This is the job. You arrive at the Amazon Ballroom for day 1C of the World Series of Poker where you will be wandering the floor, searching for the stories, looking out for the poker stars of today and the poker stars of the future. You know to keep an eye tuned for the players in the PokerStars livery, which gives as good an indication as any as to where the stories will lie. You have barely started the day, met no more than two other people and worked for about seven minutes, when you are passing through the red section and hear a familiar refrain: "All in and call on table nine!"

This is the job. You sit at the table and watch in part anguish, part exhilaration as the dealer asks for cards to be exposed. The dealer has previously dealt the flop of [5d][10h][jd] and you know you have flopped bottom set with your [5h][5s] concealed. Your opponent, named Andreas Doess (although you don't know that yet), shows his hand first. He has [10d][10s] and the knife sinks into your heart. This is the job. You slap your cards onto the felt, knowing you are now beat. You shove your chair back and you know that you are looking for two cards in the deck to rescue your tournament life, your million dollar dream, your shot at the big time. You haven't noticed that there are swarms of vultures descended upon the table, some clutching video cameras, boom-mics, notebooks. The dealer turns [4s][7c]. Your dream is dead. This is the job.

This is the job. You watch a man slap some cards onto the table, you watch another calmly turn his over. You watch a man allow himself a smile, you watch another feel as though he has died. You watch railbirds chatter, you watch cameras dive and swoop. You know that you were an eye-witness to the first story of the day from the World Series of Poker and you know that you need to know the name of the deceased. You know you must perform the death knock. This is the job. "I'm so sorry," you say. This is the job. "But can you please tell me your name?"

This is the job. You can only think of getting away. You can only hope the world will swallow you whole. Your tournament has lasted seven minutes and you want it to last no longer. But you turn to depart, take your first five steps away from the executioner's block, when you feel a tap on your shoulder and turn to see a man standing there with a notebook. He has a pen poised and he wants to know your name. "Am I the first one out?" you ask, and the realisation only now dawns what this means. The man with the notebook winces. He says he is sorry for your loss, but he says that yes, you are the first man out. You don't hear a number of other players laugh from the neighbouring table. (They are laughing not at you, but partly in amusement at the reporter's awkwardness and partly out of relief that they are not you.) You say: "Robert Vincent" and allow even a smile. You seem to realise that neither of you want to be doing what you are doing, having this conversation, not hearing the laughs, saying or writing your name. But you do it and then you walk away. This is the job.

Robert Vincent, PokerStars qualifier from Paris, France, was the first player eliminated from day 1C of the World Series of Poker Main Event. He had pocket fives and flopped a set. His opponent, Andy Doess, had pocket tens and also flopped a set. It was bigger. He won.

You will be both back next year. This is the job.

With apologies to David Simon

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STATISTIC OF THE HOUR

Number of pink hats worn by men on day 1C: 1 (Team PokerStars Pro, Gavin Griffin, breast cancer research supporter)

MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH OF THE HOUR

Less than ten minutes in, an all-in on a board of [qh][10d][10s][6d][qd]

Player 1 (who had just folded pocket kings): You didn't play it like you had a pair. You played it like you had ace-king. You played it like you had ace-queen.

Player 2: Good fold. I had you beat. Not on the flop...

Player 1: On the turn or river?

Player 2: I've said enough. Possibly too much...

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VIDEO BLOG OF THE HOUR
Team PokerStars Pro on quick thinking in poker

Watch WSOP 2009: Inside the game - quick thinking on PokerStars.tv

Between 1970-2005, the WSOP paid out $354,000,000 in total. Since then, the prize money has grown every year up to $180,774,427 in 2008. While we won't know the total amount for this year until sometime tomorrow, the WSOP Commissioner is already proud to report the big milestone.

After smaller than normal numbers in the Day 1 A & B flights, we're expecting a much bigger field today. We're also planning to see a ton of familiar faces. Scheduled to play in Day 1C are William Thorson, Marcin Horecki, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, Joe Hachem, Tom McEvoy, Ylon Schwartz, Gavin Griffin, Maridu "maridu" Mayrinck, Darus Suharto, Marcel Luske, and Hevad Khan.

The rest of the field is filling in behind and looks to be a big one. We won't know the numbers for a while this afternoon, but there's little chance it will be near as small as yesterday's 873.

