The early flights of Day 1 made it look as though this year's World Series might not be as big as last year's. Saturday called that pessimism into doubt. Today erased it completely as the Rio filled with the final flight of Day 1. By the end of it all, a calculator spit out the final number.

The 2008 World Series is being contested by 6,844 players, all fighting for the lion's share of the $64,333,600 prize pool. Of those players who started, 666 (seriously...) will walk away with at least $21,230. The last person standing--four months from now--will bank $9,119,517.

The road to that money though is a long one. Before we can even consider the final nine players who will return in November for the final table, we must get ourselves through the next couple of weeks. That means getting through the next few days. After a day of rest we will be back for Days 2A and 2B.

You will recall us mentioning before, PokerStars sent 2,008 players to the 2008 World Series Main Event. Hundreds of those players, not to mention more than a few members of Team PokerStars Pro, remain among the field going into Day 2. We can't think about what will happen in the next round of play, though, without taking a look back at what happened today.

The hallways were sweaty this morning as the final runners made their way to the Amazon, Tropical, and Brasilia rooms. Among those fighting through the crowd were Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri, Hevad Khan, and Victor Ramdin. Dario exited in the last level of the night, but Khan and Ramdin finished strong.
Those Team PokerStars Pros will join Barry Greenstein, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, Chris Moneymaker, ElkY, Joe Hachem, Noah Boeken, Isabelle Mercier, and Victoria Coren in Day 2.

David Wells

Finally tonight, we saw some special faces in the crowd. Pro baseball player David Wells UFC legend Chuck Liddell, and television producing great Sam Simon all made their way into the Rio, and unfortunately back out tonight.

Chuck Liddell

One of the greatest stories coming out of the World Series so far is the friendship between Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker and a player named Donald Hobbs. Moneymaker and Hobbs became friends last year when Moneymaker visited Hobbs in the hospital after a car crash. Since then, Hobbs has become his protege and both players are playing the main event. Moneymaker finished with a nice stack yesterday. Today, a random draw put Hobbs on the featured table alongside Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth. Hobbs exited with two minutes left in Day 1, but left with more than a few stories to tell.