I woke up too early. Way too early. My eyes opened at 6:39am. Closing them was futile. I was awake. After a discussion with the room service operator, a lady from North Carolina, about Rio's definition of country ham, I had some ham and eggs and tried to go back to sleep. (Note: The Rio's defnition of country ham is different from a Carolinian's definition of country ham). Sleep was still elusive and I managed to only catch 30 minutes before I had to wake up for the noon start of the $2,500 PL Hold'em event. Funny thing, though. Event #28 didn't start until 2pm. So, I fashioned the 2006 WSOP Primer and waited.

Now, the pot-limit hold'em event is underway. Here's the funny thing. I was talking to Brandon Schaefer (2005 EPT French Open winner) and we agreed that it seemed reasonable that many of the tough players would be in today's $5,000 stud event. Bigger buy-ins attract the tough pros, so, both Brandon and I assumed the Pot-Limit Hold'em event might have a softer field. No sooner had we thought the same thing did we see the likes of Fossilman and Joe Hachem making their way to the pot-limit hold'em event. Fossilman made it clear to Brandon that the name pros would be out in today's smaller event. The reason should've been clear to us all. The stud event is not being televised. The hold'em event is. It's the new age of poker, folks, and TV means a lot.

PokerStars has more than 40 players in today's field. Here's a list of who we will be watching today.

55lucky55
AaronLoew
Apathy123
Blessed
Brandon78
check_kills
chrisbigler
dazzy2004
ElkY
FossilMan
gaffel
gbmantis
GreasyTony
HerbieX101
jimbo322
JoeHachem
JohnnyBax
Johnster
LucaPagano
Money800
NoMercy
OzGary
PokerMillion
Randers
Roothlus
SamENole
schaefer
shaniac
sirio11
SiVTEC
skittles_165
steveg12
stevejpa
stevesbets
strassa2
The Shrike
TIJO
twin-caracas
Unassigned
Vandiesel
Vanessa Rousso
weways
WhenPigsFly
xmrstyle
yellowhat