For as long as I have known the rules of poker, I can remember discussions that began: "You have aces in the first hand of the World Series of Poker, another player moves all-in, what do you do?"

These discussions (which started for me around 1997) would often feature at least one person advocating the fold. The argument ran that skilled players wouldn't want to put their $10,000 so quickly in the hands of fate. You should fold this hand and keep things small-ball from then on; make complex plays post-flop and outwit the kind of "amateurs" prepared to risk it all with a minimum of 76 percent equity.

These days, this kind of reasoning would be dismissed as bunkum. Got aces pre-flop and someone else is all-in? Got to get it all-in too. It's always too good a spot to pass up*.

In this very tournament last year, Celina Lin, the Team PokerStars Pro from China, was faced with a decision very similar to the one outlined above. It wasn't quite the first hand, but only 70 minutes into the first level of the day, Lin found aces and got into a raising battle with Gavin Smith. He seemed to want to play for it all.

Lin still remembers the bet sizes--it went 300, 1,100, 2,700, all-in (blinds were 50-100; starting stacks 30,000)--and Lin called to put her tournament at stake. Smith revealed pocket kings and although Lin had better than 80 percent equity in this one, a king appeared on the turn. She was out.

It's a story she related on Twitter this morning in the last moments before her return to the World Series. Most people have pretty specific ambitions for their Main Event, ranging from winning the thing to lasting the first day. Lin's was even more modest than that:

Happily, with the clock now ticking past the hour mark in Level 4, Lin has achieved this first aim. She has about 73,000 in chips, an increase on this year's 50,000 starting stack, and is apparently enjoying life. She is texting away between hands, flashing the Team Pro China patch around for everyone to see, stuck to the back of her smartphone.

But Lin still bears the scars of that skirmish last year. She explained today that prior to the 2015 Series, Lin had not been to Las Vegas for eight years. She came for the first and only time in around 2007, but since she turned pro had focused her attention primarily on Asia.

"I couldn't believe it," Lin said. "I thought, 'Oh my god, this is the worst thing I was expecting.' First time in eight years and it lasted 70 minutes."

She added: "You want to see that [someone shoving when you have aces], but it was brutal."

Even worse was the fact that she then had to suffer a barrage of abuse on social media after revealing the details of her demise. The same people who, back in 1997, advocated a fold with aces in the Main Event told her that she had played it badly. "You're supposed to be a pro," they said.

Lin, however, now has the chance to put the record straight. Like a true professional, she has got back into the saddle and is looking for redemption. Her World Series has already lasted more than three times as long as her last attempt, and the two-time Red Dragon champion will now look to add a first WSOP Main Event result to her list of achievements.

The first goal--lasting longer than 70 minutes--is already ticked off.

*With the possible exception of bubble play in specific circumstances.

*****

DANZER COMES BACK FROM A GOAL DOWN

George Danzer was down to his last 11,000 earlier today, but had bounced back to about 33,000 by the time the dinner break came around. He reached for a football analogy to describe the early portion of his day. "I feel like I was 2-0 down, but I've got a goal back before half-time," he said. "Two-one is not as bad."

WSOP photos by PokerPhotoArchive.com.

If you say nothing of poker players, say this: they love a good deadline.

Just after 8pm tonight, registration on the 2016 World Series of Poker closed, and anyone who still wanted a seat in the Main Event realized they were going to have to wait until 2017. Day 1C was the last chance to get in on a $63 million prize pool, and the late-comers filled the Rio like never before.

By the time the last person bought in, the Day 1C flight was the biggest single-day heat of any WSOP in history. In total, 6,737 players signed up for the WSOP Main Event. Of that number, 4,240 showed up to play today. It was, by any measure, a madhouse.

According to the WSOP, this will mark the fifth-largest Main Event prize pool in history. More than 1,000 players will get paid, with the winner taking home $8 million.

Now there is just the matter of getting rid of all these people and finding a champion.

