by Craig Cunningham
l to r: Ashley Liu (Toronto), Travis Remmert (Iowa), Adrian Pitt (Sydney).

If you've ever won a seat and trip from PokerStars, or even if you've railbirded a friend online, the chat box is filled with familiar chatter after the prize bubble is burst. "No ****in way!" "I can't believe this!" Yessssssssssssss!" "See you in Vegas!" Ashley Liu (1s) and Travis Remmert (2s) sat next to each other for the first five hours, but until I asked how they qualified, they didn't know that indeed they had both qualified in the same event on PokerStars. They may well have typed see you in Vegas! in the chat box after they won their seat to the Main Event. From the same event to sitting side by side at their first table in the Main Event: what are the odds of that? Adrian Pitt hails from Sydney and qualified through PokerStars $3 re-buy tourney. He made fast friends with Travis and Ashley, and they laughed and chatted hand after hand after hand.

Tommi Romppainen from Sweden must have been a bit bewildered as all of the chatter went back and forth to his right by his fellow PokerStars qualifiers. He couldn't turn off the chat feature and didn't bring out the noise-cancelling headphones, so he must have been fine to take it all in. His stack was in good shape, so he didn't seem to mind.


Cliff Conners (center) sat in the 9s next to Jason Lester. Lester won his first WSOP bracelet this year, but Cliff was hardly intimidated. This 1k FPP qualifier was more than holding his own and hardly intimidated by his surroundings. Plattsburgh, New York is almost as far away from Las Vegas as you can get in America, just a stone's throw from Vermont and Canada. Cliff doesn't look out of place; he looks like he's lived at these tables in Las Vegas all his life.