by Craig Cunningham

"Jeff and I were up until 7:00AM celebrating the big day," said John Armbrust as he unbagged his chips at his new table. "I knew you said you were good luck, but I didn't realize it was this good!"

Jeff Norman held the chiplead from all Day 1's with 281k. And he was running late to get to Table 75. "I'm scrambling trying to get there," he said on his cell phone. While other players unpacked a dozen or two chips, his bag was filled with a rainbow of yellows, oranges, and blues ready to be stacked.

He sprinted to the table and ripped open the bag in the 1s after showing his ID. "I went home for two days just to get away from all of it," he said. "I got a massage, slept, surfed, just didn't want it to go to my head. Let me tell you something though: everyone should have three or four standard deviations of luck once in poker."

© Neil Stoddart

PokerStars qualifiers Ernst Hermans (2s, 20k), Bernard Lee (5s, 45k), and Jason Decker (8s, 63k) would be with Jeff as long as they stayed in the event today. Table 75 would not break as it sat next to the ESPN Feature Table, where Team PokerStars own Daniel Negreanu held court.

Jeff smiled and chatted with his tablemates as he took a few pots early, a spider spinning his sticky web ready to pounce on those around him.