In some cases, that very mission--the one to cull this crowd to a reasonable level--has resulted in some early and ugly exits. Randy Lew was the first member of Team PokerStars to go looking for his car, kicking himself as he went and wondering just where it all went wrong.

What Lew may not have known was that Daniel Negreanu was doing very little laughing. The most noticeable peril of the day came as last year's superhero suffered a series of unfortunate events that left him hobbling to the end of the day. He vowed strength, tweeting, "During last year's Main Event run I spent a long stretch with 20 blinds. Only difference this year is I'm there on Day One."

At the beginning of the very last level of the day, Negreanu's grind paid off. He managed to double up to near 40,000 with kings versus tens and secure himself a spot in Day 2.

Meanwhile, Negreanu's fellow Team Pros approached their first flight from different angles. Chris Moneymaker abandoned his stack to campaign for regulated online poker in America. Brazilians Felipe Ramos and Andre Akkari heard some of this WSOP action will be headed to their country. Jake Cody spent an entire day trying to figure out how to make second-best win. Meanwhile, Celina Lin was just happy to survive longer than she did last year.

She did better than that. In fact, her performance outshined most of her Team Pro family.

As play edges to finishing time tonight, the remaining PokerStars crew is left clinging to the hope they'll be able to join their teammates who already finished in the earlier heats. Tomorrow, those players from Day 1A & 1B will fight to make Day 3. Here's who we'll be looking for behind the PokerStars patches:

Vanessa Selbst: 133,900
Marc-Andre Ladouceur: 103,700
ElkY: 102,300
Jennifer Shahade: 62,800
Fatima Moreira de Melo: 60,000
Victor Ramdin: 60,000
Aditya Agarwal: 57,100
Jason Somerville: 45,600

Day 2AB play picks up at 11am Vegas time. We'll be back in time for it all with the hope of finding some history-making stories of our own.

People of a slightly more advanced age (meaning born prior to 1985) might remember an HBO series in the late 80s and early 90s called Tales from the Crypt, a spooky, off-putting show where bad things happen and worse things happened as a result.

We thought of it tonight as Daniel Negreanu shuffled off into the shadows on the dinner break.

Many bad things happened to me the first 3 levels of WSOP main event. Going to dinner with 10k in chips playing 200-400 when we get back

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 12, 2016

"Many bad things happened to me."

It's vague, and its vagueness makes it all the more terrifying. If these kinds of things can happen to the world's best, they can happen to anybody.

To wit:

You might recognize that man as Jason Mercier, a 2016 double-bracelet-winner and favorite for the WSOP Player of the Year. You might think, bad things don't happen to him. They can't.

They do.

The terror there is in his optimism. It's as if we, from the other side of the screen, hidden under our blankets and watching the closet for shadows, know that the bad things are happening. He make think he's grinding his fave off, but from our side of the plane we know "grinding my face off" can have two meanings.

The real horror--the kind that involves faces locked in silent screams--begins when players start to see the truth for real.

You can see reality dawning on Randy Lew before he even leaves the table. Even if he hasn't entirely given up the ghost yet, you can see the end in his eyes.

He knows what's coming. He just doesn't know how it's going to come.

And eventually, he sees this.

We haven't heard from him since.

The silence. That's the worst. There is lots of that happening among the Team Pros in the field tonight. We're putting together a search party for the rest. If you don't hear from us again, you know what happened.

Jake Cody's World Series Main Event didn't get off to perfect start. An attempt to change starting days led him into an administrative whirlpool, which ended in a long line at the registration desk at 11am today. Eventually he found his way to his table assignment about 20 minutes late--and 20 minutes after his stack had made the same journey. The mishap cost him a few blinds.

But players in the Main Event this year get a stack of 50,000 chips. The opening blinds are 75-150, so he still had significantly more than 300 bigs. Cody is also the very antithesis of the whining players who often populate the poker tables. Life is perennially good for the Team PokerStars Pro. He has, it is safe to say, regrouped.

