Working from a very short stack ($7,500 with the blinds at $1,500-$3,000), Gordon pushes all-in and offers to pay $2 for his opponents to fold their hands.  Luckily for Phil, Devilfish Ulliot did not take him up on the deal and Gordon goes up to $19,000 when his K7 makes a full house versus Devilfish's A7 on a board of AKQK7.

Tony Lay is all-in preflop with AQ versus Scott Lychwick's AJ.  Lychwick fails to improve and Lychwick is eliminated in 55th place.  Lay ends the hand with $85,000.

Phil Gordon raises to $9,000 under the gun, and Michael Miller reraises another $20,000.  Gordon calls and both players see the flop of J62.  Gordon puts his opponent all-in for a remaining $35,000.  Miller calls with AQ with no pair and no draw.  Miller needs an A or a Q to survive.  When the Q hits the turn, Gordon says, "All you can do is put your chips in when you are 75% to win..." A 5 on the river fails to improve Gordon's hand leaving him with $9,200.

Day 1 of the $1,500 No-Limit Texas Hold'em event at the 37th World Series of Poker comes to an end with 122 surviving players at 13 tables, all earning at least $4,500.  The day started with 2,726 players.  The tournament resumes Wednesday at 2 p.m.  The $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event begins Wednesday at noon - check back at CardPlayer.com for in-depth coverage of both events.

World Champion Phil Hellmuth, Jr. tells another World Champion, Juan Carlos Mortensen, "I've been waiting for three hours for one of these guys to make a mistake and every time they do something goofy, it works out."

With $20,000 already in the pot, the flop comes J42. Both players check and the turn comes 9. John Bonetti bets $20,000 into the pot and Mike LaBonte goes into the tank for a solid 3 minutes before finally pushing all-in for an additional $12,300.  John Bonetti calls and flips over QJ while Mike LaBonte flips over A J.  The river brings a 6 and John Bonnetti does not improve.  Mike LaBonte doubles up and John Bonetti takes a big hit to his chip stack during the final minutes of play.

Jean Robert Bellande, who busted from the tournament three hours ago, returned to join Steve Dannenmann along the rail around Carlos Mortensen's table to tell Tuan Le how Mortensen knocked him out of the tournament.  All four players shared a laugh with around 10 minutes left on day one of the event.

Carl Olsen raises $4,400 under the gun.  An opponent in middle position goes all-in and Olsen makes the call.  Olsen shows AQ and his opponent shows JJ.  The board misses Olsen and he loses a large pot to his opponent, who increases his stack to $24,400.

Eric Froehlich raises to $5,000 in late position.  Greg Raymer calls from the big blind.  The flop comes Q73.  Raymer checks and Froehlich goes all-in.  Raymer calls and showed 77 for a set.  Froehlich shoes AK.  The turn and river come J and J.  Raymer doubles up to $32,200 while Froehlich falls to $27,800.