by Simon Young

The field in Day 1 of the Main Event is so large that it is entirely possible to get through it without having to battle against a big-name player. When I tried my luck here last year, for example, I did not face any known biggies until I joined Shannon Shorr's table half-way through Day 2. But for PokerStars player Adam Nilsson, the opposite has happened - he is surrounded by names, and what's more, he is mixing it up with them, building a tidy 63,000 stack.

Adam Nilsson: Cool customer
Sitting with Adam are Team PokerStars' John Duthie, Britain's Marc Goodwin and Rajesh Modha (who won the Poker Million last December), and, just for good measure, Hoyt Corkins. Phew! What's more Adam, from Utkoping, Sweden, got here for nothing, having bought in with his Frequent Player Points, one of the benefits of playing so many cash games online that he reached SuperNova status.

"I have played professionally online at PokerStars for a few years now," he said. "I do not play that many tournaments, but this one is going okay at the moment. It is an interesting table."

Interesting table it certainly is - moments before we talked, John Duthie doubled up against Rajesh Modha when his turned straight overtook Modha's aces. Duthie, who won the Poker Million six years before Modha, now sits on 70,000 chips.

PokerStars qualifier Gavin Mackay, whom we featured on the blog earlier, has moved tables and found himself in illustrious company as well. He now has Finland's Patrik Antonius, Britain's Ross Boatman (one quarter of The Hendon Mob) - and Sam Simon, one of the original creators of The Simpsons, for company. Doh!

Nonetheless Gavin, from Manchester in the UK, is holding his own on just over 33,000 after a rollercoaster ride. "I was over 60,000, then dropped to 31,000 when my K-K raise was called by 6-7. The flop came 7 high, I bet, then the other guy goes all in - he hits another 7 on the river and I'm down to 31,000. I then went dropped slowly down to 14,000, but then rivered quad sixes to double up. It's a fun table!"


Gavin Mackay: Up, down, up again