Cody came out to Las Vegas close to the start of the Series this time, keen to emulate his performance of 2011, when he won the first open event of that year. His victory in the $25,000 Heads Up event clinched the third leg of his Triple Crown, a matter of 14 months since his EPT Deauville title got things started.

But he didn't go for the long slog this time. He said this morning that he took about two weeks off, rewarding himself with a holiday in the middle of the series and time to celebrate his birthday on July 4. He is therefore refreshed and ready for a tilt at the World Championship.

Cody has Mike Leah and Jordan Westmorland for company today, meaning he will need to be wary of at least two spots. But in a similar fashion to the way we ghosted Aditya Agarwal through five levels yesterday, we'll follow Cody's event closely today.

"Jake's will be a bit more up and down," Leah shouted from the other side of the table, issuing what sounded like part threat and part experience of playing against the roller coaster that is Cody.

At the end of the first level, Cody had 44,000--down slightly from the start, but only the beginning of something that will likely fluctuate wildly as the day progresses.

WSOP photos by PokerPhotoArchive.com.

"In my day, this was all fields." -- Traditional

A decade is a long time in poker, and for anybody who was at the Rio back when the World Series of Poker first transferred to its present surroundings in 2005, it remains tempting to chart the changes over the past 11 years.

Much remains the same, but much else has changed: the food is better; the TV stage is more space-age; the the media is far more populous; and some of the biggest stars today were still at high school when Joe Hachem was strapping on his bracelet.

The most significant change, however, is the transformation of the Pavilion Room. In 2005-06, the biggest floor space in the convention center complex was essentially a trade show, full of merchandise stands. At that point, the cavernous Amazon Room was still considered cavernous enough to accommodate the largest number of entrants in world poker. But the players soon over-ran it and not only did the Brasilia Room come into operation, but the merch stands were booted into the hallways with poker tables taking their place.

The merchants were not concerned. Their job was done. All of those people who, back in 2006, browsed the stands, picked up the free gifts, bought the books, T-shirts and baseball caps were duly converted. The traders moved out to make space for their customers: a rare and tangible representation of the power of commerce.

For the first two opening flights of this year's Main Event, the Pavilion Room has been full of cash games and nightly tournaments, with the $10,000 buy-in players comfortably fitting into Amazon and Brasilia. But today, on Day 1C, the Pavilion Room is in operation.

It means that an old-timer may stand at the door, peer wistfully across the room and invert his usual lament: These days, all this is field.

All this goes by way of introduction to Day 1C of the 2016 WSOP Main Event. It is by far the biggest of the three opening flights, with around 4,000 players expected. At the end of Day 1A, 546 players remained from 764; at the end of Day 1B 1,302 remained from 1,733. Today will dwarf both.

Joe McKeehen, last year's World Champion, took to the stage to go through the "Shuffle up and deal" formalities, using the platform to offer three entreaties. McKeehen encouraged players to "help the dealers" by putting "blinds out where they can reach them"; not to tank excessively and to not "be afraid to call the clock"; and, most significantly, "Have as much fun as you possibly can."

But this one will also be tough. Among the players from under the Team PokerStars banner playing today are: Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein, Felipe Ramos, Andre Akkari, Chris Moneymaker, George Danzer, Liv Boeree, Randy Liu, Celina Lin and Jake Cody. That's a whole lot of talent, whose progress we will track throughout the day.

A reminder of red spades' progression so far:

Vanessa Selbst: 133,900
Marc-Andre Ladouceur: 103,700
Bertrand Grospellier: 102,300
Jennifer Shahade: 62,800
Victor Ramdin: 60,400
Fatima Moreira de Melo: 60,000
Aditya Agarwal: 57,100
Jason Somerville: 45,600

Luca Pagano - eliminated Day 1A
Naoya Kihara - eliminated Day 1A

WSOP photos by PokerPhotoArchive.com.

July 2007. The iPhone had been on the market for less than a month. Jerry Yang was the newly crowned WSOP Main Event champion. Barack Obama was an underdog U.S. Presidential candidate and Fedor Holz was still in primary school. In the ensuing nine years, millions of dollars in bankrolls have been won and lost and won again as poker itself continues its constant evolution. Adaptability and even more so, longevity, have proven to be precious commodities in our game.

