Insta-photo gallery, Wil Wheaton begins play, and a big hand for John Gale

Oh. My.

To walk through the room, one requires a steady mind, a quick foot, and an electric cattle prod. Registration is still open for another few minutes. Thousands of people (this must be a fire hazard of some sort...) play, peer, prod, and pray.

To be quite honest, at this moment, chip counts and player stands are irrelevant. It's all about survival right now as the first level ends.

The Official PokerStars Blog has several people in the field, scoping the players for hands and notes of interest. Our own audio blogger James Hartigan (stay tuned for his reports) just came back with this dispatch from across the room:

Team PokerStars' John Gale (winner of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure WPT tournament in the Bahamas) raised pre-flop to 150 (blinds 25/50) and got four callers. The flop came down A6T with two diamonds. Gale bet out 325. Three opponents folded, but the last check-raised to 825. The turn briught the three of hearts, putting two hearts on board. The opponent bet out 1000. Gale smooth called. The river brought the six of hearts. The opponent bet out another thousand. Gale called. Opponent showed AT for aces up. Gale showed A8 of hearts for the rivered nut flush.

Here's the first insta-photo gallery of the main event:

PokerStars Wil Wheaton begins his first WSOP (note: Wil was seated directly next to pro player Paul Darden. Wheaton peaked in the first level at 11,000 in chips before losing a big pot to Darden. Wil had AJ on a jack-high flop. Darden slowed-played a set of jacks and put Wil down to 8900.


Wheaton checks his hole cards


Wheaton, a media darling


Isabelle Mercier lets her hair down for Day 1


Eric "erbloore" Bloore makes a run for another final table

And here's just one quadrant of PokerStars players in the sea of faces