A few more tables are forming over in the orange section, and they look to be some of the toughest in the tournament.
Barbara Enright is over there, sharing a table with Victor Ramdin. Another table features the mighty Brock Parker and for some reason rather sleepy-looking Allie Prescott. On another table, Noah Boeken, Lauren Kling and Barry Greenstein are waiting for a few more players to turn up so they can get going.
But the blue section just keeps on swelling, too - new arrivals there include Lisa Parsons, Rui Cao, Roberto Romanello, Bill Chen and Cristiano Blanco.
With circa 500 in the middle, Bill Chen sees a flop from the big blind, and raises the small blind's lead of 50 to 100. An early position player then raises again; just Chen calls.
The turn is the and Chen check-calls a single bet, before checking-calling again on the river. "Aces," announces his foe confidently before showing . Chen turns face-up as the pot sails in the opposite direction.
Towering above the table with two seats stacked on top of each other ("Iz good for zi back," he claims, in his familiar Dutch twang that sounds nothing like how I wrote it), Flying Dutchmen and Team PokerStars pro Marcel Luske is beginning to gather speed by raking in a few small pots.
On his last encounter, he limped under the gun before seeing a three-way flop of with the button and the small blind. The small blind bet, Luske raised to 100, and both opponents called. Luske then took it down with a single bet on the turn before flashing what I believe was the .
Meanwhile, fellow countryman and 2008 bracelet winner Rob Hollink is plugging away quietly a few tables down. He currently has around his starting stack.
Matt Hawrilenko has brought some entertainment to his table in the form of a book on his ipad - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, for those who are interested in what top pros read at the table.
He confessed to his tablemates that he doesn't really know how to play 10-handed, so brought a book along to amuse himself while he learns.
With a near five million in tournament winnings and a record that would induce RSI if scrolled through, Dewey Tomko is perhaps one of the most underrated players in the game, and a dark hose for snapping up a bracelet. Today, he's giving limit a go, and is currently residing on a table in the very centre of the quadrant.
Passing through, I spotted Tomko engulfed in a hand, calling an UTG+1 raise preflop from middle position and reaching a three-way flop along with the big blind. The initial aggressor continuation bet, but then checked down a turn and river upon receiving two callers. In the end, it was the big blind who took it down, showing to scoop a small, but handy pot.
Phil Gordon and Stefan Rapp have been tangling in what amounts to a fairly serious way, for level 1.
Phil Gordon was the opening raiser, and Rapp reraised; Gordon called and they went heads up to the flop.
Gordon checked in the dark but called a bet from Rapp; Gordon checked again on the turn and this time Rapp checked behind. The river was the and Gordon check-called another bet from Rapp. They turned their cards over.
Rapp:
Gordon:
"You checked the turn?" said Rapp incredulously.
"I was gonna check-raise you," Gordon lamented as the pot went to Rapp.
The back-and-forth between them continued, as Gordon told Rapp about a limit hand he'd once played, where he'd had his opponent so tilted that he got 27 bets in after the queen-high, rainbow flop. Gordno was holding pocket queens to his opponent's . The turn was a king, the river a jack, making his opponent a Broadway straight.
Maria Ho, who went deep in the 2007 Main Event, is one of few female players to have taken their seat here today. Ho's enjoyed a solid start, four-betting preflop before being called on all three streets of an board. You'd assume she was ahead all the way, but her foe flipped to signify that he'd been pipped to the post on the river.
In the absence of Phil Hellmuth, who remains entwined in his battle for bracelet gold across the other side of the room, several players have trickled in fashionably late, the likes of Roberto Romanello, Cristiano Blanco, Bill Chen, Michael Craig and Flying Dutchman Marcel Lukse all taking their seat.
Also in the thick of the action is Justin Bonomo: I just saw get three streets of value with on an board, his defeated foe check-calling all the way throwing his hand into the muck on the river.