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July 8  |  4 a.m. ET

Moneymaker continues to inspire
Five years after coming out of nowhere to win the World Series of Poker's main event and set off the poker boom, Chris Moneymaker continues to inspire.

Just ask Donald Hobbs.

Hobbs isn't going to win the main event as he was eliminated on the last of four Day 1 heats on Sunday. But for Hobbs, it's practically a miracle he played at all.

Hobbs, a poker enthusiast, suffered terrible injuries in a car accident in 2007. Hobbs' therapist, looking to boost her patient during his difficult recovery, wrote to Moneymaker asking for an autographed photo.

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Instead, Moneymaker paid a personal visit, and later invited him to the World Series. Hobbs was energized by the visit and made marked strides in his recovery. He made it to the main event, expecting to visit, not play. But Moneymaker surprised his fan, plopping down the $10,000 for his entry fee.

We've heard that Moneymaker is a good guy, and has handled his sudden fame with class. This proves it.

For a nicely detailed look at Hobbs' story, read Haley Hintze's account on PokerNews.com here.

Some good clicks ...

July 6  |  9 p.m. ET

The day's roundup (from The Associated Press)

DAY: 4 (Officially known as Day 1D).

BIG NEWS: The top prize at the main event of the World Series of Poker will be $9.12 million this year, and 666 players will get some piece of a $64.3 million prize pool, tournament officials said Sunday.

More than one-third of the tournament’s entrants entered the no-limit Texas Hold ’em tournament Sunday, the last day players were able to register. The 2,461 players pushed the total field to 6,844 players.

There were nearly 500 more players than last year but far fewer than 2006, when a record 8,773 players entered and Jamie Gold won $12 million.

The top prize of $9,119,517 is the second largest in the main event’s history.

Tardy stragglers headed to the booths outside the main tournament room with $10,000 — mostly in cash or live casino chips — to register, get their seats and start playing.

When they started play, they faced a field of some of poker’s most elite players, including Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Gus Hansen, Phil Gordon and Men Nguyen.

STUD OF THE DAY: Donald Hobbs, 24, of Pineville, Ky., who suffered burns over more than 70 percent of his body and multiple leg fractures in a car accident in 2007, but rehabilitated enough to enter the main event on Sunday.

Hobbs’ injuries were worsened because he has hemophilia, a rare genetic bleeding disorder, but during his rehabilitation his therapist learned that Hobbs enjoyed playing and watching poker. She got word to 2003 champ Chris Moneymaker, who visited him and promised to fly him to the main event this year if he got better. He did, and Moneymaker’s sponsor, online poker site PokerStars, flew Hobbs to Las Vegas and entered him in the main event.

“I’m holding in there,” Hobbs said as Moneymaker watched him play at the start of the day. “I’m just going to ride it out and see how it goes.”

BUSTED OUT: Mixed martial arts fighter Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, poker pros Phil Ivey, David Williams, Annie Duke and Andy Bloch, actress and poker pro Jennifer Tilly.

UP NEXT: Players have an off day Monday and those who survived the first two opening days will join together and start a second session of action on Tuesday.

POKER TALK: Floating the flop: when a player calls with no hand on the flop, with the intention of bluffing an opponent out of the pot on the turn. Poker professional Phil Laak, known as an aggressive player willing to take chances with marginal hands, said Sunday that he was able to float flops against the other players at his table who were unwilling to invest in the pot without a made hand.

HE SAID WHAT?: “On a scale of one to 10 I thought it was going to look like a nine and a half. It’s like an eight. But if they see something’s funny they don’t know it’s me, so it’s huge.” — Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, explaining the disguise he used to keep opponents from recognizing him. Instead of donning his usual sunglasses and hooded sweat shirt, Laak spent all morning with a makeup artist who used a latex mask, paint and a fake mustache and beard to make the player look completely different.

July 6 | 4 a.m. ET

Year of the pros? That's misleading
So the pros are finally fighting back against the amateurs, dominating the World Series of Poker in winning 38 of a possible 53 bracelets this year. And many think that a pro will take down the big one this year, becoming the first professional rounder to win the main event since Carlos Mortensen in 2002.

“It’s the year of the pro, and I just got a feeling. I just got a gut feeling,” said three-time bracelet winner Mike “The Mouth” Matusow told the Associated Press.

While the sheer number of players involved still gives the edge to the amateurs, there are a number of reasons why Matusow could be right.

First of all, the structure of the tournament has been slowed, and the starting stacks doubled. In theory, the slower the tournament structure — i.e. more "play" — the bigger the edge for the pros.

Many pros also say they have finally begun to adjust to the style of the young Internet punks, and many pros play online now anyway.

And finally, professional Liz Lieu has another theory that makes a lot of sense. Many of the young amateurs who cut their teeth on the Internet are now pros themselves, having made successful transitions to live play. She even mentions three examples of pros who won bracelets this year who were only recently learning the game online.

If you can't beat 'em, let 'em join you right?

The side bet of the day
Professional poker player Evelyn Ng bet a journalist she could beat him at the video game Guitar Hero. The poor guy lost, and had to show up at the main event in a toga, feed Ng grapes and fan her to keep her cool whenever she was involved in a hand.

Tough gig. (See photo here)

Some good clicks ...

And a must-read ...

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