After three days of Day 1 play, PokerStars has three players with more than $100,000 in chips. Out of more than 8,700 starters in the event, PokerStars still has around 1,000 qualifiers remaining, including Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, who finished Day 1C with $48,000 in chips. Visit the PokerStars WSOP Scoreboard to see the latest stats. Or see the Day 1C wrap-up for a digest of Day 1C action. Also, don't miss updates on Joe Hachem from today's action.

Raymer Makes Late Run -- Five Billion Hand Freeroller goes big

Five Billion Hand Freeroller goes big

When we met him today, he was a longshot. It's not that we didn't believe. Believing is part of what we do, after all. Still, if we were to put ourselves out as Vegas bookmakers, we might have set some long odds on Arnold Blenner finishing the day. Understand, we do believe. At the same time, we knew that some of the top professionals in the world wouldn't survive Day 1C of the 2006 WSOP. So, how could anyone bet Blenner would finish the day?

We liked Blenner from the beginning. Why? Well, he was happily here on a freeoll. And not just a freeroll. He won a freeroll from a PokerStars.net play money game. As Team Blog's Craig Cunningham wrote in his first report on Arnold Blenner:

Arnold "jwblack100" Blenner was playing one day on PokerStars.net, engrossed in one of his favorites pursuits: Pot-Limit Holdem. He'd built his 1,000 in play money up to 700,000 virtual chips over the span of several months, and he enjoyed the challenges of pot-limit as a way to wind down from a long day as a utility worker in Queens, NY. As he was playing, his table was notified that they had been selected as part of PokerStars' 5 Billionth Hand freeroll tournament. "I thought there would be thousands of people in the tournament, but I say that there were only 238 players with three seats to the Main Event," said Arnold. "When the fourth player was eliminated on the bubble and everyone was congratulating each other, I didn't think it was real. When I got a check for $1,000 from PokerStars for travel expenses, that's when I believed."

That was a breakfast-time conversation. Who knew? Seriously. Who knew that toward the end of the day, Blenner would have nearly three times the average stack in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event? He finished with $68,000. It was a rough hit, but he is still sitting in good shape.

To be sure, there would be other stacks bigger than his when the day was over. At the same time, Blenner had beat not only the odds. He had outlasted more than 1000 people in Day 1C.

In the last break of the day, Brenner took time to talk to Team Blog's Craig Cunningham. It's a story you don't want to miss.

Five Billion Hand Freeroller Arnold Blenner Riding High

Raymer makes late run

The day had been one of so little excitement on The Fossilman Front, I had almost forgotten Raymer's storybook run to the final three tables of the 2005 WSOP. I had almost forgotten the excitement of Raymer ending one important day last year with the chip lead. I had almost forgotten the heart-sucking beat he suffered to end his 2005 run.

As the night neared its end, I wandered by Greg Raymer's table. He'd managed to work his stack up from $6,000 to $17,000. While impressive, it was no reason for celebration. He didn't seem at all worried.

As I stood next to him, he kept stealing glance at the rail. There, 20 yards away, his wife stood, looking tired, but determined to sweat her man.

"I'm looking for a chance to go kiss her goodnight," Greg said. "As soon as four people limp into a pot, I'm going over there."

I offered, "I'll go tell her you'll be over as soon as you can."

"Oh, she knows," Greg said. "But what you could do is stand here while I go and yell at me when the dealer starts to shuffle."

"Sure," I said.

I figured it would be a while. Instead, Greg folded under the gun, stood, and headed for the rail.

Suddenly, I felt a little sick. What if everyone folded? What if I couldn't yell loud enough--or soon enough--to get him back? What if he lost his big blind and it was my fault?

I breathed one sigh of relief as a player limped. Then another player limped. My pancreas rose into my throat. I knew what was going to happen.

In came a raise. Panic set in. I was sure everyone else would fold and Greg would be far away. To calm myself, I took a picture of Raymer's stack.

Just as I was about to start screaming, Raymer appeared from nowhere. To be frank, his speed scared me a little bit.

"Hmmph," he said. "Back before the flop. I could've stayed longer."

I wished Greg luck and went away to less pressure-filled duties. I figured Greg would end the day with around $17,000 and have a lot of work to do in Day 2.

Maybe it was that goodnight kiss. Maybe it was the knowledge that he had showed his wife he loved her enough to potentially sacrifice his big blind. Regardless, within the next two hours, Raymer had proved me wrong again. After hitting a lucky card to crack aces, Raymer went on a tear and worked his stack up to around $50,000.

Indeed, we'll all be on Fossilman Front come Day 2.

While Blenner and Raymer were our favorite stories of the day, there were tons of great tales that jumped out from Team Blog's coverage.

