Familiar Faces

The seats are still filling in, and it looks like our crowd has grown close to 150 players. On our first pass through the room, we snagged an early list of notables.

Despite the holiday weekend — or perhaps because of it — a few familiar faces have found their way to Council Bluffs this weekend. Most notable among them is Dennis Phillips, the 2008 WSOP Main Event finalist. Phillips lives here in the midwest, and this stop was close enough to home to find a spot on his calendar. Also very notably here is Allen Kessler, the Chainsaw, who has just strolled in a few minutes late.

Chris Bell has made the trip over from North Carolina, while Bernard Lee came down from Boston to once again try his hand at this event that has treated him well historically. Lee finished in fourth place here in 2008, then bubbled the final table with a tenth-place showing two years later.

We also have a former member of the PokerNews family in the house — Garry Gates.

Last night, we saw Kevin Saul, Scott Clements, and Huy Nguyen playing cash in the Poker Room, and we'd expect to see that trio enter this Main Event, as well.

Also on the list are two of the finalists from the 2009 trip here, runner-up Dennis Meierotto and eighth-place finisher Jeff Bryan.