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We arrived at Dan Shak's table to see 9,500 in the pot with a board of 
. Shak bet 7,150 and his opponent raised all in, leading Shak to fold.
Shak was down to 23,000 after the fold, but made the right decision, as his opponent showed 
. Shak told us he laid down 
.
Not much longer after that hand was complete, we saw Shak bet 10,000 into a board reading 
. His opponent called and showed 
which bested Shak's set with 
.
Shak is now down to just 9,600 chips.
Over in the orange section there are a few familiar faces punctuating the sea of hoodies, aviators and headphones.
Roland de Wolfe is here - appropriately enough wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a walrus on it. Like the walrus, we imagine de Wolfe will be eating mostly fish, and perhaps the occasional small shark. Across the way is Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, looking as blond and rhinestoned up as we have ever seen him. Just a few tables away is Erick Lindgren, and a few more table along is Jennifer Tilly in a rather fetching cowboy hat, thus upping the TV-friendliness of this area by a couple percentage points.
Further to those folks, the orange section also currently boasts Captain Tom Franklin, youn British hopefuls Martins Adeniya, John Eames and David Tighe, Eric Liu, Benny "Emo smiley" Spindler, EPT San Remo finalist Mike Piper, Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy, Justin Bonomo and the lovely Almira Skripchenko.
There is a good crowd of spectators who've assembled themselves over in the ESPN featured table arena. The ones up top on the Jack Link's lounge have two table choices to keep themselves entertained. Looking left, the main featured table contains Ivan Demidov and 2010's happiest bracelet winner, Gavin Smith.
A couple steps to the right will let the spectators overlook the secondary featured table. It's a good one too; Chris Bjorin and Rich Belsky are over there. Oh yeah, and Annette Obrestad, who has just had her accomplishments announced over the speaker system by Jack Effel. Obrestad covered her ears as her stats were read, a bit embarrassed to be recognized in front of everyone.
Mike Wattel recently got involved in a hand, while in the big blind, after calling a raise to 250 from the player in the cutoff.
The two were heads up to the flop, which came 
. Wattel led out for 250 and his opponent called.
The turn brought the 
and Wattel checked to his opponent who then bet 550. Wattel responded with a raise to 1,200, getting the call.
Both players checked the on the river and Wattel showed 
which was no good against his opponent's 
. Wattel is now down to 28,000 chips.
Yesterday's field of 1,125 was just the right size to fit into the Amazon Room. Play began with 18 tables in the secondary Pavilion, but they were quickly broken into the main room within an hour or so.
Today, there are Pavilion 40 tables to begin play. They'll be breaking ten-handed into the Amazon Room at some point today as well, but for now we're spread between the two rooms and expecting to have at least 200 players more than we had yesterday.
Registration remains open for Day 1b until the end of the second break. So if you've got $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket...
Over here in the Pavillion Room (yoohoo - waves), we're somewhat low on big names, but can boast a handful of notable pros such as cashing-machine Shawn Buchanan, online machine Jay Rosenkrantz, surviving machine Jean-Robert Bellande, and WSOP final-tabling machine Dan Harrington. Also spotted early doors are Dan Shak, John D'Agostino, and recent bracelet winner Chris Bell, but my personal dark horse is 2008 London EPT winner Michael Martin.
Table 372 in the Red Section of the Amazon Room hosts some very familiar faces.
Sitting in Seat 7 is 2006 Main Event Champion Jamie Gold, in Seats 1 and 8 are 2007 Main Event final table members Phillip Hilm and John Kalmar respectively and just joining us in Seat 2 is Kevin "Bel0wAb0ve" Saul.
Definitely not the people you want to see on Day 1 of the Main Event.
Strolling around the blue section, we've got eyes on a pretty solid group of players we'll want to track today. Jon Friedberg is sitting with Matthias de Meulder over on Table 276, and the rest of the notables are pretty scattered throughout the section. We've spotted EPT founder John Duthie over here with us, and Joe Sebok is in this section as well. Also within eyeshot are Alex Kostritsyn, Kevin MacPhee, Frank Calo, Phil Collins, Nick Mitchell and 2010 bracelet winner Valdemar Kwaysser.
We got over to Jean-Robert Bellande's table to see him sitting in the small blind, involved with a player acting under the gun. When we got there the board read 
. Bellande checked and his opponent fired 2,000 into the pot.
Bellande laughed and shook his head, saying "You made that straight huh? Some sick shit, first hand. I don't have the flush, I'm going to call you."
After Bellande put his 2,000 into the pot, the dealer tabled the 
on the river, a dangerous card considering what was already on the board.
Bellande checked the river and folded when his opponent bet 7,000.
"Once again, please make sure you are here for the correct tournament day. Today is July 6th. That's right, July 6th."
Those were the opening words from Tournament Director Jack Effel, and we've already seen a handful of players wandering around looking lost with their registration cards for tomorrow.
Next on the announcement docket was an appeal for the players to put a "Bad Beat on Cancer" by donating 1% of their winnings to the charity. The microphone was handed to Phil Gordon, one of the founding members who was donning one of his familiar green circular "1%" patches. He thanked Harrah's and the players for their support, noting that their foundation has raised more than $3.3 million over the past nine years. "We hope to see some of you pledgers at the final table. This is a good way to buy some karma for the Main Event!" Gordon said. He's celebrating his 40th birthday today, incidentally.
"Ladies and gentlemen, poker fans and poker players all over the world!" Effel said, back on the mic now. "Welcome to the 2010 World Series of Poker Maaaaaaaaaaaain Event!" Perched atop the featured table ledge, Effel ran down the list of tournament rules for today's Day 1b players. It was the usual spiel about not concealing chips, not talking on the phone during a hand, speaking English-only at the table, etc., etc. He also took a moment for the dealers to stand and have all of their hard work recognized by the players. There was a satisfying round of applause.
The announcements are complete, and it's time for the most famous words in poker. "Let the gold rush begin," said Effel, turning over the microphone to the WSOP Dealer of the Year, the charming Ashley. She was presented with a gorgeous watch before she cheerfully announced, "All right, good luck everyone. Shuffle up and deal!"
From across the room, a set of cymbals smashed together. We remember this gentleman from last year... In any event, the cards are flying, and Day 1b is a go!
