Having spoken to several European players of note there is a real sense that this is a Europe vs. America game. PLO is considered to be played at the much higher level by the Brits, Irish, French and Italians, at least by us.
Watch out for:
Rolf Slotbloom (Holland)
John Kabbaj (England)
Marty Smyth (Northern Ireland)
Tony Chessa (Scotland) - haven't seen him yet so assuming he is playing
Dave Colclough (Wales)
You've heard of the Untouchables, well these are (drum roll please...) 'The Unfamiliars', a quick list of some of the popular European players attending today's Omaha event that our American viewers may not have heard of:
Peter Gould (recent NPL victor)
Johan Storakers (former Amsterdam Classics winner)
Robin Keston (EPT Bareclone finalist)
Jim Reid (EPT Dublin finalist)
Bambos Xanthos (legendary Vic player)
Ben Grundy (high stakes online Omaha cash player)
Rory Matthews (Scottish online whiz)
We'll be keeping an eye on all these chaps as the tournament progresses.
Greetings poker fanatics from sunny (well, gloomy as always) England. As usual, the Empire is as jam packed as a hippo filled mini with plenty of famous faces crossing my path.
First to meet my eye was, naturally, the unmistakable figure of Humberto Brenes, dressed head to toe in the usual colourful attire with golf-like visor perched on head.
Not too far behind was the ever-chatty Daniel 'Minh Ly impressionist extraordinaire' Negreanu, followed by the likes of Roland 'Mr Chinese Poker' de Wolfe, David 'Rock n Roll, baby' Ulliott, Andy 'I look like Robin Williams' Bloch, Scotty 'Yeah, baby!' Nguyen and Phil 'on time for once' Hellmuth.
Possibly the biggest star here, however, is the legend himself (no, not Pauly), Doyle Brunson. Hobbling as always but bearing that instantly recognisable Texan grin, Doyle's being stopped at every available moment to have a photo snapped with an adoring fan or over-zealous journalist. Either way, he may have developed cramp from all the autograph signing he's done over the last few days, which may be the only way his opponents will defeat him today.
After a quick walk around the poker room and through the casino, I recognized dozens of familiar faces such as Greg Raymer, Hoyt Corkins, Marco Traniello, Juha Helppi, Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, David Williams, Rafi Amit, Tony G, John Duthie, Michael Binger, Ted Lawson, Johan Storakers, Julian Gardner, Jani Sointula, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Humberto Brenes, Lee Watkinson, Barny Boatman, Annie Duke, Jamie Gold, Jesse Jones, David Levi, Jeff Madsen, and Phil Hellmuth.