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It's only 50/100 but the chips are already flying! Nick Schulman is one who has lost half of his stack in the first level after running into an opponent's full house.
Schulman fired 1,150 on the flop, 3,500 on the turn and 8,000 on the river on a board of 
. His opponent called along before shoving all in for an additional 10,200 on the river.
Schulman went into the tank but gave it up as his opponent showed 
. Schulman is down to 15,000.
ESPN's cameras swarmed Greg Raymer's table, as he moved all-in for 23,225 on a 
flop. His opponent in the three seat made the call with 
for middle set, while Raymer tabled 
for top pair and a flush draw.
I liked my chances better before the turn," Raymer said as the 
fell.
The river was the 
and Raymer shipped all but 1,200 of his chips across the table. A disastrous start indeed for the 2004 Main Event Champion.
Over in the blue section of the Amazon Room we find a table that is the most stacked of what we've witnessed so far.
Team PokerStars Pro Switzerland member Anton Allemann is seated alongside Friend of PokerStars Pierre Neuville.
However it is multiple bracelet winner Dutch Boyd who most will be afraid of as he is in potentially career best form with a bracelet this summer and also an additional two cashes to his name.
Throw in online player Anthony 'D1rtyR1v3r' Nardi and Peter Feldman, and this will definitely be a table to watch!
Thus far we've spotted Vitaly Lunkin, Mike Caro, T.J. Cloutier, Dwyte Pilgrim, Andy Black, Johannes Strassman, Kirill Gerasimov, "Action" Bob Hwang, Randy "nanonoko" Lew, David Sklansky, Nikolay Evdakov, Juha Helppi, Eric Kohlmann, Maria Ho and Ray Romano. Yes, that Ray Romano.
Under the gun, Chino Rheem raised to 250. He found three calls including the small blind, and the four players went off to a flop.
It came 
, and Rheem continued out with a 650-chip bet. This time he found just two callers as the small blind check-folded, and it was three-handed to the turn. Chino checked this time, and the player in middle position bet 900. The next player called before Rheem snuck in a check-raise to 3,000 straight. Both of his opponents called.
That brought them to the 
river, and Chino fired out 4,400. That folded one player, but the last opponent made the call to see a showdown.
Chino knocked the table in that surrendering way, and his opponent showed him 
for the set of fours. It was easily good from the looks of it; Chino mucked his hand, and he's down to 22,100 early.
A few years ago you'd see all sorts of wacky outfits at the WSOP. It seemed like half of the field was trying to out-do the rest of the field in terms of vying for attention -- from player, from staff, from railbirds and of course from ESPN.
Times have changed in 2010. On our first pass through Orange (which is admittedly not entirely full yet), we saw only one person wearing anything which remotely says, "Pay attention to me." The rest have their heads down, sunglasses on and are training their focus on the cards and the play at their tables.
The WSOP Main Event often reaches beyond just poker players. Just a quick browse of half of the Blue section in the Amazon Room there's two faces that we were surprised to see peeking down at holecards. First, we spotted David Alan Grier. The other day, Grier came in during the $25,000 6-max event and met Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu. For being such a star in his own right, Grier was extremely humble and star struck by the two men he claimed to be his favorite poker players on the planet.
Just one table over from that is NBA basketball star Shawn Marion. Formerly with the Phoenix Suns and now with the Dallas Mavericks, Marion is taking a page from Jordan Farmar of the Los Angeles Lakers, who took to the Main Event felt last year. Marion attended the University of Nevada-Las Vegas where he played before heading to the NBA.
On our first patrol of the orange section of the Amazon Room we've spotted the following notables amongst the sea of amateurs:
Beth Shak, Thierry van den Berg, Timothy Finne, Joy Houston, Michael Mizrachi, Fatima Moreira De Melo, Roman Yitzaki, Lacey Jones, Isaac Haxton, Andre Akkari, Thord Hanson, Rob Hollink, Luke Staudenmaier, Steve Wong, Peter Gelencser, Dewey Tomko, Jordan Morgan, Dan Makowsky, Nick Schulman, Tiffany Michelle and Mark Gregorich.
WSOP Lesson #1: Protect your hole cards at all times.
On the first hand at Table 3, a bit of commotion broke out. Parviz Razavian was under the gun, and he didn't really take full possession of his cards. As a result, the deale reached over and mucked his hand after pitching the cards. Razavian was confused. He complained to the dealer, and the dealer said that the cards were out in front of the player as if he had folded.
David Gray spoke up from across the table. "Well, if that's where you dealt them..." he trailed off. "Only take them if you're sure." There was some discussion about calling the floor, but Razavian and the rest of the table decided to continue on with the hand. "That probably cost you the Main Event," Gray said tongue-in-cheek.
No strangers to WSOP final tables, we find Barry Shulman and Kevin Schaffel eyeing each other off from across the table.
Shulman of course recently won the WSOP Europe Main Event to go along with his fourteen previous WSOP cashes and one bracelet.
Schaffel was part of the 2009 November Nine and finished a gallant eighth for a cool $1.3 million. Schaffel has already recorded one cash this series, but hopefully after a few long days of poker, he'll have another on his poker CV.