Nine years ago, the Sunday Million still bore a $530 buy-in once a month and on July 29, 2007, Luke "lb6121" Schwartz turned that sum into over $158,000. Although he fell short of the title and was eliminated in third place, Schwartz earned the largest share of the prize pool after a four-way chop. That score was his springboard into high-stakes games, where his chat box verbiage earned him notoriety and his fearless play put millions in the bank.

Schwartz is 32 now, a father, and as sharp as ever having won five SCOOP events, three of them in the last two years. Tonight, he added a Sunday Million title to his still-growing Poker CV, although in a twist of fate eeriliy reminiscent of his last trip to this final table... it was the third-place finisher, Jayme "jayme1987" Bury, who walked away with the lion's share of the prize pool.

Luke "lb6121" Schwartz, playing at the EPT Monte Carlo in 2013

This week's Million drew 6,030 entries (4,820 unique players and 1,210 re-entries), driving the prize pool up to $1,206,000.00. 900 players earned a share of it with $183,432.60 up top.

Among the final ten players were two who had made a Sunday Million table before-- Schwartz and NNNQQQ, who finished fourth for $67k back in July 2012. NNNQQQ, however, lost all but 17,000 of his chips when he open-shoved from the small blind with [Qh][7c] and Stoooookie! called with [As][Td] in the big blind. NNNQQQ put the rest of his chips in a few hands later but lost his shot at a second trip to the final table when TheGreatPike's [Ah][6h] made aces up on the [Ad][8s][3h][8h][2s] board.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: lb6121 (7,570,056 in chips)
Seat 2: TheGreatPike (12,022,069 in chips)
Seat 3: zavag (2,157,960 in chips)
Seat 4: donki4 (8,630,299 in chips)
Seat 5: MO-82-3 (7,513,684 in chips)
Seat 6: Naghash (6,112,877 in chips)
Seat 7: Badrakh8888 (1,865,011 in chips)
Seat 8: jayme1987 (9,067,776 in chips)
Seat 9: Stoooookie! (5,360,268 in chips)

Badrakh8888 took little more than six big blinds to the final table and although things started to look up for him when he doubled through Stoooookie!, he found the rail three hands later. Badrakh open-shoved on the button with [Ah][9h] and Stoooookie! woke up with [Ad][Kd] in the big blind. An eight-high rainbow board send Badrakh8888 home in ninth place.

The blinds up to 200,000/400,000, Stoooookie! found [As][Ks] in the small blind and three-bet shoved over MO-82-3's opening min-raise. MO-82-3 called with pocket jacks, but lot the 10 million-chip pot when an ace hit the flop. MO-82-3 was left with 896,000 and moved in two hands later. Both zavag and lb6121 called and checked down the [Kc][6d][4d][3d][7s] board. Lb6121's [Ah][7c] won the kicker war against zavag's [Jh][7h] and MO-82-3 quietly departed in eighth place.

With one hour having ticked off the clock at the final table, play reached somewhat of a stalemate seven-handed. The 250,000/500,000 level came and went, and with the price of poker up to 300,000/600,000, Luke "lb6121" Schwartz decided to speak up.

lb6121: boys , you prob all wanan save face and not asking to see numbers , but beleive me ive won this and chopped this comp befor , tonight it is a super crapshoot
lb6121: everyone got 10-20 blinds its super luckbox at this point
lb6121: i fancy myself but i wanna see numbers

As eager as Schwartz was to begin deal discussions, his veteran advice was met mostly with silence. But at last, someone chimed in.

TheGreatPike: go hard or go home

No one was willing to budge, but with only seven big blinds remaining, Naghash was out of options and moved in from UTG+1 with pocket sixes. Unfortunately for him, jayme1987 snap-called with [Qh][Qs]. The queens held and Naghash hit the rail in seventh place, Jayme1987 assumed the chip lead with 15.3 million, closely trailed by lb6121 with 14.2 million and donki4 with 14.15 million.

