No, Johnny Lodden isn't sitting at Table 45, but Antonio Esfandiari is.
He and Tony Dunst are looking to pass some time at their table by playing the ever so popular game "Lodden Thinks." The only problem is they need a "Lodden."
"Who wants to be our 'Lodden?'" Dunst asked the table.
The player in Seat 1 obliged and Esfandiari asked his name. He stammered for a second.
"What do you not know your name?" Esfandiari joked. "We're not playing the game yet you can tell us."
The man chuckled, "My name is Rui."
Indeed Rui Cao, a professional poker player from France, is the player in question. Best of luck to Dunst and Esfandiari in their game of "What Rui Thinks," we'll be sure to stay in earshot in case anything ridiculous is asked.
...And they are representing hard in this event. Check out the assorted Team Pros and Friends of PokerStars who have made it to the Pavillion Room already.
- Darus Suharto
- Hevad Khan
- Jude Ainsworth
- Joe Cada
- Daniel Negreanu
- Gavin Griffin
- Vanessa Rousso
- Bill Chen
- Arnaud Mattern
- Humberto Brenes
- Johannes Strassmann
- Thomas Bichon
- Veronica Dabul
We're pretty sure there'll be even more of them by the start of Level 3 when they let all the really late registrants in.
To be honest, there are a lot of them - the field may not be the largest of any WSOP event but the $5,000 price tag on a seat for this one has weeded out a lot of the casual punters and there is hardly a face in this room that we don't recognize from somewhere on the international poker circuit.
Right now we are particularly impressed by the table that features Antonio Esfandiari, Rui Cao and Guillaume de la Gorce. Also we reckon we're going to enjoy the table whose denizens include Jude Ainsworth, Max Lykov and Dan O'Brien.
When we reached Table 12, the dealer had already spread the flop .
A player in the small blind led out for 1,250 into a raised pot. Daniel Alaei thought for a bit then raised to 3,000 straight. His opponent called.
Both players checked the on the turn, and after the rivered Alaei's opponent led for 4,750.
Alaei sat calm, riffling a few yellow T1,000 chips with his right hand. Finally, he grabbed the majority of his stack and plopped it in the middle, raising to 15,000. His opponent sat up in his chair, genuinely baffled at the raise. After sweating and re-sweating his cards numerous times, he finally folded.
Alaei is off to a nice start and now sits with 27,000 chips.
Perhaps all the people who decided to come in late for today's event knew something the rest of us didn't know, because when we arrived this morning it was to the somewhat less than delightful aroma of what we suspect was raw sewage permeating the Rio convention centre.
We don't know where the smell is coming from - and thankfully it's much fainter in the Pavillion Room than it is out in the hallway - but we hope it's been contained and will go away soon.
It was a quick day for Eric "EFro" Froehlich. We just passed his table and sitting where he once was is Toto Leonidas, and unless EFro is really good with disguises that signifies that he has hit the rail.
There was a raise to 250 from the gentleman in the cutoff when Heather Sue Mercer made it 700 from the button. The blinds folded and the action was back on the cutoff, who tanked up for a while.
"I wish I had more chips," he sighed, contemplating his 2,000-or-so short stack. He then pushed said stack across the line. Mercer called.
Mercer:
Mr. Cutoff:
Board: a spike-free
Mr. Cutoff hit the rail before he'd even got to see a break time. Mercer meanwhile upped her stack to 16,900.
We found Nick Stowell betting 500 on the turn of a board. His opponent, who'd checked just before, thought about it for while before folding. Stowell showed him for his troubles.
It looks as though Stowell took an early hit, as that pot put him back up to a slightly-below-starting-stack 14,000.
"It's so cold in here," giggled the ever-cheerful Darus Suharto, wandering over to the bloggers' desk.
And no wonder - they like their air con at the Rio and the Canadian PokerStars Pro is wearing shorts. We pointed out that if he makes it through the day it's likely to get colder too as the room slowly empties of people.
"I'll take it though," he laughed, and began to perform some really very athletic frog jumps down the aisle in an attempt to warm up. This did not escape the notice of Barry Shulman at the next table, himself wrapped up in a sweater, hood up.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
.
on the turn, and after the 
rivered Alaei's opponent led for 4,750.
board. His opponent, who'd checked just before, thought about it for while before folding. Stowell showed him 
for his troubles.