Day 1A - WSOP Main Event Recap

• 2,138 players began play at 12:10pm. James Garner (Maverick) threw-out the first deck and WSOP Commissioner announced "Shuffle up and deal".
• Main Event introduced new "All-in" button as an alternative to using all that pesky extra energy pushing your chips into the pot. It maybe more efficient; but it's a darn site less dramatic than watching Humberto Brenas shove his chips in with his signature flourish. It's getting a little too close to the "All-in" button at Poker Stars.
  
• First player was eliminated in less than 7 minutes. That's about $1425.00 per minute of play.
• PokerStars.com had more than 1600 qualifiers; about 500 more than at the 2005 Main Event.
  
• Day 1A players included Scotty Nguyen (at the ESPN featured table), Mike Sexton, Norm McDonald, Minh Nguyen (not to be confused with Men "The Master") , Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen, Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Clonie Gowen, "All-in Dan" Harrington*, Toby "Spiderman" Maguire, Hoyt Corkin, Layne Flack, Andy Bloch, Barry Greenstein and boxer, Antonio Tarver.
• Marquee players eliminated in day 1a were Dan Harrington* (eliminated by WPT's Mike Sexton in a flush vs. flush situation), Gus Hansen, Dutch Boyd, Chip Jett, Clonie Gowen, Mike "the Grinder", Andy Bloch, Norm MacDonald, Toby Maguire, Wil Wheaton, James Garner, Juha Helppi, Mimi Tran, and Lee Watkinson.
  
• There were 4 "no shows" and the most-noted was Minh Nguyen - $10K buy-in and you "no show" - what's with that? All 4 had been eliminated by just after midnight and Day 1A ended at 3:12 am with less than 800 players still standing. $13million in dead money was at the tables Day 1A.
  
• Chip leaders at end of Day 1A: Paul McCaffrey - $111,800; Mark Vos - $93,000 (has already one a bracelet this year); Cuong Do - $86,000; Jeffrey Lisandro - $79,000; and Pete Falk $68,200 (Colombo?)
• Chip count on notable pros: Hoyt Corkin - $50K; Layne Flack - $45K; Mike Sexton - $42K; Barry Greenstein - $34.5K (he's playing for the kids); David Sklansky and Andrew Black - each with $26K (Black made the 2006 Final Table); Scotty Nguyen* - $24K; Jim Bechtel* - $22,000; John Hennigan - $12,400; Kristy Gazes - $9,700; Carlos "The Matador" - $8K.

And I still don't get the 4 no-shows - wouldn't the WSOP Main Event be at the top of their "To Do" List for July 28, 2006? As I like to say, "Poker Happens".

My thanks to cardplayer.com , the WSOP official Magazine for live updates,for its coverage and my source for this report.