Mikkelsen Tops Day 1B At WSOP (Update)

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Five world champs, and the contest's first blind competitor in second heat

Day1B of the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas wound to a weary finale in the wee small hours after almost 15 hours of hard fought poker as a starting field of 1 545 players tried to survive for the next round.  In a star-studded field were five former world champs and, for the first time, a blind competitor.

Those former champs - Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Tom McEvoy, Berry Johnston and Dan Harrington will all be going on to Day 2, having survived the first obstacle on their (hopeful) path to the final table and the millions that await the overall winner of the planet's biggest poker game. Other "names" that managed to stay in the hunt include motivational speaker Montel Williams, Robert Mizrachi, John Duthie, Richard Lee, Evelyn Ng, Matt Matros, David 'The Dragon' Pham, Doug Kim, Cliff Josephy and Tony G.

And of course the ultimate winner, Dag Mikkelsen all the way from Norway.

On the negative side, the eliminations included Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Justin Bonomo, Isabelle Mercier, Jeffrey Lisandro, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Paul Nobles and Kevin Saul. One of the players headed for the rail, David Singer, did not go quietly or happily following a dispute over an opponent's cellphone ringing at a crucial point in a hand. Singer's protest was overruled by floor management and his elimination stood.

Blind player Jason Holbrook finally took his seat in this event after a long drawn out debate with the WSOP organisers, where they finally relented and allowed him to play with a sighted "whisperer" at his side. Unfortunately he was eliminated in Day 1B and will not appear again in the 2007 main event.

Dag Mikkelsen ended the day with the highest chip stack on 236 000, chased by Jeff Banghart (186 200) and Albert Strickland (180 700)

The Day 1 section is now halfway through, and Day 1C has commenced on time with the unofficial count for the starting field up at just over 1 700 players. Unofficial projections on the likely total of numbers of players for this main event now hover around 6 000, substantially down from the 8 773 registered for last year's event, when Internet sponsored players were welcomed.

Early eliminations in Day 1C included two celebrity players who share their private lives, too - Phil Laak and movie actress Jennifer Tilly.

Other poker and television, sports or movie celebrities taking their seats included Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Matusow, boxing champion Antonio Tarver, Chris Ferguson, T.J Cloutier, recording artist Nelly, Brad Daugherty, Phil Gordon, J.C. Tran, and Allen Cunningham.