England's Redmond Lee is the chip leader after Day 1a at the 2009 World Series of Poker.

The biggest day of the year for poker players came and went Friday as the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event kicked off with Day 1a - the first of four starting days. For nearly half of the 1,116 players who registered for the opening day though the dream of becoming World Champion ended with an all too common refrain:

“Seat open!”

One player who heard that more than others is Redmond Lee. The 23 year old Brit ended the day with 134,275 chips which puts him in the top five of chips counts. 

The current leader is former pro hockey player Eric Cloutier who wound up with 134,275. Jean Docquier (122,755), Marcucci Gianluca (118,000) and Peter Buermann round out the top five spots. Also in good position for Day 2a are  James Navolanic (100,000), Bryan Colin (98,000), Jason Riesenberg (93,650) and Domen Pinteric ( 90,000).

“I made a really nice call into a three spot with King high on a paired board and he bet the river, he overbet the river and my King high was good,” said Lee at the end of the night. ”Aside from that, I never really got my money in behind.”

The day was originally scheduled to include five levels of play but due to the relatively small turnout the decision was made the end one level early. The following three Day 1’s will also play four levels each so that when action resumes on Day 2a and 2b all players will be at the same point in the tournament.

Four of the 51 individual bracelet winners from 2009 were in play on Friday. Vitaly Lunkin, Roland De Wolfe, Jason Mercier and Zac Fellows all showed up hoping to grab a second bracelet this summer. Fellows busted at the end of Level 3 while the other three will all return on Tuesday for Day 2a action.

The Main Event debut of online phenom Isaac Baron didn’t go quite as smoothly as he’d hoped. On a flop of J T 8 Baron called his opponents all-in and tabled 7 9 for a flopped straight. His opponent showed pocket tens for a flopped set and Baron’s moment of glee turned torturous after the J on the river gave his opponent a full house. Baron was initially shortstacked but did manage to make it through the day with 38,500 chips.

“It was pretty disappointing for my first main event to get it all in on the flop when I flopped a set and the guy has a set for a huge pot,” said Baron. “I was really pissed off so I just played tight while I cooled down a little bit.”

“After that I played pretty good, ran a couple of bluffs and got paid off on some hands a little bit.”

A number of notable players also decided to kick off their pursuit of the Main Event bracelet title on Friday. John Phan, who won two bracelets in 2008 on his way to the BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year, found his seat and almost just as quickly found the exit. Phan was the first notable player to be eliminated from play. Gavin Smith, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Dewey Tomko, Nikolay Evdakov and Mike Sexton were amongst the field on Day 1a.

The surprise performance of the day probably goes to former Seinfeld star Jason Alexander. The man who gave us George Costanza won a huge pot in the middle of the last level of play with runner-runner full house to wind up with 89,975 chips. He doesn’t consider himself to be the best Hollywooder in the field but he’s certainly ready to embrace the status - at least temporarily. 

“Let’s see where the rest of my peers are on their day two, ” said Alexander. “A triple up is good, it’s real good. It’s not record breaking by any means.”

“The nice thing is, the nice pat on the back is that I actually have been working on the game. It’s nice to see that some of it got in and paid off.”

Other celebs playing on Friday included Jennifer Tilly, Brad Garrett, Orel Hershiser and rapper Nelly.

Day 1b action gets underway at Noon PT and you can follow all the WSOP Live Updates at BluffMagazine.com.

WSOP Day 1a Unofficial Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Redmond Lee - 134,275 
2. James Navolanic - 100,000  
3. Bryan Colin - 98,000 
4. Jason Riesenberg - 93,650  
5. Domen Pinteric - 90,000  
6. Jason Alexander - 89,575
7. Dragan Galic - 88,000  
8. Lex Veldhuis - 84,000
9. Eli Elezra  83,375  
10. David Sands - 80,000

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