $5k NL tournament in June for $93,624, he also won a super satellite back in April for a $25,700 seat in the WPT Five Star World Poker Classic. Generally, the 28-year-old from Miami, Florida has enjoyed a string of tournament successes recently including five WSOP cashes in the last three years. This includes $327,981 in the 2006 $1,000 NLHE event.

Chris Klodnicki -- (6,245,000)--Chris Klodnicki is a 23-year-old professional poker player from New Jersey. He started playing six years ago after getting some instruction from his brother. After running over home games and the poker scene in Atlantic City, Klodnicki turned pro. After a couple of unsuccessful World Series tries, Klodnicki returned this year to play. After coming runner-up to Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein in the Razz event, Klodnicki has made a massive run through the Main Event field.

Brandon Cantu--(4,740,000)--PokerStars player Brandon Cantu is both a World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker winner. The latter of these he won back in June 2006 as a 25-year-old, taking $757,839 for first place in what was then the largest non-main event field in WSOP history, a $1,000 buy-in hold 'em tournament. More recently, his WPT crown at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars in March of this year swelled his bankroll to the tune of $1 million. Now, he’s looking at the possibility of a $9 million payday in the World Series Main Event.

Darus Suharto -- (4,510,000) -- Darus Suharto is from Toronto, Canada. He is an accountant who loves his job so much, he would find it hard to quit, even if he won the World Series Main Event. He would like to find more time to play poker, but because he spends so much time working, most of his tournament poker experience comes from playing online. He’s looking to improve on his modest in-the-money finish from last year.

Owen Crowe -- (3,800,000) -- Known as “ocrowe” to just about everyone in the online poker world, Owen Crowe is a 26-year-old professional poker player. Famed for a monster year in 2006, it’s been a good World Series for the Canadian who took over $81,000 last month in a $1,500 no limit hold’em event for his eighth place finish. Now he’s already better than that in the Main Event and guaranteed $257,334 as he goes into the final day of play before the final table break.

Ylon Schwartz -- (3,655,000) -- A native New Yorker -- born in Manhattan and now living in Brooklyn -- Ylon Schwartz is a chess whizz and a poker player with 11 previous cashes in World Series events dating back to 2005. He's equally at home playing chess in the super-competitive games in New York's Washington Square Park, idling the time in Golden Nugget low limit ring games or tearing up the major poker tournaments in the east coast casinos of Atlantic City and Foxwoods.

Tim Loecke -- (2,280,000) -- From Highland Park, Illinois, Loecke is a 37-year-old who still maintains his Iowa farm boy roots. He once said, “I used to milk 70 cows a day as a kid.” Now he is a director of sales who dreams of winning big enough money that he can use it for such things as restoring the little league baseball program in his hometown, Greeley, Iowa.

Phi Nguyen -- (1,020,000) --Phi Nguyen is no stranger to the World Series and as a double bracelet winner, winning the $2,500 no limit hold’em event in 2003 and the $1,500 hold’em shootout a year later, the Californian would be one of the favourites were it not for a short stack. He has impressive form this year having narrowly missed out on the final table in the $1,000 no limit hold’em, finishing tenth for $36,176. He also has numerous World Series and WPT cashes to his name and career winnings of $1.3 million.

The few became fewer today. This beleaguered poker bastion known as the Amazon Room got smaller and smaller and its surviving 79 occupants endured another day of triumph and trauma. The camp was small as players took their seats at high noon and by 11:30pm what remained were just a handful of tables with thousands of wide spectator eyes fixed upon them.

The whole room had taken on a different atmosphere today, with the tables from previous days gone and the area of action reduced table by table towards the main stage. It was quite a day, one of ups and downs for those playing under the PokerStars banner, headed by Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, with the likes of sponsored player Kara Scott equally popular with the railbirds.

PokerStars player Kara Scott

But on days like these surviving the cut depends on chips, cards, courage and that all important bit of luck. For much of this week Kara had the chips, the courage and didn’t need the cards, but that last bit of luck drained away this evening, her magnificent main event performance ended fittingly in front of the cameras and crowds on the feature table, her KQ running into AT on an AK4 flop to mark the end of an effort worth $41,816 for 104th place.

It was not all about goodbyes. Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, who already has a final table to his name this year, continued his pursuit of the ultimate second making a powerful start, bouncing his way up into the millions.

Victor Ramdin

Victor excelled, flying as high as the three million mark before a harsh dose of tournament reality struck, costing him much of his fortune. He ended the day with just under a million, certainly enough for a player of his calibre to return to make his mark on Day 6.