In fact, Tournament Director Jack Effel has just announced that instead of only playing four levels (like Day 1A and 1B), today and tomorrow's field will play five and that they'll work out the difference on Day 2.

With the call of shuffle up and deal from Rep. Barney Frank, a crash of cymbals from a player at Table 88, and the riffling of thousands of chips, Day 1C is underway.

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STATISTICS OF THE HOUR

Number of players in full Native American headdress: 1

Number of players penalized before the start of play for crashing cymbals together: 1

TWEET OF THE HOUR

"No tweets today cause I think I'm at the feature table." -- @REALKIDPOKER

You can find day 1C coverage by clicking on our World Series of Poker coverage page. Check out all of our video coverage on PokerStars.tv.

A complete list of PokerStars players who survived Day 1B is below. Click here for day 1A survivors.

The eliminations started exceptionally early today, and right in front of media row. Down on table 77, about five yards from where this is being written, the PokerStars qualifier Angelo Ricci got it all in within about ten minutes of play beginning. Ricci's aces stayed good against Angelo Miele's pocket queens, vaulting the Canadian into the definitive early chip lead and sending Miele to the rail.

Ricci built impressively on his speedy start, bagging up more than 50,000 at the end of the day. But it was Miele who really set the tone: players followed him out the door with startling regularity, making their bids for independence on the most appropriate of days.

Many were liberated from their chip stacks by a pair of PokerStars qualifiers on table 38 named Craig Hopkins and Vadim Gruzglin. Those two were neighbours at the table and on the leaderboard throughout today's action, each scaling the dizzy heights of 120,000-ish in the penultimate level, and remaining there at day's end.

The humble Englishman Hopkins, who we first encountered when he made the final table of the PCA in January 2008, put his surge down to good fortune: "I had kings and hit the nut flush. I had queens and made queens full," Hopkins said. "Every time I played I seemed to hit two pair," he continued, striking a blow for the vanquished Brits on American Independence Day. Gruzglin was similarly ruthless, and got his monsters to stand up. His aces gave him a double up, then his kings knocked out two others: one shoving with tens, another with ace-king.

There were mixed fortunes for Team PokerStars Pro -- although they at least had each other for company for much of the day. The random table draw pitted Luca Pagano against Barry Greenstein on one table and Alex Kravchenko against Greg Raymer on another.

All four of them were still battling at day's close (Pagano with 43,000, Greenstein with 19,000, Raymer with 45,000 and Kravchenko with 55,000), but the players consigned to a solitary fight -- Vicky Coren and Chris Moneymaker -- both fell at the first. Coren's set of queens were no good during level three ("There's no hand I would've played differently. I was just comically, efficiently doomed" she tweeted later), while Moneymaker's Twitter followers got the following: "Well that was fun. Was shortstacked and pushed with 10/10. Got called by A/A. Busted."

We also met the PokerStars qualifiers Bryan Kerr and Dion Jones today. Kerr survived his day on the feature table with 32,000, while Jones shimmied up to 31,000 at the end. It's also going to be worth keeping an eye on the Team PokerStars Holland Pro Joep van den Bijgaart, who finished with 64,000, which is 4,000 more than the fearsome PokerStars tournament force Shaun Deeb's 60,000.

A grand total of 873 players joined the fray on day 1b, and the precise number remaining, as well as their chip counts, will be made known to us overnight and posted here. Tomorrow is day 1c, the third of four opening days. As ever, all the action will be on PokerStars blog.

In the meantime, take a look back at today's action with each, any, some, none (that wouldn't work) of the following links to the day 1b coverage.

Intro to day 1b
Team Pro cannibalism
Three from Down Under up here
Travel sickness
Mr Unpronounceable. (Joep van den Bijgaart)
Lights, Bryan Kerr, action...
The latest from Vicky Coren
Freeroll to the big dance
Couple days, couple thousand people

And remember, PokerStars blog is an equal opportunities employer, which means we also tolerate people afflicted by Swedish, Spanish, Dutch or German. Video coverage is always available at PokerStars.tv and all of today's photos, including this one of some fireworks, come © Joe Giron/IMPDI Worldwide.

Happy Independence Day, America. We'll be back tomorrow.