Comedian Louie Anderson was playing under the PokerStars' flag today. His day had barely started before he was walking around in the hallway outside. He hadn't lost his chips. He's lost control of his mouth. As Dr. Pauly quoted Anderson:

"I didn't think I did anything wrong. I muttered it under my breath and didn't think it was loud enough that anyone heard."

(Read Dr. Pauly's Louie Anderson story here)

After recovering from his early WSOP departure and a bout with a stomach bug, Wil Wheaton came back strong today and turned out some great tales for us today. He started by begging the game of Poker to forgive him and beating himself about the head and shoulders. Why? Well, that's just what Wil does sometimes.

I looked at my calendar and said, "Hey, I just realized that I've been here twenty-one days, today!"

Pauly and Otis looked up at me like the greenhorn I am, before they turned their bloodshot eyes back to their laptops.

"You're looking really great," Pauly said, dryly. "You haven't put on any weight, you don't have that one thousand yard stare . . ." rookie.

After a long day of reflection, Wil rebounded and turned out one of the best stories of the day. Together we met PokerStars qualifier Bret Atiyeh. Alone, Wil wrote, in part...

And that's when I found out that seat three of table forty is Bret "bati99" Atiyeh. Bret is a self-made man who earned enough money to retire at the age of 39. Rather than sit on his pile of money, or have money fights with his friends, or build forts in his living room with stacks of cash[1], Bret turned his attention to poker, a passion he developed over thirty years, since he started playing in home games for baseball cards in the seventies.

Here are all Wil's reports from the day:

In my favorite headline of the day, Howard Swains found a young Italian sitting next to one of America's better-known poker-talkers. He titled it:

Indeed, the stories from the day were many. Team Blog's C.J. Hoyt once again found the tables that were full of PokerStars players. Mad Harper tracked down Barry Greenstein and a host of other qualifiers. Ali Lightman found out the Hachem family has quite a reunion going on here at the Rio. And Max Shapiro discovered there's almost most as much fictional poker going on as the real stuff. If you have some spare time, I'd suggest going back to read all the tales from the day.

Tomorrow (okay, today) we will shove aside the silly rumors and believe that Day 1D is, in fact, the final day of Day 1 play. By the time the event starts at noon, we will have finally seen all of the more than 8,600 players competing in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Perhaps the biggest news heading into Monday will be 2005 WSOP champion's Joe Hachem's entrance into the room. Ali Lightman will be on the case all day Monday and will be tracking Hachem's play all day long.

Once again, congratulations to Arnold Blenner for taking his freeroll entry into Day 2 of the WSOP.

Be sure to check out all the World Series of Poker reports on the Official PokerStars Blog.

Combined Day 1A, 1B, and 1C Chip Counts

Note: Every effort has been made to make sure of the accuracy of these chip counts. Due to misspellings on WSOP lists, there are some cases in which names may be omitted or added. We apologize for any errors.

