2008 World Series of Poker

Alex Melnikow is the overnight chip leader

Day 1 Official Chip Counts Released

The chips have been bagged and tallied, and 121 players are shown as being alive in Event #21, $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em, down from 732 at the start of the day's play. Alex Melnikow leads the way with 248,800 chips. The overnight top ten:

Alex Melnikow 248,800
Sam El Sayed 215,800
Jared Okun 170,000
Thanhdat Tran 164,700
Hasan Habib 140,200
Keith Tilston 135,400
David Seidman 119,800
Rajesh Vohra 117,700
Mark Radoja 117,700
Scott Freeman 115,800

Players return at 2pm on Thursday, with the first task of the day being to break through the 72-player money bubble. We'll be on hand with live, from-the-floor updates.

That's a Wrap!

Play has concluded her in the Amazon room for the evening. We have roughly 122 players who will continue on to tomorrow's Day 2, which will start promptly at 2pm PDT.

Many pros still remain in the field including Howard Lederer, Eli Elezra, Noah Boeken, Anna Wroblewski, Kathy Liebert, Alex Jacob, Humberto Brenes, and Jonathan Little.

Sam El Sayed, who was high on the chip count for majority of the day, has around 200,000 and is our chip leader going into Day 2.

Make sure to tune in tomorrow for live updates of Day 2 of this event!

That's

Noah Boeken

Noah Boeken Wins a Big Pot from Terrence Chan

Boeken opened for 4,700 and Chan called on the button. The flop came and when Boeken bet 6,200 Chan called, He also called when Boeken bet 20,000 after the fell on the turn, but when the hit on the river Boeken moved all in for his last 26,000 and Chan folded. Boeken showed two black Aces and Chan said he'd had a King and a club flush draw. That hand left Chan with just 11,000 and Boeken' stack now stands at 87,000

Play Tightens Up

As we have entered the final stretch for the evening, players appear to be playing tighter, all hoping to make it to Day 2 and eventually the money. We're down to just 135 players remaining in the field, and the money is hit at 72. It's highly unlikely we'll get close to that tonight, with only seventeen minutes of play remaining, though we should get into the low 100s.

Layne Flack Doubles Up

After dropping a big pot to Terrence Chan, Layne Flack got all his money in with against . The flop gave Flack trips and he made a boat when the hit on the river. That pot lifted Flack to 28,000.

Hennigan Goes Up Against Over-Pair

John Hennigan was all-in preflop holding pocket fives against another player who held pocket nines. Hennigan failed to improve and was eliminated from the field.