Crain Leads Day 1; Bloch, Seiver & Lindgren Bag Respectable Stacks
Nearly nine hours ago Event #8 $2,500 Eight-Game Mix of the 2013 World Series of Poker kicked off as 388 players packed the White Section of the Pavilion Room for eight levels of play. By the end of the night, approximately 192 remained with Eric Crain and his stack of 69,925 leading the way.
The turnout was down from last year��s 477��not too surprising considering all the events taking place at the Rio over the weekend��but there was still a sizeable prize pool of $882,700 up for grabs. That will be distributed to the top 40 finishers with a healthy $225,104 reserved for the eventual winner.
So how did the jovial Crain get all his chips? Well some of them came in Level 3 off a mistake that happened while playing no limit hold��em. It took place on Table 101 on a flop of 
with 1,400 already in the pot. Crain, who was in the hijack, check-called a bet of 725 from the player in the cutoff. After the dealer burned and turned the 
, Crain checked and the cutoff bet 1,375.
Crain splashed out some chips in an attempt to raise, but it wasn't enough to constitute a legal one. Instead it was counted as a call and the 
was put out on the river. Crain checked for a third time and watched his opponent bet 2,350.
"I was trying to raise the turn," Crain explained before calling and tabling the 
for a pair of aces. His opponent seemed a bit disgusted and mucked his cards.
Obviously not everyone was as fortunate as Crain. Among those to hit the rail were Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Matt Glantz, Alexander Kostritsyn, Daniel Negreanu, Brian Hastings, Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein and last year��s champ David ��ODB�� Baker.
The exact details surrounding Baker's demise escaped us, but we do know that he was crippled by Allen Kessler, who had made a flush on a 
board in a hand of Stud in Level 7. A few minutes later Baker was dispatched while playing the same game against Thomas "Thunder" Keller, who you may remember as the man who defeated Martin De Knijff heads up in the 2004 WSOP Event #13 $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $382,020. We're not sure of Baker's hand but we do know Keller had made an ace-high diamond flush.
Last year��s champ may have fallen, but last year��s runner-up, Greg ��FBT�� Mueller, managed to survive with 20,200. Could he possibly redeem himself and finish one spot better? The possibility still exists.
Others still in contention for the top prize are Neal Friets (50,425), Marco Johnson (46,825), Kai Chang (44,150), Andy Bloch (36,525), Kyle Bowker (36,000), Scott Seiver (35,275), Erick Lindgren (34,825), Paul Volpe (28,400) and Phil Ivey (18,550), just to name a few.
The remaining players will return for Day 2 action on Monday at 2 p.m. PST. They��ll be playing in the Amazon Room, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action straight from the tournament floor.