pelletier daniel $107,850
Jonathan Carlson $106,375
Dario Minieri $103,625
John Ambrust $95,325
Cory Butler $90,250
Brian Hanson $87,025
Matthew Maroon $83,150
Philippe Boucher $82,575
Jeff Banghart $80,775
Dmitri Nobles $79,450
Erik Friberg $77,675
Sean Johnson $73,925
Rob Lederer $69,475
iago gonzalez $68,725
peter falk $67,575
David Barrie $65,200
Jonathan Diamond $64,825
manelic Minaya $64,325
peder behr $63,475
Arnold Blenner $63,400
Russell Davies $61,300
Joseph Stachowiak $60,525
Mark Gilbert $58,400
Erik Gomez $57,775
Andrew Brokos $57,300
Lindell Coker $56,050
Paul Harkleroad $55,675
Lee Thomas $54,425
Mario Rodriguez $53,400
Andreas Villand $52,600
Jesse Martin $52,450
ROBERT SANCHEZ $51,525
Kyle Bowker $51,300
Chris Ellison $51,150
Quan Tran $49,575
Greg Raymer $48,500
Jon Lane $48,100
Ivar Borthen $48,000
Scott Clements $47,825
Paul Parker $47,350
Brian Kooperman $46,625
Rene Mouritsen $46,350
Stephen Garabedian $46,300
sidney hasson $45,625
Stephen Jones $45,400
Stephen Jones $45,400
WILLIAM NORTH $45,250
Paul White $44,450
Nam Le $44,300
Jon Nakatani $43,575
mark handley $43,500
Paul Greim $43,300
scott sweesy $43,075
albert srour $42,875
leonard loder $42,800
JAMES CALDERARO $42,725
Erick Sadler $42,525
David Zeitlin $42,500
David Murray $42,325
Bartholomew Tantillo $42,200
Joseph Cordi $41,800
Timothy McBride $41,625
alan resh $41,500
Mark Donahey $41,475
Craig Schewe $41,250
Ernesto Panno $41,200
larry levine $41,175
frank watkins $40,400
yaron wasserman $40,000
RAYMOND TICSAY $39,850
Jim Osmani $39,750
Ian Baker $39,050
Tom McEvoy $39,025
Matthew Rundell $38,875
Derek Schwerzler $38,800
Jay Lewman $38,450
ken Goldin $38,300
John Ma $38,275
Adrian Pitt $38,250
danny walker $38,150
DARRYL DARE $37,975
Simon Gatty $37,775
Tom Prokopenko $37,750
Dale Philip $37,425
Seth Cohen $37,350
Alan Fidelo $37,350
Alex Brigante $37,075
Mark Owens $36,675
john hutchinson $36,350
Tim Vance $35,925
Viet Tran $35,700
Chris George $35,125
moe parvan $35,050
Neil Butterfield $34,600
David King $34,500
Brian Garelick $34,500
Dov Markowich $34,475
Vaughn Sandman $34,225
Fred Lavassani $34,000
Paul Smith $33,775
Richard LeBleu $33,675
Joel Frank $33,500
christopher wilson $33,425
Chad Griffith $33,250
Jens Thoren $32,925
Steven Sharp $32,625
Gabriel LEOST $32,450
James Mcleod $32,400
scott deppe $32,300
Andrew Lawlor $32,225
Peter Sun $32,200
mathieu weissmann $32,150
Steven Goodemote $31,950
Matt Baltz $31,350
Supot Chaimungkla $31,325
Lawrence Frye $31,250
Joe Gualtieri $30,875
Glenn Matheson $30,575
steve lustig $30,550
brett hamburger $30,325
Richard Gooding $30,300
Josh Egan $30,125
Brian Baris $30,050
Scott Mighton $30,000
Chris Dow $29,900
Keith Alter $29,450
Brian Gass $29,300
Fzdwin Spencer $29,050
Vincent Iannuzzi $29,025
Robert Sanders $29,025
Gabriel Andersen $29,000
Darren Brandes $28,850
Justin Truesdell $28,650
Aaron Coulthard $28,475
jeffrey anderson $28,350
Walter Kusiak $28,300
Will Fry $28,250
Wilhel Hardenberg $27,900
Nick Egide $27,800
Jason Morgan $27,800
Morten Sivertsen $27,200
Kelly Contreras $26,875
Jarrod Tavares $26,875
Andy Donovan $26,800
gordon savage $26,800
patrick griffin $26,750
sherry saccamango $26,475
Kyle Finn $26,275
Dylan Dupuls $26,125
Bret Atiyeh $26,075
Ronald Sax $26,000
Adam Barnes $25,900
Ryan Even $25,875
Noah Schwartz $25,850
Raphael Doromal $25,725
John Coito $25,650
Mark Ader $25,350
Rafael Comas $25,350
michael edens $25,300
dan nassif $25,250
Byron Goff $25,250
Todd Nichols $25,075
Dean Johnson $25,050
Craig Hillier $25,000
Kevin Manley $24,850
Kirk Fellows $24,850
Mark Shoichet $24,775
Katja Thater $24,550
Andres Alvarez $24,550
Gary Jones $24,525
jeff littlefield $24,200
david mcbride $24,100
shaun king $23,700
George Magdas $23,550
JIM MORRIS $23,375
christopher abts $23,250
manuel labandeira $22,950
Cesar Giralt-Rivera $22,900
Eric Lynch $22,875
Ken Justin $22,775
Qasim Tiwana $22,725
Mats Nilsson $22,675
Runar Runarsson $22,525
