There were 162 players who began the day at Foxwoods, the site of the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Finals. At the conclusion of five levels of play, 97 players remained in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Among them were a bevy of PocketFivers, including some of the top online poker pros in the world. Play will continue on Thursday with Day 1B and then the survivors from the two starting days will combine for Day 2 on Friday. In the sea of poker stars at Foxwoods is Court Harrington, Tournament Reporter for PocketFivesLive.com, which provides the best WPT coverage of online poker players. Let’s review the action from the World Poker Finals, which will air on Fox Sports Net as part of Season VII of the WPT.

Jason JP_OSU Potter (pictured) finished play on Day 1A holding 183,825 chips, the largest stack in the room. He finished 14th in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2007 World Series of Poker, cashing for $31,920. He won a $300 buy-in event at a WSOP Circuit stop at Caesars Indiana last October for $52,986 and finished fourth in the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Challenge in March for $103,030. That tournament was ultimately taken down by Lee Markholt. Two weeks ago online, he won the $69 buy-in, $40,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker for over $12,000. He also finished fourth in the Nightly Hundred Grand on PokerStars for $11,880 in August.

PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington has been roving the halls of Foxwoods covering the action. He commented, “Jason has been putting up solid results in tournament after tournament and is off to a great start here in Foxwoods. He has positioned himself perfectly going into Day 2.” Potter was the chip leader for much of the day and sent fellow PocketFiver Steve stevesbets Jacobs home in a set over set situation holding pocket queens against Jacobs’ pocket tens after a flop of Q-10-2, adding to Potter’s already healthy stack.

Steve gboro780 Gross (pictured) holds the third largest stack in the room with 145,025. He finished ninth in the $1,000 rebuy tournament (Event #5) during the 2008 WSOP, banking $57,881 for his efforts. In a $2,800 buy-in preliminary event last year at Foxwoods, he took second to Arthur Peacock and cashed for nearly $100,000. The sixth best player in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, Gross won the Nightly Hundred Grand on PokerStars in August for $33,589. One week later, he won the $1K Monday on Full Tilt Poker for over $64,000. In the twilight hours of July 4th, 2008, he won both the $30,000 and $20,000 Guaranteed tournaments on Full Tilt Poker.

Another familiar PocketFiver who took to the felts at the World Poker Finals on Day 1A was Kevin BeL0WaB0Ve Saul (pictured). The champion of the World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup III, Saul sat with a stack of 135,350 to end the first of two starting days. He cashed in two preliminary events at Foxwoods in 2006 that combined for over $150,000. A two-time Monthly PLB winner, Saul is ranked seventh on PocketFives.com. On the virtual felts, he notched a pair of six-figure cashes during the ninth Full Tilt Online Poker Series and has outright victories in the Full Tilt $55,000 and $40,000 Guaranteed tournaments.

Harrington described Saul’s run through Day 1A: “Kevin had control of his table all day and was able to pick up a lot of chips without going to showdown. He has proven that he has the ability to go wire to wire in major poker tournaments and his active style of constant aggression can be nearly impossible to deal with when he is on his game.”

With an average chip stack of right around 50,000, here are several PocketFivers who remain in the World Poker Finals and will return for Day 2 on Friday:
Jason JP_OSU Potter - 183,825
Steve gboro780 Gross - 145,075
Kevin BeL0WaB0Ve Saul - 135,350
Jonathan FieryJustice Little - 131,400
Matt All In At 420 Stout - 72,475
Jeff YoungSupremacy Hakim - 63,500
Jon pokertrip Friedberg - 63,250
Brent bhanks11 Hanks - 59,075
Jim P0KERPR033 Campbell - 47,050
Adam A_Junglen Junglen - 41,150
Boris fratboy247 Kravets - 31,875
Christian charder Harder - 22,600

The top ten overall chip stacks after Day 1A are:
1st Place: Jason Potter - 183,825
2nd Place: Vadim Trincher - 163,600
3rd Place: Steve Gross - 145,025
4th Place: Jonathan Jaffe - 141,000
5th Place: Kevin Saul - 135,350
6th Place: Jonathan Little - 131,400
7th Place: Will Failla - 124,800
8th Place: Daniel Grubbs - 116,850
9th Place: Bill Parker - 113,100
10th Place: David Pham - 109,200

PocketFivers sent packing on Wednesday included:
Joe JoeSebok Sebok
Mike GoLeafsGoEh Leah
Noah 4uhaters Schwartz
Shaun shaundeeb Deeb
Thayer THAY3r Rasmussen
David DavidP18 Peters

The Foxwoods World Poker Classic will crown a champion on Tuesday, November 11th. Check out all of the action from Day 1B, which begins at 12:00 Noon ET, on PocketFivesLive.com, your source for WPT coverage.