It was one empty table in a sea of poker mayhem. On it sat a hastily-printed sign on a piece of 8x11 paper. It read "Proceed to final table."

If I knew it was going to be that easy, I would've entered myself. I mean, who needs to flop the nuts on Day 1 when you start the day at the final table?

Turns out, it wasn't that easy. It just happens that the ESPN featured table is being called the Final Table for the purposes of guiding people to their required seats.

At this moment, there is no official count on the number of people in search of the nuts today. I suspect hard numbers will be hard to come by for a few days. Without numbers, I went in search of faces. One I searched for immediately was Dave "davebreal" Blinder. Dave and I had crossed virtual paths before--usually to my bankroll's detriment--but had not met face to face until last night at the PokerStars Supernova party. He and I had a good chance to chat last night on topics ranging from photography to his specialty Pot-Limit O8. After sharing a cab back to the Rio last night, I told him I would find him during his first day of the World Series. It took a while, but I eventually tracked him down. He was eying John D'Agastino's stack and taking the event in the stride you'd expect from a guy who can handle the slings and arrows of Omaha games.





A hundred yards away sat a lady I had never met. Kate "barny156" Barnbrook didn't look as tired as she should. After a 10-12 hour flight from Wales yesterday, Kate showed up yesterday to stand in line for four hours so she could register for the World Series. It was, in her word, "knackering." Kate runs the Wales Poker League in her native UK and qualified for the Series in PokerStars mega satellite a couple of weeks ago.



Finally, at the end of my second walk through the room, I found the nuts. Rather, I found The Nut...Mr. Peanut himself.



When you're the official nut of the World Series, who needs a pass to the final table?