While the vast majority of players here at the Bar Poker Open Florida World Championship are from the United States, a maple leaf was spotted on the shirt of one Richard Anderson.
Anderson told PokerNews that he made the journey to the West Palm Beach Kennel Club for the event after qualifying through the Pocket Aces Poker League in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
Anderson, who has been playing poker for over 40 years was the lone representative of his home club and is looking for a win in the event that would surpass his previous high career poker win of $43,000 when he hit the bad beat jackpot at Seneca Niagara Casino several years ago.
The PokerNews live reporting team was just alerted to a wild hand that saw Linda Fuchs earn a double-up and then some in the most unlikely of scenarios.
As told by her very excited tablemates, Fuchs raised to 5,000 and was called by Jolanda Tedford and Bill Murphy.
The flop came K♥Q♠J♥ and first to act, Fuchs continued for 15,000. Tedford called and Murphy committed his final 9,000 chips.
Before the 10♥ turn, Fuchs moved her last 4,900 in blind and got called by Tedford.
Linda Fuchs: K♦K♣
Jolanda Tedford: Q♥Q♣
Bill Murphy: J♠J♦
It was an incredible set-over-set-over-set situation that held up on the river 8♠ as Fuchs boosted her stack significantly and also now has quite a story to tell.
Samantha Skelly, who the PokerNews live reporting team noticed had one of the more unique card protectors in the room of a tiny balloon animal dog just alerted us to a big hand which has seen her stack blow up to six figures.
Skelly told us that she ran into the dream situation where she picked up aces versus her opponent's kings for a huge all-in preflop confrontation for just over 40,000 chips each.
Skelly's aces held and her little pink balloon dog has a lot more chips to hang out with now.
The first break of the day has arrived with 256 entries so far, with alternates still being called to fill the jam-packed palm Beach Kennel Club poker room.
Upon their return, players will come back to blinds of 300 / 500 with a 500 big blind ante.
There are plenty of poker-playing characters here at the Bar Poker Open Florida World Championship, and throughout the weekend we'll take a look at some of them.
We caught up with "DJ Vinny" Vincent Teutonico while he was taking an unscheduled break at the bar after busting his first bullet.
Teutonico earned his nickname thanks to his longtime history in the music game as a DJ since 1977. Teutonico still spins the ones and twos, having recently done a gig in Hawaii, with most of his sets coming in the Staten Island area.
"DJ Vinny" qualified for the event via the BPO Staten Island chapter, and while his earned first bullet may have evaporated, he'll be back in after the upcoming break with his available $365 re-entry.