As we find year on year it’s not just the quantity of PokerStars players that impresses, but also the quality.
Romanian player Cristian Dragomir has enjoyed a somewhat meteoric rise up the chip lists from day one to now. His story is one of the ultimate spin-up, having won $1.87 on a freeroll four years ago which he gradually increased into thousands. In a nice parallel he’s done the same here. At the end of day one he had 55,000, a day later he was up to 193,000. Yesterday that figure was 824,000 and then in the first couple of levels this afternoon he jacked that up to 2.5 million. He returns tomorrow slightly down at 1.8million.

Cristian Dragomir

His story could potentially be a big one, not least in his native Romania.

"It's huge," he said. "I just read on the internet that I'm going to be on the news. All my friends back home are rooting for me. It's massive."

Brian Tatum, from Illinois, is making the most of his first trip to Vegas. He plays at PokerStars like it's his "morning cup of coffee" according to his girlfriend Joanne and he's on the mother of all caffeine rushes.
A mention also for Andrew Brokos who stormed towards the chip lead late today, ending with 4 million to bag and tag. Brandon Cantu, David Rheem, Greg Byard, Larry Wright, Geert Jens, Owen Crowe and Ylon Schwartz are all among those flying the flag for PokerStars heading into Day 6.

Brian Tatum

But where there is joy there is also loss. There’s something ingrained onto the DNA of poker players that sees success as nothing short of total victory. Whilst a top 100 finish right now seem an incredible feat, years down the line a poker player will look on it more as a missed opportunity. The very best players operate in different circles to the rest of us mere mortals.

A total of 79 players survived today's onslaught, the trials and tribulations of a day that was more intense than yesterday but will come nowhere near the pressures of tomorrow when the perimeter will move even closer as we arrive at the last 27.

By the PokerStars blog team in Las Vegas

Wow. Seriously, wow.

We may have already used that word to start a previous post from today, but it becomes no less applicable in the duplicate. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Day four started an hour late after yesterday's extended bubble shenanigans, but we ended up unplugging our laptops a full level early tonight after the carnage of one of the fastest moving days in recent World Series memory. There were 474 players returning to the Amazon Room at the outset, with the idea of playing deep into the money. With 38 minutes still remaining in level 19, the tournament staff carried out a mercy killing on the day of slaughter. There were only 189 players remaining. It had been brutal.

Immovable and irresistible in that clutch of survivors is Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin. Ramdin is the man in form and has cashed in the past four tournaments in which he has played, including a final table in the $1,500 HORSE event last week. He is now well chipped up going into day five of the biggest tournament of the year.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

Much of Ramdin's day took place under the studio lights of the ESPN feature table, and it'll be worth tuning in to the broadcast. Ramdin ended with 1,325,000 in chips and a reputation even further enhanced. It's going to be a pleasure to follow his progress tomorrow, and probably much further.

For the final hour of the night, Ramdin was joined on the television table by the PokerStars sponsored player Kara Scott, who continued her fairytale World Series.

Scott, from Brighton, England, is no stranger to the television cameras, and regularly wows poker audiences as the host of the television production of the PokerStars European Poker Tour. Now she's wowing American poker audiences for her play rather than her presenting skills and finished with 247,000 and the guaranteed largest payday of her career.

Expecting similar huge cheques to hit their bank accounts in the coming week are the regular list of PokerStars players that have owned this main event. As ever. PokerStars player Darus Suharto, from Toronto, Canada, cashed for a small amount in the main event in 2006, but is now staring at a much larger payday, provided he can translate his 1,428,000 chips into a similar amount of real money come Monday (or November).

PokerStars player Darus Suharto

Felix Osterland (1,470,000), another PokerStars player, this time from Germany, is neck and neck with Suharto's, alongside Alex Outhred (1,377,000) and Ylon Schwartz (820,000).

Of course, such is the nature of the game that one player's progression often means another's departure, and among those ending their World Series assaults today were the duo of Team PokerStars Pros with the most recognisable user-names in the business: ElkY and RaiNKhan. Bertrand and Hevad, as they are known to the Grospellier and Khan families, respectively, both perished today, but did not go home empty handed.

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier

ElkY took $28,950 for his 370th place, but suffered a couple of coolers -- set versus straight, among them --to end his charge.

A few hours later, RaiNKhan's deep drive halted when he ran pocket nines into Tiffany Michelle's K-Q, a queen flopping.

Those two were joined in the cashiers' line by a whole host of PokerStars players, who have already made very good indeed on their meagre satellite entry fees.

There will be no more days like these, at least not this year. No more days of a mathematical fog hanging over the main event as you try to calculate numbers and chip averages, or consecutive days of new faces whose enthusiasm knows nothing of the repetition that preceded them, a retread of the same path.

