When Troy Weber starts Day 2b he'll do so with twice as many chips as any other player in the field.

If Jeffrey Pollack and the rest of the World Series of Poker management team have anybody to thank for taking some of the attention away from the near riot at the Rio on Monday it’s got to be Troy Weber.

Weber finished the day as the overwhelming chipleader with 353,000 and is the only player to break both the 200,000 and 300,000 chip mark through all four starting days. Weber was the chipleader at the start of the final level of the night and then went about laying waste to his table to add another 140,000 to his stack.

“I told my buddy after the first break, I had 33,000, and it was just a grind. I told him the only way I could keep my sanity would be to set small goals — try to get to 40 by the second break, and by dinner maybe get to 60.” said Weber. “Really, I made some hands today. I got paid off on the hands and when I needed to keep the pot small I did and when they inflated I had it.,” said Weber.”

Weber stands alone at the top of the leaderboard but there is a chase group right behind him from Day 1d. Mikael Ay is in second with 173,900 and Mads Wissing in third with 171,000. Carter “ckingusc” King, the man charged with marijuana possession thanks to the Michael Phelps bong photo, is in fourth with 170,000. Dutch Boyd (135,000), Bertrand Grospellier (120,000) and Jesper Hougaard (135,000) all finished in the top 25 in chip counts.

The controversy that kicked off the day began to develop around 11am PT when players in line to register were told the event was sold out and they wouldn’t be able to play in the 2009 WSOP Main Event. A number of players became angry and asked to speak to either Pollack or tournament director Jack Effel. Eventually Effel met with Mike Sexton, who despite starting his Main Event on Day 1a was asked to speak on the players behalf, and Tom Franklin, one of the players shutout of the event.

Pollack addressed some of the affected players in a hastily called players meeting and apologized for being unable to accomodate all players who wanted to play in the Main Event. While there were suggestions of adding a fifth Day 1 or having players began at 4pm in the end Pollack and his team told the players that logistical issues prevented them from doing either of these. Most estimates put the number of players left out of poker’s biggest at close to 500.

Once the gather mob disappeared the focus returned to the play and the multitude of big names in the field.

The runner-up and winner from the 2008 Main Event both played on Monday withIvan Demidov busting early and Peter Eastgate finishing the night with 47,000. Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Bertrand Grospellier, JC Tran, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Jen Harman all started Day 1d and survived the five rounds of play.

Among the top pros who saw their dream of a Main Event title cut short were Dario Minieri, Jeff Madsen, David Williams and Scott Clements. Charter member of the November Nine Scott Montgomery was also ousted.

The biggest cheer in the room came when Effel announced the total prize pool. The 6,494 players in the field generated a prize pool of $61,043,600 with first place paying $8,548,435.

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