I wandered around the room and did not see too many faces I knew. Here's who I recognized... Mark Vos, Victor Ramdin, Kevin O'Donnell, Carl Olson, Dario Minieri, Jan Boubli, Jimmy Fricke, Luca Pagano, Noah "Exclusive" Boeken, Humberto Brenes, Roland de Wolfe, Chris Moneymaker, Barry Greenstein, Katja Thater, Masaaki Kagawa, Rob Hollink (2005 Monte Carlo winner), Max Pescatori, Fabrice Soulier, Ben Grundy, Barny Boatman, Josh Arieh, Harry Demetriou, Vicky Coren, John Shipley, and Greg Raymer.
Levels will be 90 minutes in length. Players are starting with 15,000 in chips and each day, the action will be for seven levels. The first two days (including Day 1a, Day 1b, and Day2) will be nine-handed. After Day 3, play will be eight-handed.
There are over 700 players registered for the EPT Grande Finale. Stay tuned for a complete list of the top players in today's field. By the way - we did hear a fellow by the name of Phil Ivey will be playing.
The first day of the EPT Grand Finale at the Bay Casino in Monte Carlo will be split up into two flights to accomodate the largest Championship event in the three year history of the EPT.
Stay tuned for live updates which will begin around 2pm local time.