One orbit later jayme1987 found a familiar hand, [Qs][Qd], and made it 1.32 million to go. Donki4 shoved from the big blind for 12.8 million and jayme1987 called. Donki4's [Ac][Jd] needed some serious help, but he got none of it from the [Th][3d][2s][6h][7d] board and ended his run in sixth place as jayme1987 took the chip lead with 26.3 million.

Five hands later, TheGreatPike moved in for 5.5 million on the button with [Ac][2s] and zavag called all-in for less with [Ks][Qs]. Although zavag picked up an open-ended straight draw on the [Jc][Td][7c] flop, TheGreatPike's ace-high held up and zavag had to settle for fifth place.

With the field down to four, lb6121 renewed his call for a deal and this time, his remaining opponents were willing to talk. Here's how they stacked up when negotiations began:

jayme1987 26,519,156
lb6121 11,938,180
Stoooookie! 11,516,892
TheGreatPike 10,325,772

Per the players' request, the final table host produced both chip chop and ICM figures. While lb6121 was adamant about doing an ICM deal given the size of the blinds and antes, jayme1987, Stoooookie! and TheGreatPike were looking for increases to their ICM share to the tune of several thousand apiece. With the deal about to fall apart, lb6121 stepped up and convinced his opponents that the variance was far too high in this spot NOT to take ICM.

Stoooookie!: k its clear this isent getting done
Stoooookie!: eeveryone asking for more
lb6121: im not
lb6121: and im the best player and the richest
b6121: we are playing 10 big blind poker stookie
lb6121: lets all take icm
lb6121: and play for the 20k

Although chip leader jayme1987 put up a bit more resistance, ultimately the three of them came around to lb6121's argument and agreed to the ICM chop. With $20,000 and the title still at stake, cards went back in the air.

Stoooookie! struck first once action resumed, scoring a huge double-up at jayme1987's expense. With the action folded to him in the small blind, jayme1987 moved in with [8c][Th], but Stoooookie! called with [Ah][Jh]. An ace hit the flop and Stoooookie! doubled to 15.9 milion. However, jayme1987 got his chips back and then some when TheGreatPike opened pocket deuces for 9,999,999 from the small blind. Jayme1987 moved in with [Kc][Kh] and TheGreatPike called. Jayme1987's kings rivered a set on the [Ts][8s][4c][Qh][Ks] board and TheGreatPike was out in fourth place.

Then, on the next deal, jayme1987 found [Ad][Qs] and opened for 1.54 million on the button. Lb6121 three-bet to 2.38 million from the big blind, jayme1987 shoved and lb6121 snap-called with [As][Ah]. The aces held and lb6121 rocketed into the lead with 34 million. Jayme1987 moved in with [Ad][8c] on the next hand, but lb6121 was waiting for him with [As][Kd]. Jayme1987 didn't improve and went home in third place...albeit with the largest share of the prize pool.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 1: lb6121 (46,666,216 in chips)

Seat 9: Stoooookie! (13,633,784 in chips)

Lb6121 had Stoooookie! on the ropes with 20 big blinds, but ten hands into their match, lb6121 check-raised a [Qc][7s][5s] flop only to have Stoooookie! move in for 14.1 million. Lb6121 called, his top pair with [Qh][Ts] leading Stooookie!'s fliush draw with [Ks][6s]. However, Stoooookie! turned the [Kc] to snatch away the lead. The river was the [Ac] and Stoooookie! doubled to 31.2 million.

Lb6121 immediately turned up the aggression and fought his way back into the chip lead. After three-betting preflop and firing the flop and turn on an [8h][3d][2c][7s][2h] board, lb6121 shoved on the river and Stoooookie! released his hand. Lb6121 raked in the 11.5 million pot and moments later, four-bet shoved preflop over Stoooookie's 3.94 million three-bet. Again, lb6121's raise got through and he picked up another 8 million without a showdown.

