Well, they're off - and it's a tight squeeze out there.
PokerStars are running the mother of all poker festivals here this week. In total, there are 37 - yes, 37 - events running with something to suit every pocket. The tournaments on offer range from a £100+£10-for-charity tournament with an incredible £100,000 guarantee, all the way up to the £20,000 High Roller event.
All this means that poker tables have been squeezed into every available space in the Hilton ballroom, leaving a small cluster of bloggers and photographers in one corner of the room, wondering how they're going to squeeze through to the centre tables. And good luck to any players who feel they have to move around outside of break times.
Nevertheless if you've a sum of money to burn on a poker tournament, this is absolutely the best place on earth to be this week.
As another reminder that we're not at the WSOPE anymore, final preparations are still being made to the tournament area about 15 minutes after our scheduled starting time. Part of the problem is that there are about 350 players in the room looking for their chairs. It's a big field here on Day 1a.
Tournament Director Thomas Kremser has called the players to their seats, but there are still a few administrative things to take care of, and a few forms to be filled out in triplicate.
This shouldn't take too much longer; we just wanted to make sure you know we haven't forgotten about you out there. Sit tight... we'll be back with the shuffle up and deal at some point soon.
There is no rest for the wicked, or for poker players it seems. One festival (the WSOPE) finishes across town just as another, the 2010 EPT London, begins.
In the old fairy tale, Dick Whittingon moved to London when he heard that the streets were paved with gold, but were he to win EPT London, then maybe he would not be able to pave every street with gold but certainly he would be able to make sure his bathroom isn't too shabby. He would be following in the footsteps too of Aaron Gustavson who last year took home the title and £850,000 first place prize ahead of Team Pokerstars Pro Peter Eastgate.
The Danish former world champion may have since retired from PokerStars, but Liv Boeree was announced yesterday as their newest Team Pro and will be making her debut here at her hometown event.
Last year's event got a massive 730 runners and judging by the size of the fields for the smaller events, we're expecting a huge turnout once more. The general feel within the Hilton hotel makes it feel more like the Rio for the WSOP than anything else as poker chatter is all you can hear, but it is possible that this year's field could be even bigger. In fact, the staff is optimistic of breaking all records for the largest tournament ever held in the UK.
Play starts at 12:00 p.m. local time -- roughly a half hour from now -- and we'll be bringing your all the news from the first riffle to the last river card.
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