So far, the Amazon room seems oddly calm. The Players are starting to filter in and are taking their seats. It is very orderley and free flowing. There are THOUSANDS of players, however you would not know it by the way it is being managed. This is a fantastic turnaround from the chaos of the opening $1500 event.
Today's field is so huge that you can walk past several tables without seeing a familiar face, but Table 204 has two of them side-by-side--J.C. Tran and David Plastik.
Jan Von Halle is in the field today, and has less than three hours to build himself a stack before returning to play Day 2 of Event #13, the $5,000 pot-limit hold'em World Championships, where he'll start play third in chips.
On his very first hand, Gregory Grivas had pocket sevens. He bet out 100 and one opponent called. He made a set on a flop of 7-2-4, pushed all-in and his opponent called. Grivas turned over his sevens and his opponent showed pocket fours. A blank came on the turn and Grivas was feeling good. His feeling was short lived when a four fell on the river, giving his opponent quads and sending Grivas out the door.
While it's a wee bit early to be handicapping today's massive tournament based on the run of play, John Juanda figures to be a favorite in any field. The 3-time bracelet holder is playing in today's event and has already more than doubled his stack to 3,500.
Walking through the field we spotted 1983 World Champion Tom McEvoy taking down a pot. William Hill, who made the final table in the 1,500 Pot-Limit event, is playing today. As are Per Ummer, Matthew Hilger, and Don Zewin