Deevara Bags 466,000 to Take Chip Lead as 74 Advance from Day 1b
The 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans Main Event continued on Sunday with Day 1b action. The tournament floor was packed as 446 players turned out for their shot at the last $1,675 Main Event of the season. After 16 levels of play, Rahul Deevara emerged as the Day 1b chip leader with 466,000, which is quite a bit more than the 313,000 of Day 1a chip leader Ben Mintz.
Combined with the 316 runners from Day 1a, the Day 1b field brought the total number of entries up to 762, which created a prize pool of $1,143,000 that will be distributed to the top 81 players with $228,600 and a seat into the National Championship reserved for first.
Deevara didn’t start making waves until Level 10 (400/800/100) when he hit the century mark in chips. Deevara got those chips after his 
overcame the 
of an unknown and clearly upset opponent. It appeared to be a preflop confrontation, but whatever the case, the board read 
and Deevara took down a large pot.
From there, Deevara moved past the 200,000-chip threshold after winning a large pot off of WSOP Circuit Foxwoods Main Event champ Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul. It happened in Level 13 (700/1,400/200) when Deevara fired out 32,500 on a board of 
and Saul made a puking noise while calling. Deevara showed 
for a set of tens and Saul sent his cards into the muck.
Speaking of Saul, he played in interesting hand earlier in the day in which he couldn’t tell the difference between a purple T500 chip and a gray T5,000 chip. It happened when there was approximately 5,000 in the pot and a board reading 
. A player in middle position bet 1,700, Saul called from the cutoff and the 
turned. This time the middle-position player checked and then moved all in for 8,900 after Saul bet 2,700. It wasn't much more to Saul, who had a mountain of chips, but he took his time. The other players at the table eyed him carefully until he eventually folded.
"I think I know what happened there," Circuit regular Kenny Milam said. "Did you think those were grays?"
Just like that the light bulb went off for Saul. "I thought he shoved for 35,000 or something," he said. Saul, who claimed to have folded ace-jack, seemed a little disappointed at first but soon let it go. "It's alright. The lighting in here is bad. You guys did the right thing by not saying anything during the hand."
To his credit, the lighting up on the stage wasn’t the greatest so it's an understandable mistake. Despite that minor setback, Saul advanced to Day 2 with a stack of 65,000.
Unfortunately not everyone was as fortunate as Deevara and Saul. Among those to hit the rail were Alek Masek, Andy Philachack, Valentin Vornicu, La Sengphet, Mark Bonsack, David Clark, Joe Tehan, Nancy Birnbaum, Rex Clinkscales, David “ODB” Baker, Preston Derden, Allen Kessler, Ray Henson and "Boston" Rob Mariano.
As many people know, the hit TV show Survivor has been entertaining viewers for 13 years and 26 seasons. One of the stars of that show was Mariano, who played four seasons in which he found love on the show (he married his wife Amber and has since had three daughters with her) and even won $1 million (he won Survivor: Redemption Island). Unfortunately "Boston" Rob couldn’t add a poker title to his résumé.
Mariano was eliminated in Level 14 (800/1,600/200) when a limped preflop pot saw action explode on an 
flop. Mariano got the last of his chips in the middle against Ashly Butler, who won a ring back in the IP Biloxi Event #5: $365 No-Limit Hold'em for $13,850, with the former holding 
and the latter 
. Mariano got it in good, but a 
on the turn gave Butler the straight and a guaranteed win.
Mariano made a quiet exit from the tournament floor, but given the recent crossover between Survivor and poker (i.e. Amanda Kimmel's transition into the poker world and Daniel Negreanu's desire to "Outwit, Outplay and Outlast") it's probably not the last time we'll see “Boston” Rob on the tournament trail.
While many fell, a few notables managed to punch their ticket to Day 2 including Daniel Weinman (373,000), Claudia Crawford (313,000), Jonathan Taylor (210,000), Eric Mata (200,000), Rob Salaburu (171,500), Robert Cheung (148,000), Joseph McKeehen (130,000) and Joe Kuether (465,00)
While just 51 players advanced from Day 1a, 74 players advanced from Day 1b. All 125 of those players will return at 1200 CST on Sunday, so join us then from Harrah's New Orleans.