The final numbers on Day 2 have just come in and they are not exactly blockbuster. A total of 873 players showed up today, down a bit from yesterday's 1,116 starting field. That gives 1,989 players who've plunked down their $10,000 so far.

We've been encouraged to not sweat the small field so far, as today is a big holiday here in America and most people likely chose to go out and BBQ with friends and family. The early projections for Sunday and Monday's field are more in the 2,000+ player range.

So, rather than dwell on statistics and such, we'll just look to some of the good news coming out of the last hour.

Craig Hopkins is a familiar face for us. The man from the U.K. placed fifth in the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $450,000. Today, he's looking to make another deep run and he's getting the cards to make it so.

"Everything time I've played," Hopkins told us, "I seemed to hit at least two pair."

Truth be told, it's been better than two pair at least a couple times. His pocket kings ended up making a nut flush. His pocket queens turned into a full house. It was enough to take the PokerStars qualifier from 52,000 to 119,000 in just one level.

Like yesterday, the field is only playing four levels today. That means we are just one hour from the close of another day of play.

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TWEET OF THE HOUR

"Thanks all for lucky wishes. Nothing I could do; there's no hand I would've played differently. It was just comically, efficiently doomed." -- @VickyCoren following her Day 1 exit.

PERSONAL HYGIENE TRICK OF THE HOUR

Dealer spraying Axe body spray under his arms in the doorway of the men's room.

JOE GIRON PHOTO HOUR

VIDEO OF THE HOUR

"Nines," he said with a slightly defeated tone in his voice.

What Jones may not have known at the moment is that he had just danced his way through a mini-minefield and come out with a win.

His opponent's face fell. "Nines are good."

Jones smiled and raked his chips, "I didn't want to see ace-deuce or something."

Jones probably should've known he could maneuver his way to victory. The man in the three seat at Table 22 is pretty light on his feet. Don't believe us? Check out the video we found a couple of minutes ago.

That's our man with the nines doing a little tango with one of his students. Jones owns a ballroom dance studio down in the Sunshine State.

It's becoming apparent to us that Jones' grace on the dance floor may very well translate to his poker play. A few weeks back Jones managed to place in the top two players of a 460 Frequent Player Point satellite to the 200 Seat mega satellite PokerStars ran for the World Series. The very next day, the dances instructor sat down and played for several hours and walked away with his Main Event package.

"So far, this is a freeroll," he said.

With one level to go in the night, it looks like Jones may very well dance his way to Day 2. We'll hope for his sake, it's not the last tango in Vegas.

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TWEET OF THE HOUR

"When I was a kid I cried when Clubber Lang knocked out Rocky. Get em' Balboa!!! Beat that chump!" -- @RealKidPoker in the middle of an Independence Day "Rocky" marathon on his day off.

FIRST ALL-IN CALL FALSE ALARM OF THE HOUR

An all-in call announced by the dealer that nearly gave Alexey "Baileal" Poypov a heart attack. "False alarm, false alarm, false alarm" said the dealer in some hurried back tracking, the same move the TV crew was making, halting their advance. It was only false for a few seconds though. On the board of [jc][10c][6d][3s] Poypov did in fact get his money in and found a caller. His pocket tens doubling him up against pocket kings. The dealer called over the cameras but had cried wolf once too often. Instead Poypov got it quietly.

QUOTE OF THE HOUR

"Apparently he was from Jersey and he was quite drunk." --Anonymous media representitive reporting on the much talked about tale of a player getting up and walking out with his chips...and not returning.

JOE GIRON PHOTO HOUR

VIDEO OF THE HOUR

For the PokerStars qualifier Bryan Kerr, this kind of faux pas was not even an option. When he arrived to the Amazon Room today -- comfortably in the middle of the pack, incidentally -- he thought he heard his table number being called over the loudspeaker, but figured he had misheard. So he went off in search of table Orange 78 anyway, only to find it completely empty on his arrival. Instead of nine stacks of chips, a pack of cards and a dealer, there was a sheet of A4 paper with some words printed on it: "PLEASE REPORT TO THE ESPN FEATURE TABLE".

"I was kinda hoping to be on TV," Kerr said happily a few minutes later, minutes during which he had trudged from one corner of the Amazon Ballroom all the way to the far opposite one, had been introduced to the ESPN television crew, had been wired up with a radio mic, had filled out a release form and questionnaire providing biographical details for a television commentary team, and had prepared for his time under the studio lights. He has also met Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, seated two seats to his right, with whom he would do battle for the coming day.

