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"I'm the oldest player at the table," confessed Neil Channing during the break. "I limped one hand and four people felt the need to comment. It was very hurtful."
"I mean, I have all my limbs and faculties in tact, and I have 31,000 after this first level. I can virtually just go home now and come back tomorrow for Day 2."
Tony Cousineau opened preflop to 250 from the cutoff before William Thorson made it 625 on the button. Ludovic Lacay reraised to 2,075 in the small blind. Cousineau folded but Thorson made the call. Lacay and Thorson have tangled before many a time in EPTs and both know of each others super-aggressive reputation giving this hand an extra edge.
The flop came 
and Lacay fired out 3,000. Thorson flat-called to see an 
turn where the Frenchman bet 6,100, Thorson looked vaguely concerned but then called a second time to see the 
river. This time Lacay stacked up all his remaining chips and pushed them into the middle, a total of 16,525. This final bet appeared to be too much for Thorson, who gave up.
Lacay said, "What did you fold? Queens?" before readily scooping up the 22,000 chip pot.
We've got ninety minutes of poker behind us, and it's time for the first break of the day. It'll be 20 minutes, and we'll be right back.
We're kinda bored, too, so here's a good way to kill five minutes of the break. Have a look at our interview with Phil Ivey earlier in the week. He doesn't talk this much very often, you know.
Carlos Mortensen's seat might have been empty for a lot of the first level, but he's arrived now and spent the time he had building up his stack. Recently he dealt a severe blow to the stack of Elijah Berg. On the river the board stood 
and Mortensen had bet 10k into a pot of a more than that. Berg thought for a while before calling and Mortensen turned over 
for the nut full house. Berg showed that he had flopped a set of fives, but Mortensen rivered him with a better full house, hitting a four-outer. Berg dropped to 6,600 while Mortensen rose to 44,000.
Registration is still open for another 115 minutes, and we have a registration update for you.
The clock shows 188 players have entered Day 1b so far, and that number is ticking upwards by the minute. That's already ten more players than registered for Day 1b last year, and we'd guess we'll see very close to 200 runners take the felt today by the time the cashier's window closes at the end of the second break.
You in London? Got £10,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Get down to Leicester Square and get yourself in the running for this last bracelet of the 2010 WSOPE!
Everything happened so quickly that we missed it, but Steve Brecher and Barry Greenstein were happy to fill us in after the fact (with no help from Melanie Weisner, we might add).
It was a small pot preflop, and Benyamine and Saar Wilf saw a flop of 
with two hearts. Wilf called a bet there, and the offsuit 
landed on fourth street. Benyamine bet again, Wilf raised, Benyamine re-raised, and all the money got in there. Wilf had flopped a set of tens, but Benyamine's 
had turned the go-ahead straight.
A blank on the river locked up the pot and the knockout for Benyamine, and he's the big stack with 65,000 here in the early going.
Saar Wilf
Whilst I await our next slice of action, I can't help but observe that this room upstairs boasts more stars than the night sky with every table filled with recognisable faces from the world of poker.
On the aforementioned Table of Death, there is only one player I couldn't name, later identified as David Weisberger.
Despite his lack of familiarity, he can least celebrate his first PokerNews' tag. Woot woot!
We caught up with the action on fourth street as the board read 
. It was a heads-up pot, and Brian Powell checked to Tommy Vedes. The latter made a bet of 875, and Powell slowly called.
The river drew another check from Powell, and Vedes paused before making a bet of 1,150. Powell took a long time to stare, but he eventually snuck in a check-raise to 2,600 straight. Vedes didn't like it, but he splashed in the call.
Powell tabled 
for the trips, and it was easily the best hand from the looks of it. Vedes had been working his stack upwards to start the day, but that little hit puts him back to 31,000.
Praz Bansi opened to 250 from UTG+1 and got called by Kevin Boudreau in the small blind. The flop came 
and Boudreau check-called a bet of 400 from the two-time bracelet winner before both checked the 
turn.
The 
came on the river and Boudreau fired out 1,100 and Bansi gave it a minute before making the call, only to muck to his opponent's 
. Having flashed his hand briefly to us, Bansi told us, "I did well not to bet the turn, I smelled something..."
James Mitchell has had a great start to the day, increasing his stack by almost 50% - one recent hand being mainly responsible. Mitchell had raised to 300 in early position, and picked up two callers before another player minimum-re-raised. This opened up the door for Mitchell to repop it to 2,800, which he did fairly quickly. Only Cary Atkins made the call.
Flop: 
. Check to Mitchell, who bet 3,500. Immediate call.
Turn: . Check to Mitchell, who bet 8,000. Much less immediate call.
River: 
. Check to Mitchell, who bet 10,500. No call.
James Mitchell, Irish Open Champion last year and pre circuit success live cash regular at the Vic seems to be a poker Jack of all trades and has impressive results already. Too young for Vegas when he first started doing well on the Euro live circuit, he presumably has his sights set on a bracelet too, handily one played for right here in his native London.
