The $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event commemorating the 40th running of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) features an all-star field that includes Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey, and “Texas Dolly” Doyle Brunson. A total of 201 players took to the felts, making for a $1.8 million first place prize.

It took less than two levels for Dwan to be ousted from one of the richest poker tournaments ever held. The youngster who dominated the fifth season of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” fell victim to David “The Dragon” Pham. After a flop of 8-5-3, Dwan checked and Pham led out for 8,200. Dwan made the call to see the turn fall a deuce, putting potential straight possibilities on the board as well as diamond and club flush draws. Dwan check-raised Pham all-in and Pham promptly called, flipping up pocket kings. Dwan turned over pocket sixes, needing a four or six to stave off elimination. However, the river came the king of diamonds, ending Dwan's bid in the 40K affair.

Others eliminated during the first portion of play included WSOP November Nine member Scott Montgomery, who hit the skids after ian hour and a half of play. Seated at the same table as Dwan, Montgomery called the all-in of Scott Seiver for his tournament life on a board of A-J-2 with two spades. Seiver flipped up A-Q for top pair, while Montgomery turned over 8-7 of spades for a flush draw. The turn came the four of diamonds and the river was the nine of diamonds, sending last year’s Main Event final table participant to the rails. He finished in fifth in the 2008 feature tournament, earning $3.1 million.

Bodog Poker pro Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo raced to the top of the leader board during the first two levels, doubling up at the expense of Per Magnus Ummer. On a board of 10-9-2-6-3, Ummer led out for 50,000 and Bonomo shoved for 13,000 more. Ummer made the call only to see Bonomo reveal pocket twos for a flopped set. Ummer mucked, sending Bonomo’s chip stack to nearly 250,000. Also making waves early on was Phil Laak, who doubled up with pocket eights against James Calderaro’s pocket kings after flopping a set.

The field of 201 runners included a bevy of online poker players, including WSOP bracelet winner Corwin “mig.com” Mackey, World Poker Tour (WPT) Season VII Borgata Poker Open champion Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, WSOP bracelet holder Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis, WPT Season VI Player of the Year Jonathan “Fiery Justice” Little, and WPT Season VII Bellagio Cup champion Mike “SirWatts” Watson. Also present were Steve “gboro780” Gross, the top player on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, and Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier, a former winner of the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed.