Things are fairly slow-paced up in the Shadow Room where the following matches are underway:
Erik Seidel vs. Frank Kassela
Andy Bloch vs. Shannon Shorr
Phil Hellmuth vs. T. Augdal
Ram Vaswani vs. Justin Smith
Will Fallia vs. Matti Lind
Matthew Waxman vs. Yevgeney Timoshenko
Viktor Blom vs. Amit Makhija
There has yet to be any significant action, but Viktor Blom has opened up a lead over Makhija, and Frank Kassela has opened up a lead winning a pot with a significant bet on the river against Seidel.
"Please not Ivey. Anyone but Ivey" might've be the thoughts going through some players minds as they were waiting for the draw. Sam Trickett ended up drawing him and his Facebook status update says everything about this young man's state of mind "Boooom! Ivey 1st round of the heads up! Let's go".
Trickett is one of the hottest players around right now and this match-up could turn into a Round One classic.
The two are feeling each other out in the early stages with Ivey just about on top. Twice he made it 500 to go from the button and twice his c-bet was enough to take down the pot.
There's more than one match downstairs and they include:
Chris Moorman v Andrew Lichtenberger
Brandon Cantu v Ben Cherif
Nicholas Wong v Scott Palmer
Stuart Rutter v Mark Everett
Roberto Romanello v Peter Gould
We're going to be getting some exercise today, as the Empire Casino has been somewhat remodelled since last year and to access the Poker Room (as opposed to the rest of the casino, where tables are filling every available space) one must now leave the casino, walk all the way around the reception area, go through another reception, through the slots area and a bar, and through the corridor into the Poker Room. There are only three tables in there, but they're all crackers, featuring the following match-ups:
Daniel Negreanu vs. Carlos Mortensen
Praz Bansi vs. Touko Takala
Dan Smith vs. Mori Eskandani
Juha Helppi vs. Rick Salomon
Jeffrey Lisandro vs. Max Steinburg
That's 12 bracelets in the room where no-one can be bothered to go to rail. Impressive.
There are no fewer than three vigorous head-area massages going on in the main area upstairs - Ilari Sahamies, Jason Mercier and Arnaud Mattern are currently being gently pummelled through the first level of the day. Mercier might be having a lack-of-sleep victory massage, while rumour has it the European circuit star Mattern may have been out celebrating his birtday last night, while as far as Ziigmund goes, it's anybody's guess.
Mattern may not be feeling too perky under his black-as-midnight aviators, but he's already opened up a 42,000 lead (his opponent John Racener therefore on 18,000). He won 4,400 of these with a bet on the river of a board which was paid off - the flash of paint was either one or two Queens (seen from across the room) but the pot moved across to him.
Arnaud Mattern is looking a little worse for wear to be honest - we're pretty sure his aviators are not just there to make him look cool today, as he was by all accounts up very late last night celebrating his birthday.
Mattern seems to have received some run-good for his birthday - while most of the heads-up-o-nauts are still on around 30,000 apiece, Mattern's decisive lead over his opponent John Racener is only extending. We witnessed Mattern losing a small one - betting out 400 on a flop and then folding to a raise to 900 from Racener - but even after dropping a few chips there, Mattern is on around 45,000 to Racener's 15,000.
After a series of preflop raises, both Phil Hellmuth and his opponent T. Augdal saw a flop. Augdal, in the big blind led out for 3,500 and after pondering for about 15-20 seconds, Hellmuth made the call.
The dropped on the turn, and once again Augdal bet, this time tossing out 6,000. Hellmuth, this time quickly made the call and the two saw the fall on the river. Augdal, took much more time before betting this time, and when he finally did he tossed out two blue 5k chips. Hellmuth went deep into the tank and picked up a plate of pasta he had sitting next to him, taking a few bites as he thought.
"I just can't see ace-high being good here," Hellmuth said, before stating that he had the nut flush draw. "If this was a bluff, it'd be a great time to show it as he folded the face up. Augdal did not show, and decided to quietly collect the large pot instead.
Phil Hellmuth was left with about 12,000, while Augdal is on about 48,000.
Whatever Ilari Sahamies was up to last night, it doesn't seem to be helping his game any today.
We just caught the very tail end of the hand, with both Sahamies and Scott Montgomery checking the river of the board. Sahamies muttered something that sounded like, "Queen," but declined to show his hand, mucking to Montgomery's full house instead.
Current score - Montgomery 40,000, Sahamies 20,000.
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board which was paid off - the flash of paint was either one or two Queens (seen from across the room) but the pot moved across to him.
flop and then folding to a raise to 900 from Racener - but even after dropping a few chips there, Mattern is on around 45,000 to Racener's 15,000.
flop. Augdal, in the big blind led out for 3,500 and after pondering for about 15-20 seconds, Hellmuth made the call.
dropped on the turn, and once again Augdal bet, this time tossing out 6,000. Hellmuth, this time quickly made the call and the two saw the 
fall on the river. Augdal, took much more time before betting this time, and when he finally did he tossed out two blue 5k chips. Hellmuth went deep into the tank and picked up a plate of pasta he had sitting next to him, taking a few bites as he thought.
face up. Augdal did not show, and decided to quietly collect the large pot instead.
full house instead.