Tomorrow things will be clearer and what we see will be what we get.

Day 2A finished with 466 players. The final numbers from Day 2B are not yet official, but the field looked to be a little more than 800 strong at day's end. That will leave us with still more than 1,000 players going into Day 3, including more than 100 PokerStars qualifiers and Team PokerStars Pros.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

Among those Pros still in the field is Victor Ramdin, a one-time World Poker Tour winner looking for his first bracelet. Since arriving half an hour late for his day one appearance the man from the Bronx hasn't looked back and instead has set a path towards the chip lead which shows no sign of slowing. At the midway point today Victor hovered around the 250,000 mark. At the close of play that figure was more like 305,000.

Team PokerStars Pro ElkY

ElkY made a big move from 5,400 to 121,000 in one level tonight, something that no one could believe until they saw for their own eyes a stack swollen in numbers and colour. Few ever discount the Frenchman but down so close to the felt it was hard not to write him off. Such a stunning comeback bodes well for the Team PokerStars Pro going into day 3.

Also coming back tomorrow to represent Team PokerStars Pro will be Chris Moneymaker, Hevad Khan, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso and Noah Boeken, each of whom made it through their respective second days with enough in their armoury to have a chance, although with the field beginning to narrow, time and opportunity will grow short.

Sponsored players Kara Scott and Kirill Gerasimov also deserve a mention, having made their way through the treacherous swings of today's five levels. EPT presenter Kara started on 111,000 and swung up and down throughout the day (despite a case of food poisoning) to finish on 66,000. Kirill on the other hand continues to play the World Series of his career, amassing chips in his typically understated style, and will return tomorrow with 160,000. In the dying moments of the day Hevad Khan registered an almost Balboa-like comeback hitting quad threes to spin up his meagre looking stack to 88,000 - more of a fighting weight.

That's the story of the Team PokerStars Pros and sponsored players, but it also proved a big day for a number of the PokerStars players remaining in the field.

Steve Chung nearly didn't make it to Vegas because he nearly didn't make it to Macau, where the satellite tournament that he won was being contested, in PokerStars' brand new live card-room. But against the odds, he got there, played the game, won his seat and was close to 300,000 chips for much of the day, good for a sniff of the tournament chip lead.

Steve Chung

PokerStars player Alberto Fontrytzner, from Madrid, Spain, got his chance under the ESPN studio lights today, but played badly there (in his own estimation) and will probably only make the final edit running kings into aces. Thankfully, his table was moved and he began to prosper, so much so that he appeared as a blip on our radar set to detect big stacks and sat behind nearly 250,000 for the late hours.

Andrew Brokos, from Baltimore, has taken it calm and steady to reach close to 200,000, while Bill Purle, from Berkshire, England, first consolidated and then improved on his overnight stack. Purle knocked a player out during the evening session, to take him past the 240,000 mark and keep him well in contention. Brandon Schaefer, meanwhile, is always smiling no matter what, and 220,000-odd is as good a reason as any. Finally Bryan Tiffin, our man out to make a score, ended the day still in it on 45,000.

The World Series math is hard to understand for an outsider. This 2008 event had four day ones. It has two day twos. More people competed in the second half of Day 1 than the first, and consequently, the second Day 2 will be more populated than the first Day 2. Follow?

No? No worries. We will get through this together.

Days 1A and 1B came together today to form the 1,252-player Day 2A. By the end of the night, fewer than 500 of those competitors remained in the Amazon Room. The survivors now have one day off while more than 2,000 Day 2B players battle on Wednesday. Then all of the remaining players will come back for Day 3 on Thursday at 12pm.

Five Team PokerStars Pro players started Day 2A. Three survived. Barry Greenstein worked a short stack to near perfection most of the afternoon, but in the end couldn't last the day. His exit was preceded by Victoria Coren's, the lady having her set of threes cracked followed by running jacks into aces. Having better days were Noah Boeken, Vanessa Rousso, and John Duthie all of whom have chips going into Day 3.

Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken

Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso

Not only is Team PokerStars Pro fighting on to Day 3, but the list of PokerStars sponsored players is getting pretty impressive. EPT Season 2 Grand Final Champion Jeff Williams didn't have a lot of chips to start the day, but ran it up to 100,000 at one point. If not for getting all-in pre-flop with queens against AQ and coming out the loser, Williams would be huge-stacked tonight. Instead, he'll be looking to double up when he returns on Thursday. Sponsored player Alexander Kravchenko will be headed to Day 3, as well.

