[user155]
Rio
Poker fans and media of the world, get ready. In just a few hours, the 2008 World Series of Poker kicks off in a big way -- with the first event being nothing less than the $10,000 World Championship Pot-limit Hold'em event.
All the stars will be out early today in what should be a smallish but very elite field, so keep it locked here on PokerNews, the exclusive live reporting team on the floor here at this year's World Series of Poker.
[user25067]
UNLV Band
The UNLV marching band has just filed into the Amazon Room playing-- what else-- "Viva Las Vegas"-- to kick of the WSOP festivities. Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and Tournament Director Jack Effel have taken the stage to make their opening remarks.
[user37786]
During the opening announcement WSOP Commissioner made an announcement that those who own a certain piece of jewelry were no doubt happy to hear--every player who has won a bracelet since 1974 is automatically entered in Harrah's Diamond Club for all of Harrah's properties. A little extra incentive for the bracelet-less playing in today's event.
[user37786]
In a $10,000 World Championship event you'd expect quite a few tables to be loaded with big names, and table #8 I think qualifies. Seated at that table are:
Phil Ivey
Jonathan Little
Bill Gazes
Orel Hershiser
Gavin Smith
[user25067]
David Benyamine, Clonie Gowen and Humberto Brenes are ensconced at Table 22, while next to them on Table 21, Josh Arieh, Eric Froelich, and Shane "Shaniac" Schleger do battle. Also looking deadly is Table 18, stacked with Jennifer Harman, Tom McEvoy, and Shannon Shorr.
[user37786]
Sitting at Table #2 (directly in front of us) is 2006 World Champion Jamie Gold. Two seats to his left is Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, Jason Lester (who won a bracelet last year) is in the six seat. And sitting in seat number eight is the formidable visage of Alex Kravchenko, who reached the final table of the Main Event last year after capturing a bracelet earlier in the Series.
donpeters
Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari began his day slow here at the first event of the World Series of Poker. On a board showing , Esfandiari was faced with a decision to call a bet of 10,000. The pot was approximately 12,000, and after some thought he decided to lay his hand down.
[user25067]
James Mackey flopped trips with his 6-8 on a flop of 6-6-X. Unfortunately, his opponent had him outkicked with K-6 and "mig.com" headed to the rail after only 20 minutes of play.
![[user155]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, Esfandiari was faced with a decision to call a bet of 10,000. The pot was approximately 12,000, and after some thought he decided to lay his hand down.