Welcome to the First Break
Well there you go. Two hours of play have been completed on Day 1c, the first step on what everyone in the field hopes will be a multi-day journey towards a November Nine berth.
Well, almost everyone. There were a few horses that had trouble getting out of the gate and turned the day into an expensive hour of poker. Former Main Event champion Huck Seed was one of the first players to be eliminated, not even 45 minutes into the day. He was soon followed by everyone's favorite diminutive Italian, Dario Minieri.
At the other end of the spectrum, David Williams has been a bit of a card rack in the first two hours, with a flopped straight, two full houses, and the better end of an aces-against-kings battle. He looks to be the early chip leader, having nearly tripled his starting stack to about 80,000. He's joined up top by another former champion, Johnny Chan, whose best perfomance at the Main Event in recent years was the introduction of the citrus-flavored All-In Energy Drink in 2008.
And last but certainly not least, everyone's favorite whipping boy, Phil Hellmuth, made his typical over-the-top "entrance" to the Main Event just ten minutes before the end of the level. This year he's dressed as some sort of boxer or MMA fighter, complete with robe and gloves (but thankfully wearing a shirt).
Play resumes in twenty minutes.