Paul Shoquist $22,500
Jeffrey Mermelstein $22,350
Michael Hasday $22,325
Rick Mombourquette $22,250
Greg Giannokostas $22,025
Jeff Parcher $22,000
Andrew Gunderson $21,950
Lasse Ubostad $21,850
Sam Hiatt $21,700
Alfred Meier $21,650
Dan Heimiller $21,600
Ray Uy $21,550
Shane Fumerton $21,150
Jonathan Rego $21,150
Paul Heathcote $21,100
Paul Coles $21,075
patrick joyce $20,725
Aaron Baltzell $20,700
Joshua Bird $20,500
Tom Madruga $20,375
HARRY FITZPATRICK $20,350
Randy Hanley $20,350
Josh Brenner $20,225
Gunnar Rabe $20,050
Armando Munoz-Calero $19,675
Matthias Rohnacher $19,625
Charles Villano $19,550
James Goodman $19,450
ronald nixon $19,450
Leo Wolpert $19,400
Blake Buffington $19,275
Robert Morrow $19,225
Timothy Rausenberger $19,200
steve whitman $19,150
ray ryder $19,100
Christian Foster $19,000
john pires $18,975
Donald Fagan $18,725
Luke Creigh $18,450
gary ringhofer $18,425
Norman Bryan $18,400
Layne Black $18,300
zachary slobin $18,125
Brian Jacobs $18,125
Al Stonum $18,100
sol bergren $17,875
jonathan greenhalgh $17,750
Jason Cunningham $17,500
Bruce Frank $17,450
MARK GARNER $17,450
carlos neira $17,400
Johan Kretz $16,925
Noah Boeken $16,850
Dan Finkleman $16,750
Sunil Padiyar $16,425
Jan Johannessen $16,400
Brian White $16,400
Matthew Kalish $16,050
Marcus Bower $15,875
Gary Broaddus $15,700
wade graham $15,625
Mark Hanna $15,575
Toby Atroshenko $15,550
Patrick Sullivan $15,475
Kristian Ambrosius $15,375
Ryan Vickers $15,250
shawn glines $15,225
Vincent Lin $15,175
Sumit Kumar $15,150
eugene todd $15,100
kevin tanner $15,075
keith danielsen $14,950
James Mouch $14,825
Steve Smith $14,800
Casey Tuepah $14,700
John Duthie $14,675
Jack Wooden $14,675
gus pseekos $14,650
Desmond Chan $14,650
David Creeley $14,600
David Gallello $14,250
Paul Siem $14,250
Steven Dunkelberg $14,175
mark busnardo $14,100
Doug Ednie $14,100
rodney jennings $14,075
Tammy Rocco $13,875
edward atanasio $13,775
Kevin Barcellos $13,700
John Monnette $13,500
Rosendo Perez $13,400
Nath Pizzolatto $13,350
jeff new $13,300
Craig Bunger $13,225
mike marcus $13,200
Derek Feldman $13,200
George Grady $13,100
FREDERIC HEBERT $13,100
Jay Perkins $12,925
Adam Waldbaum $12,800
Tony Petruzzi $12,775
Jon Turner $12,725
david linville $12,675
Ed Latif $12,625
Jared Lissauer $12,175
Luke Chezick $12,150
Penny Clark $12,000
reuben peters $11,800
MARK VECCHIO $11,750
Thomas Bohmer $11,625
Rob Zimmer $11,525
Junhyung Kim $11,450
Brian Chike $11,300
Neil Channing $11,125
Scott Friedman $11,125
paul fury $11,025
Michael Meredith $11,025
Maxim Dolinsky $10,950
ANTHONY RAFTER $10,700
JEFF SLAYTON $10,550
David Penly $10,450
Matthew Glassman $10,400
phil mader $10,375
Wayne Cooper $10,350
Brett Abramovitz $10,275
James Chiara $10,025
Jimmy Dowda $9,950
robert johnson $9,775
Joseph Giudice $9,750
eric miller $9,750
Deric Senne $9,750
Dustin Mele $9,500
Andrew Kent $9,450
Mikael Frisk $9,225
Richard Rashid $9,175
Phil Cooklin $8,900
Elliott Drury $8,900
John Wooton $8,675
Chris Madrid $8,600
mark talis $8,500
dave fox $8,475
Adrienne Rowsome $8,250
Alexander Mitonidis $8,075
Marek Piecha $7,950
gary lundgren $7,950
hans talstad $7,775
Christofer Lindholm $7,775
Stewart Dobbin $7,650
Brian Kent $7,650
Jeff Sluzinski $7,650
Daniel Muncan $7,525
clayton davis $7,450
robert burton $7,425
Brent Fincher $7,325
Roger Dee $7,275
David DiBiasio $7,050
Joe ebanks $6,950
Mark Judycki $6,875
John Michael $6,650
William Liming $6,650
Jeremy Ausmus $6,575
Kyle Tymeson $6,575
harinam khalsa $6,525
Ben Branden $6,275
David Sanbonmatsu $6,225
David Simon $6,225
Sam Stevens $6,025
robert green $6,000
Kyle Rose $5,975
Cameron Warren $5,700
Charles Price $5,175
Jason Lee $5,175
Mark Heintschel $4,550
josh evans $4,350
Sanjay Patel $4,225
Gustav Dahlin $4,200
David Leighton $4,000
James Olson $3,990
Michael Thomas $3,750
HECTOR GARZA $3,650
robert barnard $2,475
David Atrubin $1,125

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