Lb6121 was back up to 48 million when he picked up the perfect hand at the perfect time. For at least the second time in this heads-up battle, he picked up [Ad][As]. Lb6121 limped the button and Stoooookie! moved all-in with [Kd][3s] inviting the immediate call. Although the [Ks][Td][2s] flop improved Stoooookie! to a pair of kings, the turn and river blanked with the [7h] and the [5s], giving lb6121 the win.

Congratulations to Luke "lb6121" Schwartz on his second six-figure score in the Sunday Million! He earned $130,717.53 for the win, while runner-up Stoooookie! took home $109,570.55.

PokerStars Sunday Million results for 7-10-2016
Entries: 6,030 (4,820 players, 1,210 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,206,000.00
Places paid: 900

1. Luke "lb6121" Schwartz (United Kingdom) $130,717.53*
2. Stoooookie! (Canada) $109,570.55*
3. jayme1987 (United Kingdom) $135,510.73*
4. TheGreatPike (Norway) $106,118.79*
5. zavag (Uruguay) $50,652.00
6. donki4 (Finland) $38,592.00
7. Naghash (Canada) $26,532.00
8. MO-82-3 (Germany) $14,472.00
9. Badrakh888 (Mongolia) $9,346.50

* denotes a four-way deal

Don't wait for it! Take your shot at the Sunday Million! Sign up for PokerStars now.

No matter how empty this poker tournament was when we started the day, it's a rock and roll show tonight. As players head toward the final minutes of Day 1B, any semblance of silence has shuffled out into the desert. This 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event is well underway, and the next time we'll see calm is when the final table takes its summer rest.

At this point, it's impossible to ignore the smoke and flames coming off some of poker's luminaries. Andrey Zaichenko, Kenny Hallaert, and Anthony Zinno are all pounding on the leaderboard as the night draws toward its close.

Meanwhile, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier has taken it upon himself to lead the PokerStars red spade brigade bravely into Day 2. ElkY managed to double his 50,000 starting stack before the start of the last level of the night. Joining him in the final throes of Day 1B goodness were none other than Fatima Moreira de Melo, Aditya Agarwal, Vanessa Selbst, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Victor Ramdin, and the late-arriving, Jason Somerville.

Meanwhile, before this afternoon full took flight, a member of Team PokerStars Pro had already picked up her first WSOP final table. China's Yaxi Zhu showed up today and notched a ninth place finish in the WSOP Ladies event.

"This is the fourth event I've played, but this is my first time in Vegas," she told us earlier today. It wasn't a bad start for one of the newest Team Pros.

Day 1B, as any Day 1 flight tends to be, is one of anticipation. It's one where a player actively works to not lose everything, and if luck shines, pad the chip stack for Day 2. It's the kind of day where one of the world's elite competitors (read: Fatima Moreira de Melo) can be stymied by a guy just trying to set up his image. It's the type of day where a man might rather talk about his mother than the machinations of another poker tournament.

More than anything, though, it's the kind of day where people still have hope, the kind of hope that a coin-dealer's wife has just as good of a chance as an EPT champion. Day 1, by any measure, is a day of survival, the kind we tracked level-by-level today with PokerStars' Indian pro Aditya Agarwal.

Day 1C begins at 11am Vegas time on Monday, and we're expecting a who's who in the field. Day 1C is traditionally the biggest of the year, and we expect to see people in nearly every seat of this convention hall. If our expectations hold, we'll see Barry Greenstein, Felipe Ramos, Andre Akkari, Chris Moneymaker, George Danzer, Liv Boeree, Randy Lew, Celina Lin, Jake Cody, and last year's 11th place finisher Daniel Negreanu among the final flight's players.

Until then, goodnight from Las Vegas (unless, of course, you're hungry for some Jack in the Box).

Aditya Agarwal is playing his 11th World Series of Poker and, having cashed in five of his previous outings, is in confident mood ahead of this year's tournament. It makes Agarwal, the 31-year-old Team PokerStars Pro from India, an obvious candidate for someone to follow closely today. We're going to attempt to give a close-up insight into a player's journey through the World Series Main Event.

