by C.J. Hoyt

"The cameras keep coming by," Lee "pokerlee" Pierce told me, "They seem to like the blonde over there.

Pierce, two to the left of "The Blonde"

"The blonde" in the 5 seat just happens to be poker pro Cyndy Violette. Apparently, our PokerStars qualifiers were completely unfazed. Even Robert Hawkes was still enjoying himself early as he saw his stack dwindle to around 4,000. He's still alive. Lee and Dave "DSGDale" Greenleaf did much better in the first level growing their stacks to 12,000 and 14,000 respectively.

If our own WSOP Champion Joe Hachem weren't playing today, perhaps ESPN would would have selected a Dutchman instead of an Australian for the final table. Instead, Marcel Luske is holding court at Table 176, and the ESPN cameras aren't far away.

Across the table from him are three PokerStars qualifiers, Michael Burns, Jorge Martinez and James Grogan. The company is likely enjoyable enough, but chipping up early has probably boosted their spirits as well.

It's a similar story over at Table 179 with poker pro Robert Williamson. He's also joined by a trio of PokerStars qualifiers: David Cristini, Derek Scott and Ashley Cheung.

Finally, there are guys at Table 180. They don't have a poker pro there, but they have the other thing guaranteed to attract the cameras. A brutal beat.

The suckout artist is not a PokerStars player and, thankfully, the victim was not either. But Bryan "bjlaz" Lazarski and Dwayne "baron5" Ronson saw it all.

"He was holding Ah5h and the flop came down 34-blank. The other guy was holding pocket 3's," Lee told me, before getting involved in his own hand.

Dave picked up the story, "The turn was an Ace and [the suckout artist] pushed with top pair and the gutshot draw. He was called and the 2 on the river gave him the wheel."

While Dave finished the story, Lee was deep in a hand of his own, putting out a 3,000 chip bet on the river with a board showing 4423x. The suckout artist thought very hard, even asking, "Are you making a move on me," before mucking. Lee showed his Ah4h.

"I guess you're glad it wasn't the A5 there?" I told him.

He laughed, "That's the truth!"