After a quick walk around the upstairs area, I spotted Phil Gordon, Ted Lawson, Johnny Lodden (Norway), Alex Kravchenko, Daniel Negreanu, Peter Costa and Roland De Wolfe, who is sporting an ourtregous floral shirt.
To quote Snoopy, "Roland nicked the curtains from my local curry house and is wearing that today."
Hand number 1 from the Sportsman as most players still taking their seats.
Jeff Madsen raised to 300 from the button and picked up the blinds. "I'm the chip leader" he proudly proclaimed. Three seconds later someone else at the next table makes the exact same joke. "And now I'm not," he says, "I'm ok with that."
THE FIFTY-- Former soap opera actor Michael Greco once won that honor, and has ponied up his £10,000 to try his luck at the Main Event. Between his presence and the imminent arrival of Mr. Antonius, I just may faint...
Has anyone seen Gavin Smith? He is expected here at the Sportsman but no sign of him yet.
His occassional prop bet buddy Jeff Madsen is here, and we really want to see one dare the other to do something socially and physically irresponsible for money and our amusement.
Martin Johnson - sportswriter
From the floor of the Empire Casino...
A couple of players showed up late such as Jon "Pearljammer" Turner, Alan Goehring, and Kirk Morrison.
If you are an avid sports fan in England, you might recognize the name Martin Johnson. I'm told he's a well-known sportswriter for the Telegraph. He's sitting in between Pearljammer and Phil Gordon.
THE FIFTY-- We have our first man down here on St. James's Street. Sandor Demjan moved all in with Q-4 on a 2-2-4 flop and ran into his opponent's pocket jacks before making a hasty exit from the tournament area.
At the Sportsman -- The first cry of, "All in!" attracted the film crews as cutoff Tore Lagerborg and button Patrick Jouven had their hands face-up.
Lagerborg:
Jouven:
What positions for those hands, and what a flop for them: . People made the set-over-set face (eyebrows down, slight grimace, gentle head shake) as the turn brought a bit of tension with the but the river all but knocked out Lagerborg and gave his opponent a very healthy early stack.
Doyle Brunson gunned down by ZeeJustin
From the Empire Casino...
A legend has headed to the rail. The veteran grizzled gunslinger Doyle Brunson was busted by young gun Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. The flop was . The turn was the and both players got all their money in at that point.
ZeeJustin:
Brunson:
Brunson has flopped a set, but ZeeJustin turned The Wheel. The river was the and Brunson could not get the board to pair. Alas, he headed to the rail and is one of the first eliminations at The Empire today.
. People made the set-over-set face (eyebrows down, slight grimace, gentle head shake) as the turn brought a bit of tension with the 
but the river 
all but knocked out Lagerborg and gave his opponent a very healthy early stack.
. The turn was the 
