WSOP Main Event: Break Time

by C.J. Hoyt

"I flopped the straight but... ...I can't believe he played J7 suited under the gun... ...I knew he hit the flush on the river, what a donkey..."

When the sounds of chip-shuffling ends, it's replaced by a million and one poker complaints. Few players rush to recount the big hands they won, but they surely remember the ones that went wrong.

They've played for two hours now and not a single PokerStars qualifier I've come across is in desperate shape. In fact, some of them have even started to chip up. When it's your first Main Event, it's easy to sit on your chips until pocket Aces finally come your way, but it's a little hard to go deep in a tournament waiting on one hand.

Nadejda "Jenna Fan" Abelli is doing just fine. She's chipped up to about 16,000 and is having a great time. PokerStars has hundreds of qualifiers, and you can expect the women to be well-represented. Sitting next to her in Seat 2 is Wade "Wader" Graham, who was still at about 10,000 at the break. And in Seat 4, Shawn "cstu82" Stewart is up to about 14,000.

All the action, however, was over at my favorite table, Table 123, and the seven PokerStars players there. Team PokerStars Australia player Emad Tahtouh was the last PokerStars player to join the table, but he hasn't been shy about getting into hands. Ali's already recounted his two big hands here. I can tell you that the big flush he ran into was none other than FPP qualifier Tony "Irishlust" Mucci, who's got himself a nice stack after the first break.