by Craig Cunningham
Sam "vegassami" Seegars lives in Las Vegas, but this is her first World Series event. The PokerStars qualifier had her back to the ESPN Feature Table all day and night. She never had a huge or short stack, treading water late into the evening. She was still going strong as they reached the 91 table mark.

Hector Garza from Texas started the day at the Rio on a bench next to two fellow PokerStars qualifiers. With his unique hair, Hector was difficult to miss as I wondered the floor. His stack got up to $24k but by midnight it had slipped to $15k.

Kelly Contreras from Lake Stephens, WA hauled her brother to the Monte Carlo this week to share in the World Series of Poker experience. The PokerStars qualifier had a novel approach to her table: she never wanted to know her chip count. "You can count it, but don't tell me!" she told me. I did, and $28k before the dinner break counted for alot. She was still alive and kicking after midnight, although she may not be able to tell you exactly how many chips she has. With yellow and pink chips in front of her, maybe it didn't matter too much after all.