The 39th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event kicked off at the Rio Casino. The $10,000 buy in event attracted players from all over the world who converged on poker's Mecca for the most prestigious poker tournament in the world. Day 1 was split up into four flights. 1,297 players bought into Day 1A which is up 10 entrants from last year's number.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

ESPN TV feature table on Day 1A

The Buzz: Everyone was wondering if the Main Event numbers would be down. The small field on Day 1a worried some, while others still have high hopes that the weekend flights will attract more runners. No official numbers have been released but there are signs suggesting that this year's mark will fall short of last year's mark.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Ray Romano playing Day 1A

Celebrity Players: Jason Alexander (aka George Costanza), Mekhi Phifer, and Ray Romano were all in the field on Day 1.

Quote of the Day: "Shuffle up and deal!" said the famous words to begin this year's event

Sight of the Day: The legendary Wayne Newton kicked off festivities followed by the UNLV marching band performing 'Viva Las Vegas'.

Day 1a Eliminations: Gavin Smith, Erica Schoenberg, Mekhi Phifer, Dan Harrington, Jason Alexander, Shawn Rice, Tuan Lam, David 'The Dragon' Pham, Freddy Deeb, Devilfish, David Benyamine, Young Phan, Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond, Chad Brown, Ralph Perry, Joe Sebok, Juha Helppi, Roland de Wolfe, Berry Johnston, Jon Little, Josh Arieh, Jeff 'YellowSub' Williams, Miami John Cernuto, JJ Liu, Tony Ma, Bob Feduniak, Roy Winston, Katja Thater, Taylor 'Green Plastic' Caby, Lyle Berman, Raymond Rahme, Jan Von Halle, Shirley Rosario, Maureen Feduniak, Vanessa Selbst, John Gale, and Tom 'Durrrrr' Dwan.

End of Day 1a Big Stacks: Brandon Adams, Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, and Mark Vos.

Approximately 657 players advanced to Day 2.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Brandon Adams among Day 1A chip leaders

.

.

.

.

2008 Main Event Day 1A: 1297 entrants
2007 Main Event Day 1A: 1287 entrants

Mike Matusow is the player that has best demonstrated the skills and attitude required to become the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion. From my casual observations through the viewfinder I've detected a major change in the attitude and demeanor of the sometimes caustic "Mike the Mouth." Matusow has never been one to hide his feelings at a poker table and this has more than once proven to be his Achilles heel; but, this year there appears to be a new downsized Mike that gained a lot of self confidence and maturity while losing a lot of weight.

He has played with a focused determination to win and it has paid off with a 2008 WSOP bracelet in event #18. Mike has always been overloaded with natural talent for the game and is considered to be one of the great Omaha players; so, if everything comes together and he remains committed to the "new Mike" we could see him in the winners circle come November. Of course, he must survive the next couple of weeks to become one of the final table nine. Barring an unforeseen run of bad luck Mike Matusow could very well be the next WSOP World Champion.

A field of 823 players entered the final event before Thursday start of the 2008 WSOP Main Event. The two day affair saw all but 75 players eliminated on day 1 with the lucky survivors returning Wednesday at 2:00 pm and playing until there was only one to take the final gold bracelet of the 2008 WSOP (FYI: the Main Event bracelet is platinum). After more than 17 hours of tough poker the winner was decided a little after 7 this morning when Matt Graham made a miraculous come-back from near disaster to defeat Jean Robert Bellande in heads-up play and take the gold bracelet plus $278,180 in cash. Jean Robert Bellande received $173,564 for second place while Joe De Niro completed the top three to receive $107,845 for third place.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

The final WSOP Gold Bracelet of 2008

Jean Robert Bellande of the Survivor Show fame was at the final table and as expected the outspoken poker pro insured the game was never boring. 1996 WSOP World Champion Huck Seed was seen at the rail conferring with Jean-Robert during the all-night poker fest. Bellande took charge of the table and the chips and then the cards turned to favor Graham. This is Matt Graham's first WSOP bracelet and title.

Congratulations to Matt Graham for hanging tough and taking down Event #53 at the 2008 World Series of Poker. The first day of the Main Event will be getting underway today at Noon. Don't forget to stop by the WSOP Lifestyles exhibition opening at 11:00 am today in the Rio Pavilion.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Jean-Robert Bellande chats with 1996 WSOP Main Event winner Huck Seed

David Daneshgar stayed alive with a chip and a chair in the final $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event of the 2008 World Series of Poker. Considering the capacity crowd of 2693 poker players that begin the event three days ago proved this to be a monumental task for the Westlake Village, California poker player. Daneshgar came to the final table in the middle of the chip leader board and hung on to his position as the other players were eliminated.