Jeff Williams

All of this managed to take place within hours of the PokerStars Burlesque Party, the most lavish World Series party in recent memory. Headlined by burlesque star Dita Von Teese, the party drew thousands of people and had a line out the door all night long.

On tap to play tomorrow for Team PokerStars Pro are Bill Chen, Chris Moneymaker, ElkY, Hevad Khan, Joe Hachem, Isabelle Mercier, and Victor Ramdin.

On Saturday 702 players logged off with something to show for their hard work. Whilst ‘woodywax12’ received 80c sometime later the winner emerged with $287.60 and that player was ziggis56 from Germany, one of five Germans to make the final which finished looking like this...

Weekly Round 2 results (Saturday 5 July)

1. ziggis56 (Germany) -- $287.60
2. WingNut647 (Canada) -- $166.00
3. Huber25 (Germany) -- $100.00
4. marcoserpini (Italy) -- $80.00
5. proqd (Germany) -- $62.00
6. woftam22 (Australia) -- $50.00
7. Zeppinho (Germany) -- $39.00
8. FiSChA (Germany) -- $30.00
9. bordbe (United States) -- $22.20

702nd woodywax12 (United States) -- $0.80

Weekly Round 2 results (Sunday 6 July)

Sunday’s event saw even more entrants and a total of 801 players paid. Top of that list was ‘Big-C407’ from the United States who came away with $276.00. Whilst back on the fun side of the bubble was ‘Deseret’, who cashed in 60c at the end of the day.

Here’s how the table lined up...

1. Big-C407 (United States) -- $276.00
2. El34nor (Germany) -- $164.00
3. schmit20 (United States) -- $100.00
4. knsimon (United States) -- $80.00
5. michanmark (United States) -- $62.00
6. seddo-9 (Australia) -- $50.00
7. craigrussell (United States) -- $39.00
8. euraznstyle (France) -- $30.00
9. rj0300 (United States) -- $22.20

801st Deseret (United States) -- $0.60

The early flights of Day 1 made it look as though this year's World Series might not be as big as last year's. Saturday called that pessimism into doubt. Today erased it completely as the Rio filled with the final flight of Day 1. By the end of it all, a calculator spit out the final number.

The 2008 World Series is being contested by 6,844 players, all fighting for the lion's share of the $64,333,600 prize pool. Of those players who started, 666 (seriously...) will walk away with at least $21,230. The last person standing--four months from now--will bank $9,119,517.

The road to that money though is a long one. Before we can even consider the final nine players who will return in November for the final table, we must get ourselves through the next couple of weeks. That means getting through the next few days. After a day of rest we will be back for Days 2A and 2B.

You will recall us mentioning before, PokerStars sent 2,008 players to the 2008 World Series Main Event. Hundreds of those players, not to mention more than a few members of Team PokerStars Pro, remain among the field going into Day 2. We can't think about what will happen in the next round of play, though, without taking a look back at what happened today.

The hallways were sweaty this morning as the final runners made their way to the Amazon, Tropical, and Brasilia rooms. Among those fighting through the crowd were Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri, Hevad Khan, and Victor Ramdin. Dario exited in the last level of the night, but Khan and Ramdin finished strong.
Those Team PokerStars Pros will join Barry Greenstein, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, Chris Moneymaker, ElkY, Joe Hachem, Noah Boeken, Isabelle Mercier, and Victoria Coren in Day 2.

David Wells

Finally tonight, we saw some special faces in the crowd. Pro baseball player David Wells UFC legend Chuck Liddell, and television producing great Sam Simon all made their way into the Rio, and unfortunately back out tonight.

Chuck Liddell

One of the greatest stories coming out of the World Series so far is the friendship between Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker and a player named Donald Hobbs. Moneymaker and Hobbs became friends last year when Moneymaker visited Hobbs in the hospital after a car crash. Since then, Hobbs has become his protege and both players are playing the main event. Moneymaker finished with a nice stack yesterday. Today, a random draw put Hobbs on the featured table alongside Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth. Hobbs exited with two minutes left in Day 1, but left with more than a few stories to tell.

It is the end of the third of four days ones here at the World Series of Poker and this tournament is almost beginning to take shape. There's still a long way to go, but patterns are emerging and, typically, Team PokerStars Pro are looming large.

Chief among the giants today is the most famous players in the history of the game. On the fifth anniversary of his magical win Chris Moneymaker finished his day one with around about 50,000 in chips, which is a great place to be coming back to day two.

Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker

Darren Keyes, from Toronto, in particular, can keep his eye on the big spin up as he finished the day with close to 50,000 and is sitting comfortably among the 1,000-odd players that remain from the 1,928 who started today.

