After fifty-six 2010 World Series of Poker events, the biggest tournament of them all- in fact the biggest in all of poker- the Main Event, began yesterday with 1,125 entrants.  Day 1a, though not normally known as the most popular starting day of the four Day1 options, still saw quite a few recognizable faces deposit their $10,000 in exchange for 30,000 in tournament chips, and sadly more than a few have already seen their “big dances” come to an end, with nothing to walk home with.

One of the most discouraging of those eliminations- at least for those of us here- was PokerRoad Radio’s own Jimmy “Gobboboy Fricke, whose Main Event seemingly mirrored his whole 2010 Series, with a short frustrating day that led to no cash. 

Other top players eliminated during Day 1a included Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, T.J. Cloutier, David Steicke, Nick Schulman, Chino Rheem, Mike Caro, Isaac Haxton and TV’s Raymond Romano.

They say the day a poker player gets knocked out of the Main Event is their worst day of the year, and though for all but nine that day is surely coming sometime in the next two weeks, for the 819 Day 1a survivors, it happily hasn’t come yet. 

Some of the players still alive and with healthy chips heading into Day 2 of the WSOP Main Event include PokerRoad’s Court Harrington (74,700), Raymond Rahme (60,200), Dwyte Pilgrim (68,775), Scott Seiver (80,100), Maria Ho (90,700), Michael Mizrachi (142,650), Barry Shulman (113,325) and San Diego’s Corwin Cole, who currently leads them all with 228,200 in tournament chips.

Day 1b of the World Series of Poker Main Event begins Tuesday, July 6th, to catch live updates from it- powered by PokerNews- when it begins at noon PST, or to read more about Day 1a, visit www.wsop.com.