Tough though it is to get to them, there are some very interesting tables here today.
Our particular favourite so far is rather a mixed bag - Sorel Mizzi, Barry Shulman, Amsterdam Master Classics winner Kristoffer Thorsson, EPT Grand Final runner up Josef Klinger, British circuit regular Rumit Somaiya and Hungarian Johnny Cash lookalike Sandor Demjan.
There's plenty of other good ones too - check these out:
- Ivan Demidov, Jani Sointula, Shannon Shorr and Tristan Clemencon
- Benny Spindler, Barry Greenstein, Max Heinzelmann and James Keys - the latter enjoying his birthday today. Happy birthday, James!
- Anton Wigg, Kevin MacPhee and Vicky Coren
- Julien Brecard, Catherine Hong, Thorsten Schafer and Konstantin Bucherl
Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren won this tournament a few years ago for a very chunky £500,000 becoming the first woman to take down an EPT. She has a tough table here though with EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee to her right, Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lim, EPT Copenhagen winner Anton Wigg and English Poker Open champion Fabian Quoss.
Coren just called a 2,000 chip bet on a but folded when her opponent fired 4,000 on the turn.
We see Bertrand Grospellier on our table draw for today, but we haven't seen him in his chair yet.
"Elky's getting a haircut, and he didn't turn up on time."
Such was overheard from a member of the PokerStars staff just a moment ago, and we'll therefore take it as fact. We'll scratch the elk from our starting list today, and we expect to see he and his freshly-trimmed mane in the building tomorrow instead.
Alongside Vicky Coren, one of the biggest home names playing today is Friend of PokerStars, Teddy Sheringham. He just picked up a pot from John O'Shea (the Irish poker player, not the Irish defender who plays for Manchester United) by betting 700 on the flop.
Fresh from coming in 5th place at EPT Vilamoura, the former England international footballer will hoping for a deep run similar to the one he had in this event last year.
"ElkY" is here, after all. His hair looks the same to us. He's just taken his seat in the two hole of the televised featured table, which we have quite literally no access to. We can see Friend of PokerStars Pierre Neuville to his immediate right, though, and November Niner John Racener is also at that table, in the five seat.
Wow, as we head towards the first break the tables are really filling up, and there are more than a few faces we recognise.
Mr Jerry Buss, owner of the LA Lakers, has just taken his seat next to online monster Chris Moorman. Also at their table are Marc Goodwin and John Juanda.
Elsewhere an interesting table has emerged as Marcel Luske has seated himself at a table with Irish Open champion Neil Channing and WSOP $5,000 PLO bracelet winner Chance Kornuth. Banter overheard at that table: Kornuth, "Want a prop bet?"; Channing, "I can't win a hand."
Roland de Wolfe might have finalled the WSOPE last night, but last night's £278k score for 4th place means nothing right now as he's already here trying to become the first person to win a second EPT.
He's not had the best of starts though, down to 21,000 and just folded to a 6,500 bet on a board on the river.
We mentioned earlier that Liv Boeree is now officially the newest member of Team PokerStars, this news coming about six months after her epic win in the largest-ever EPT San Remo last season.
Boeree is on the docket to play tomorrow's Day 1b, but we just caught a peek of her in her shiny new Union Jack patch, wandering around the floor. Any time, really, is a good time to put a photo of Liv in the blog if we're honest. We'll have much more about her tomorrow when she takes to the felt.
When we found Ivan Demidov, the board read and there was around 7,000 in the pot. Demidov was on the button, and there was a 5,100 bet in front of him.
Across the table, Tristan Clemencon was huffing and puffing about his decision. Eventually he called - but mucked to Demidov's .
Clemencon dropped to 20,250 with that. The 2008 WSOP Main Event runner up is among our bigger stacks now, with 50,000.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
but folded when her opponent fired 4,000 on the 
turn.
flop.
board on the river.
.