Darren Keyes

After a brutal opening couple of days for Team PokerStars Pro, during which many of the game's top names were sent spiralling out of the tournament, today was relatively prosperous. Seven Team PokerStars Pros, including Moneymaker, started their bracelet hunts today, and although we lost young guns Gavin Griffin and Steve Paul-Ambrose early on, with Andre Akkari perishing in the final level, the likes of Isabelle Mercier, Bill Chen, Joe Hachem and ElkY survived. The latter played with Akkari for most of the day, affording a neat photo-opportunity.

ElkY with Andre Akkari in the foreground

The surviving Teamsters will join John Duthie, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Noah Boeken and Vicky Coren on day two.

It was another good day for the Team in other ways too, most notably in the acquisition of Alexandre Gomes to the line-up. Gomes became the first Brazilian ever to win a World Series bracelet when he took down the $2,000 no limit event last week, and now joins countryman Akkari on the Team.

PokerStars sponsored players also made hay in the Amazon Room today. Kara Scott, who is sponsored here in return for her fine work as the anchor of the EPT television coverage, showed that she has plenty of strings to her bow, poker very much among them.

Kara Scott

Scott catapulted to near the chip lead early in the day, before consolidating her stack of close to 60,000 through the final levels, before another huge leap right at the death with aces that got her close to 100,000.

We also met a number of those PokerStars players who have a tendency to go very deep here. One of those is named Andrew Tisler and he has the best prospects of them all. Tisler sat behind dark aviator sunglasses, shades that matched his grim poker face and made him difficult to approach. It was only after he cracked a smile that we realized his tough-guy persona is saved for when he’s in a hand.

Andrew Tisler

Turns out, Tisler gives away more money than he takes on any given day. The Chicago-area loan officer saves cards for his free time. “I play recreationally online,” Tisler said. Then, with several towering stacks of big-denomination chips in front of him, he took his big blind and prepared to play out the final hands of the night. The official counts aren’t in yet, but 170,000 or so chips make him look good for the chip lead leaving the day.

Fellow PokerStars player Vincent Caesar, meanwhile, spent the whole of his first day in major tournament poker seated across the television table from Mike Matusow.

Caesar has never played a tournament of this size before but is hoping for a big score to pay for his wedding in September. He not only lived to tell the tale from his day under lights with the Mouth, but he'll be back to fight another day as well.

The field is still stocked with other PokerStars players who will surely come to prominence in the coming week. Here is the place to follow their progress.

Last year, one of their number was Hevad "RaiNKhan" Khan, who went all the way to the final table and a huge payday. This year, Hevad is back as a fully-fledged member of Team PokerStars Pro, and he has been hanging out with the video blog team in the run up to the main event, giving an insight into the preparations of a champion. The first part is now available below, with two further parts to follow.

Poker is defined largely by its American heritage on Mississippi river boats and dusty Texas back roads. The variant played here at the World Series of Poker takes its name from those areas in the Lone Star state. But, by name and definition, this tournament is an international event. From Russia, to Costa Rica, back across the pond to the UK and back to Amarillo, this is no longer only America's game. It's a world contest and open to anyone who can find a way to pay $10,000 American at the cage.

Nevertheless, Day 1B of the World Series began on the anniversary of its home country's independence. It played out while families barbequed and fireworks exploded over the famous Las Vegas Strip.

Nearly 1,160 players showed up on this American holiday to play the second of four Day 1s. Combined with yesterday's field, nearly 2,500 people have entered the Main Event with two Day 1s left to go. Whether it was the holiday atmosphere or slightly smaller crowd, most folks here agreed it was more subdued than the day previous, and certainly more low key than we'll see on the rest of this holiday weekend.

It's a bit of an odd relationship here at the PokerStars Blog. Only one-third of the blogging crew here sits under the American flag. The other two fly the Union Jack, which makes American Independence Day a contentious time. If there was such a battle among the members of Team PokerStars Pro, it came out with the same score. John Duthie and Vicky Coren stayed alive for the UK. Vanessa Rousso (who, admittedly, maintains dual citizenship in the USA and France) represented the stars and stripes.

Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie

Team PokerStars Pro Victoria Coren

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso

This is not the only place to get your fix for World Series news. Our video blogging team is working tirelessly and turning out some great stuff at the freshly-launched PokerStars.tv. Be sure to head over there and watch a few videos. You will also get the password for the PokerStars.tv freeroll on PokerStars.

Also scheduled to appear on Day 1C are Team PokerStars Pros Andre Akkari, Chris Moneymaker, Gavin Griffin, Joe Hachem, Isabelle Mercier, and Steve Paul-Ambrose.