Welcome to Day 1 of the National Championship

Day 1 of the World Series of Poker National Championship has finally arrived. The best of the best have qualified for the tournament and many players have worked the entire year to get to this point. One hundred WSOPC qualifiers gained free entry to the event and the top 100 WSOP POY qualifiers from the past two years can buy in for $10,000.

Players could qualify a few different ways; each Main Event winner from a WSOPC stop qualified, the overall casino points leader from each stop qualified, the top 84 points earners form the WSOP Circuit and the top 100 WSOP POY points earners.

The field will be playing for a juice-free prize pool that could have up to a $1 million added from the WSOP POY players. The added value of coveted ESPN camera time will be a factor when the event airs on August 7, 2012 as two, one-hour episodes.

The biggest names in poker like Michael Mizrachi, Ben Lamb and Phil Hellmuth will take to the felt against WSOPC stars like Kyle Cartwright, David Clark and Amanda Musumeci.

WSOPC Main Event Champions Kurt Jewel, Tripp Kirk, Freddy Deeb will have the big game experience to compete with Roland Israelashvili and Sam Trickett.

This 2011 National Championship launched Sam Barnhart into the national spotlight and is the cornerstone of his poker resume.

At the start of action today there are 19 tables to start. Late registration will be open through just two levels instead of the normal four - 2:55 p.m.

Cards will be in the air promptly at 12:00 p.m. PST in the Brasilia Room. Follow all the Day 1 action live on PokerNews.com.