2008 WSOP Main Event Day 2a Recap

After four calendar days of Day 1 and a day off so everyone could drink entirely too much alcohol and watch Dita Von Teese dance at the PokerStars party at the Palms, the first of two installments of Day 2 of the 2008 WSOP Main Event kicked off today at noon.

The day began with 1,250 players who made it through Day 1a and Day 1b. By the end of the night only 469 of them would survive the span from Level 6 to Level 10 of this Main Event.

For the first time tonight, the Amazon Room was less than half full thanks to all the casualties of the day, a powerful reminder that this WSOP is just one week away from finishing up and being consigned to the history books - with the obvious exception of the Main Event final table, which has been delayed until November. By this time next week we'll all know who the nine players will be returning for that historic final table.

A little more love might have saved Romano.

Today's ESPN feature table saw the likes of Ray Romano, the famous stand-up comedian and actor. Everyone at the table didn't love Ray enough to let him make it through the day, though, sending him home after dinner.

Finnish poker assassin and Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius played on the second ESPN feature table off to the side of the main set. He didn't get knocked out like feature-table player Romano, but he only ended the day with $52,000 in chips.

That actually leaves him second in his own family's Day 2a leaderboard: wife Maya Geller-Antonius finished up with $130,000.

Up at the top of the overall leaderboard at the end of the day was Brian Shaedlich, who has no prior live tournament cashes on his resume. At the close of play, WorldSeriesOfPoker.com reported his chip count as $745,000, a full 86% more than his nearest competitor, Hunter Frey, whose stack was worth exactly $400,000. Frey, an online player from Houston, Tex., finished in third place in a $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event during last year's WSOP.

Hunter Frey finished the day second in chips.

Some of the other notable big movers during Day 2a included Jeremiah Smith and Brandon Adams.

Smith told the PokerListings.com reporting team tonight that at this stage in the tournament he feels the game more closely resembles a deep-stacked cash game than it does a tournament like most of his competitors are used to playing. Having that mentality helped him to stay dominant at his table throughout the day and pick up several big pots to boost his stack to $390,000, including a major one where he flopped a straight with 7 5 and got his opponent to call all-in for about $100,000.

Despite doubling up Michael Watson during the last level to drop some chips, Adams picked up a healthy pot when he flopped a set of sevens and Sigbjorn Rivelrud turned a set of fives toward the end of the night. That significant boost helped Adams rise to $371,000 by the end of the evening.

Day 2a proves to be good one for Adams.

Among the more notable bust-outs of the day were Bill Edler, Marc Karam, Vicky Coren, Jordan Morgan, John Hennigan, Billy Baxter, Barry Greenstein, Paul Wasicka, Svetlana Gromenkova, Jimmy Fricke and Jens Voertmann.

Day 2b is due to kick off on Wednesday at noon - be sure to follow all the action right here with the PokerListings.com WSOP Live Updates crew.