In the heads-up play David Daneshgar (3,265,000 in chips) faced Scott Sitron (4,874,000 in chips) and begin moving chips across the table until the final hand when he called Scott's all-in bet with a pair of pocket Tens. No help came for Scott Sitron and David Daneshgar becomes the final $1,500 NLHE champion for 2008, collecting his first WSOP bracelet and $625,443 in cash. Scott Sitron heads home to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with an extra $385,974 and third place finisher Dan Heimiller received $275,695.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

David Daneshgar is presented with his first WSOP bracelet

Fifty-One bracelets have been handed out; two more are ready to be presented today; the Player of the Year has been determined, congratulations to Erick Lindgren; the Ante Up for Africa event goes off today. Then, finally, we get to the Main Event and we answer most of the questions everyone has waited for.

Will we have more entries than last year?

Will the professionals somehow continue their dominance they have shown thru 53 preliminary events?

Will it all run as smooth as the tournaments have run so far? By the way, nice job to the WSOP staff this was truly a nicely run Series so far. Minor mistakes, quick fixes and overall solid and uniform floor decisions. Kudos to Tournament Director Jack Effel and his WSOP floor staff.

Another great move comes later this week, when the WSOP Media event is brought back with substantial prizes given to the favorite charities of the final table participants. A great solution to that on again off again event.

Then tomorrow we reach the 2008 World Series of Poker $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event. Four Day One flights, two Day Two flights and five more days to play down to the "November Nine" or the "Fall Final". Then all the WSOP eggs go into that ESPN/November basket and we all wait, watch, hope and pray. No matter who you favor in that mass of poker humanity, say a little prayer that at least one or two "names" make it to the final nine. Nothing could be better for poker than to see Scotty, Mike, Phil, Phil, Erick, Jennifer, Antonio, Gus, Daniel, Joe, Johnny** or heaven help us Doyle! make the final table.

It all starts tomorrow.

**Dewey, Cyndy, Bill, Gavin, Carlos, Chris, Doug, Liz, David, Tony, Lyle, Barry, Berry, Huck, Patrik, David, the other Phil and the other Phil, Greg, Layne, Chad, Isabelle, Todd, Freddy, T.J., Michael, Mike again, Ted, Gabe, Andy, Howard, John, John, John or John, Lee, Annie, Eli, Hoyt, Andy or even Jerry.

James Schaaf will be heading back to Torrance, California with a WSOP gold bracelet and $256,412 in cash for his first ever venture into big-time World Series of Poker poker. The bracelet on Schaaf's arm had Phil Hellmuth name all over it when the "Poker Brat" made the final table with a big pile of chips; but, missed winning bracelet #12 when he went out in the third spot. Both James Schaaf and second place finisher Tommy Hang breathed a collective sigh of relief watching the intimidating Hellmuth head to the rail.

After having been almost eliminating and finding himself down to a chip and a chair Shaaf caught a few breaks and rebuilt his chip stacks to go into the heads-up play with 880K to Hang's 1.5 million in play money. A few more lucky breaks and mistake free poker saw Shaaf pull ahead and finally eliminate the always tough Tommy Hang. Hang received $158,933 for second and Hellmuth collected $93,168 for his $1,500 investment. Phil Hellmuth's last opportunity to claim a 12th bracelet this year will be the $10K Main Event which gets under way with day 1A on Thursday.

Congratulations to James Schaaf for his first WSOP bracelet and cash.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Phil Hellmuth got within two players of bracelet #12

The final 2008 WSOP World Championship before the Main Event is now in the record book and we have a winner from down under. Australian Marty Smyth collected the gold bracelet and $859,532 in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship. He outlasted a field of 381 Omaha players to take down WSOP event #50. He defeated Peter Jetten in heads-up play when the river produced a club to give him the winning club flush. It took a few moments for Smyth to realized he had won after he overlooked the club draw in all the excitement.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

ESPN's Norm Chad interviews Marty Smyth

As expected anytime there is an Aussie in the thick of it the crowd was consuming copious amounts of brew and loudly demonstrating their support for a fellow countryman...anyone remember when Joe Hachem won the main event in 2005? Peter Jetten enjoyed a nice payday for second place when he received $528,257. Poker super star Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi finished in third place for $331,279. Michael had his own cheering section that shouted their approval when he would take down a pot.

Congratulations to Marty Smyth.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Marty Smyth checks out all that cash

53 Preliminary Events:

25 events had increased entries
15 events had decreased entries
12 events were new tournaments or increased buy-ins
1 tie

Here are the week four comparisons:

2008 Event #48
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,319
2007 Entries: 2,038
(Big increase)

2008 Event #49
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,718
2007 Entries: 3,151
(down over 400 from the old record, but the event was capped so it had no chance of hitting 3,000)

2008 Event #50
$10,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Number of Entrants: 381
2007 Entries: 314
(a strong increase for a $10K event)

2008 Event #51
$1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Number of Entrants: 803
2007 Entries: 730
(this was a $1,000 S.H.O.E. event last summer)

2008 Event #52
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,693
2007 Entries: new event
(an added 7th $1,500 NLHE event)

2008 Event #53
$1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout
Number of Entrants: 823
2007 Entries: capped at 720
(the cap was raised this year, so we’ll call this an “other”)

Next, I will be watching the four Day Ones of the Main Event to see where those numbers go.

Week Four Comparison
Week Three Comparison
Week Two Comparison
Week One Comparison