WORLD POKER OPEN MAIN EVENT

The 7th annual World Poker Open kicked off today with 327 players. That was nearly 200 fewer players than last year's WPO main event won by John Stolzmann, but nobody was complaining about the size of the field. With nearly $1 million going to 1st place, who would say anything negative about fewer people being between them and big money? Among those 327 players were some of the biggest names in the game today. Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, Josh Arieh, Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Sam Farha, Gavin Smith, Erik Seidel, Michael Mizrachi, John D'Agostino, Humberto Brenes, Hoyt Corkins, TJ Cloutier, and Amir Vahedi were just some of the names on the big board at the start of the day. There were still plenty of relatively unknown players, however, keeping things interesting - and aiming to take the big guns down.

Within the confines of the first level one of the biggest names - WSOP Tournament of Champions winner Mike Matusow - made his exit when his A-K hit top pair on an A-2-2 board but ran into A-A. Daniel Negreanu followed Matusow out the door quickly, as did Steve Zolotow and JC Tran. By the end of the third level the ranks of the busted included Phil Ivey, Gregg Merkow, and Samuel "Slade" Whitt. Not much later Erick Lindgren lost with a full house to a bigger full house, and David Williams' A-Q lost out to Hasan Habib's T-8. The ranks of the eliminated swelled as the day neared its end, and no one's reputation alone was enough to save them.

When the day ended only 163 players remained. While plenty of big names were gone, plenty of big ones remained. Gavin Smith, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, CardPlayer magazine publisher Barry Shulman, and Sam Farha all finished in the top 20, while John Bonetti, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Scotty Nguyen, Todd Brunson, John D'Agostino, and Las Vegas legend Bob Stupak all made it through to Day Two. Also worthy of note were the more "unknown" players who survived, including online pro Mark Kroon, tournament grinders Marc Aubin and Doug Carli, last year's out-of-nowhere WPO champion John Stolzmann, and local player (and Day One chipleader) Dale Morrow.

When it was all said and done, Day One was what it always is - a prelude to the big show, the separation of the wheat from the chaff, the process that allows the cream to rise to the top. Whether the names at the top of today's chip count will still be there at this time tomorrow is something that only another day of tournament poker will decide. The only sure thing is that Day Two is also only a prelude on the way to a million-dollar payday.