Day 1B of 2009 WSOP Main Event About to Get Underway

The Amazon Room is filling up for Day 1B of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. (Bodog Beat Image)"]

While the Amazon Room fills up with more hopeful poker players, lets review a little of what happened yesterday for Day 1A of the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

When all was said and done, 1,116 players ponied up their $10,000 buy-ins to play in poker's biggest event. That number is down about 150 from last year, so right out of the gate ti looks like the downward rend has been confirmed. Extrapolate it out and the total falls far short of the 5,000 mark. However, as we all know more players tend to play at the last minute, jamming the final two starting days.

There were several notable players among the Day 1B survivors, including actor Jason Alexander, international cricketer Shane Warne, poker pro Lex Velduis, Eli Elezra, John Hennigan and probably a bunch more that we overlooked while scanning the list of 821 players who made it out of the first minefield on the road to the November Nine.

The US national anthem just played in honor of July 4th and poker legend Doyle Brunson did the "shuffle up and deal" honors, so Day 1B is officially underway.

Odd sidenote: They've been playing American classic rock all WSOP long as the dealers prepare and the players come in. Today, on July 4th of all days, they played a medley of old U2 songs. Better music, but odd choice.

Stay tuned for more 2009 WSOP live updates.

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