The plan is to talk to Agarwal at every break throughout today--and, we hope, for many subsequent days as well.

DAY ONE, LEVEL FOUR
Blinds: 200-400 (50 ANTE)

A confession: I was worried about this concept. Aditya Agarwal agreed at the start of play to keep us updated on his tournament progression, but poker can be cruel. The last thing anybody wanted was for his Main Event challenge to fizzle out, particularly with its details being broadcast far and wide. It's very easy to feel responsible on the rail: not only a cooler, but someone prepared to amplify the despair.

But we now have better news than the previous update: Agarwal is back to 53,300, more than his starting stack, after the most eventful level of his day so far.

Returning to 18,000 after the dinner break, he dribbled down to 11,000 not long into Level 4. But he then found Q-J in the big blind and called a late-position raise. He then flopped the world when it came 9-10-K.

They checked the flop, Agarwal bet 2,000 on the turn and shoved the river, finding a willing caller with K-Q. And then not long later he found aces against queens and they got it in pre-flop, doubling him again to the high 40,000s.

"That was good," he said. His distinctive giggle when relating good news is also back.

Remember back in Level 1 when we were talking about his tough table draw? Well, every single one of those vaunted opponents is now out. According to Agarwal, Anton Astapau bluffed it off; Jeremy Ausmus lost less spectacularly, but also hit the rail. Agarwal was not responsible. "Unfortunately," he said.

There's one level left in the day after which the night-long audit can begin. Agarwal is not counting any chickens and said he would "hopefully" agree to continue the story on Day 2. Two more hours and then we'll be there.

DAY ONE, LEVEL THREE
Blinds: 150-300

There's no way to dress this up: Things have taken a downturn in the last level for Aditya Agarwal. He is heading to his dinner break and leaving only 18,000 chips behind. In truth, he might easily have been out. After finding J-9, you might have thought a board of 9-9-J (two spades) was boom-time, but Barry Schultz was sitting with pocket jacks.

That cost Agarwal a chunk of chips, but it was even worse for Carter Gill. Gill had two spades and made his flush by the river. He was all-in and sent home.

Agarwal is now heading back to Palms Place for his dinner break and to spend some time with his wife. "I'll talk through some hands with some friends," he said. Although how to escape a cooler like that is not really something anyone can do much about.

Schultz is now the table captain, with more than 100,000. Astapau and Ausmus remain, but Gill's seat is empty, meaning they are playing eight handed on that table. Blinds will be 200-400 when they return, which is still 45 big blinds for Agarwal. There will be two more levels after that.

DAY ONE, LEVEL TWO
Blinds: 100-200

Without question, the WSOP Main Event is one of the most eagerly anticipated tournaments of the year and players look forward to it for months. But it's also true that there will be long periods when very little happens. It is a long and often tedious grind exchanging nothing much more than the occasional ante.

At the end of the second level on Day 1B, Aditya Argawal has 45,000 chips. It means he has played the past two hours for the net loss of 7,000--a negligible shift. "Uneventful," he said, before upgrading to, "Very uneventful."

Despite (or maybe because of) the talent stacked at the table, there haven't been any significant swings. Jeremy Ausmus has 50,750 and Anton Astapau has 58,000. Only Carter Gill's stack has changed markedly. He is left with 17,500 at the moment, which is still 87 big blinds.

That said, Anthony Zinno is in sight on a neighbouring table. He has a stack of 125,000 already, so there's always the chance for matters to change very quickly.

DAY ONE, LEVEL ONE
Blinds: 75-150

Agarwal was in his seat ahead of play starting at 11am and watched all other seats at his table gradually fill. And it's a tough table: Jeremy Ausmus (a WSOP bracelet winner, with close to $5m in tournament earnings) is to Agarwal's immediate left, while the APPT and LAPT champion Carter Gill is in the four seat.

"I have had softer tables on Day 1," Agarwal said.

He added that he didn't recognise the player who came to sit at seat six, but immediately established that he was a decent opponent. "He seems really good," Agarwal said. "In the Main Event, you can just tell: who seems comfortable, who isn't. He seems really comfortable."

The player in question is Anton Astapau, the Belarussian high roller. One suspects the two have crossed swords many times online, where Agarwal plays as "intervention" or "Adi Agarwal" and is top of the all-time Indian money list.

As you would expect from the opening level, very little changed to Agarwal's starting stack of 50,000 here. He said he got it up to 57,000 at one point, then ran top pair into a turned flush to take it back to 52,000.

It is very early days, but every road starts somewhere.

We'll update this post throughout the day.

WSOP photos by PokerPhotoArchive.com.

The tablet sits atop some fancy sort of stand, one that allows it to sit four feet off the carpet, rest securely in its frame, and broadcast the Euro '16 final to anyone within eyeshot. One man--either a superfan or a man who took a flier in the sports book this morning--has an earbud strung from the tablet into his head, and its white wire extends nearly two feet over to the makeshift TV. Together, the man and the tablet look like something out of a futuristic hospital. To the casual observer, the man is getting a transfusion of sports right into his brain.

There are no rules against this. Each player is allowed an electronic device at the table, and this man has just taken his allowance to the next level. He's not at all bothered when he bluffs and gets one of those cocky single-chip calls. He mucks straight away with what appears to be negative interest in seeing the hand that beat him. As such, his opponent doesn't bother to show it. There is a rule for this, however, and that rule allows for the winner to muck his hand facedown and take the pot. Watching the hand play out is like watching an entire game but having the winning goal blacked out. But, those are the rules.

Fatima Moreira de Melo, Olympian, model, and poker pro watches it all happen over the top of her own phone. She's got Instagram up, and it's amazing she's not captured her last big hand on it, because it was worthy of recording.

With opponent Ben Herman limping in before her, De Melo came in for a raise to 500 and got a call to see a [5d][5c][kc] flop. With the action checked to her, De Melo made it 500 again and got another call. The [4d] fell on the turn. Another check from Herman opened the door to De Melo's 1,200 bet. Once again, Herman called. The river, [kh], drew yet another check. De Melo bet 2,800, and Herman called.

"Ace-high," De Melo declared, tabling ace-jack.

Herman flipped up his hand: [kd][jd]. (That's second nuts if you're keeping score at home.)

De Melo rose up out of her chair as if she thought she'd just seen a six-headed moose cross the road. She thought she saw it, but she had to get closer to be sure.

Sure enough. There it was. A check-call with second nuts. A six-headed moose in the wild.

While nature may have rules against a multi-headed alces alces, there are no rules against check-calling with second nuts at the WSOP.

"I have no idea what happened there. I turned my ace-high into a bluff," De Melo said at the next break. "I guess I was repping quads or something? I don't know. I was like...huh? HUH?"

De Melo was still stymied an hour later. Though she was still in her typical good spirits, she was still pretty surprised she didn't see a raise there at the end.

"He limped pre-flop. I don't think it's very likely he's doing that with a pair higher than fives. So, I just wanted to get him off ace-high, and then he calls me," she said with a shrug. "But, we're still so deep."

In short, she's fine. She cashed well in two events in the last two weeks. She got to hang our with her buddy Leo Margets in the Tag Team event. She's not about to freak out over one hand.

Nevertheless, it seemed only fair to ask Herman about his thought process when he just called with second nuts.

"In the first level, if I raise there, people at the table suggested she could level herself and be calling with an ace. She's never doing that," Herman said later. "If she does have a king, we're likely getting it all-in. And I don't have the nuts. There is absolutely nothing she is calling with that I'm still beating, and there is no reason for me to go to a showdown all-in when I don't have the nuts in the first level. So that was it."

And then, he offered one other little nugget.

"Whatever it sets up at the table the rest of the way..."

And there it was. Not only did Herman get to win a nice little pot early on, but he got to set up a little table image in the process.

After all, there's no rule against that.