Kerr, from Barrington, Illinois, is playing in his first World Series, so this is truly a baptism of fire. He qualified on PokerStars last year, but the Main Event came two weeks before his 21st birthday, meaning he had to reinvest the satellite funds in honing his game throughout the intervening 11 months in preparation for his shot at the title this time around. Now, at two weeks shy of his 22nd birthday, he has been able to take his place at the biggest game in town.

The opening exchanges have been fun. "I thought I might be nervous, but I actually really like it a lot," said Kerr on his return from the dinner break. He had marshaled his starting stack of 30,000 up to about 47,000 by the interval, with no major skirmishes and no major frights. "I play mainly cash games online and playing cash is good practice for deep stack tournaments."

Kerr usually plays eight to ten tables at a time online, but hasn't missed the breakneck action. Instead he said he's been focusing on solid tournament strategy here, switching gears at the optimum moments, picking the times to stay tight and then seizing on the opportunities to steal. And as for Matusow: "He's been great," Kerr said. "I've never met him before but he seems like the nicest guy. He's signed a copy of his new book for all of us."

Perhaps Kerr is busy writing himself into the sequel.

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HAND OF THE HOUR

On a board of [2d][ks][9s] the attention is on Eric Seidel. By attention we mean the TV boom and their accompanying cameras. There's also the rail, about three thick and three feet away. Seidel had bet 7,500 but Kenneth Hicks in seat nine had bumped it up by moving all in, 16,675 more.

Seidel sucked in some air, reconfirmed the count, smiled and said he'd call, although that process took several minutes. Hicks turned over [2s][2c] while Seidel showed [ts][js]. The [8c] turn did nothing but the [3s] on the river had everyone making that "ahhh, hiss" noise - the one you make when you bang your toe. Seidel up to 72,000.

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JOE GIRON'S PHOTO HOUR

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VIDEO BLOG OF THE HOUR

Introducing the PokerStars qualifier Jonathan Lewis:

Watch WSOP 2009: Jonathan Lewis an online qualifier on PokerStars.tv

Sometimes, though, it's well worth the trouble it takes to make that journey, as a man named Joe Hachem will attest. The Team PokerStars Pro flew to Las Vegas in 2005 with the instructions, "Don't come home until you're World Champion!" ringing in his ears. He duly obliged, winning the final World Series Main Event to be played at Binion's Horseshoe, pocketing $5m and launching a poker boom Down Under.

Here at the Rio today are three players benefiting from the Hachem effect. Grant Levy is a newly minted Team PokerStars Australia Pro, while Michael Soranson and Peter Longmore are PokerStars qualifiers in the big dance for a relative pittance, having won online satellites.

"I can't lose," said an expectant Soranson in the anxious moments before the start of play. "Everything's a bonus from here."

Having taken up poker about three years ago, playing in online freerolls to build a balance sufficient to move up the ladder of games, Soranson is now able to describe himself as a poker professional. This is his first trip to poker's spiritual home and he's enjoying it immensely so far, describing visits to Caesars and the Wynn as "sightseeing".

His travel companion on this trip is his mother, but his fiance Nicole is following his progress through the time-zones back in in Brisbane. A decent pay-day here should set up a great wedding when Soranson returns.

Longmore had to make a tough decision to come to the World Series all the way from Melbourne. The father of a two-year-old had a hard time leaving his kid for the long haul to Las Vegas. The one-time full-time pro now just plays when he can and finally made the decision to cross the Pacific. This Longmore's second main event.

The first time, "I got crushed," he said. But even if that's the case again -- and we hope and expect it not to be -- Longmore has very little to lose. This year he is in for $36, having won his package in a $36 double shootout qualifier.

Levy's might be a similarly new name to many readers, but really it shouldn't be. The 30-year-old from Penrith, near Sydney, has been causing significant ripples for some time now, none more so than in December 2007, when he became the first Australian to become a poker millionaire on home soil when he took down the APPT event in Sydney.

Levy has been on a tear since then, notching up decent scores in numerous tournaments across the southern hemisphere. He took his seat in the red section this afternoon eager to make his first splash in this neck of the woods.

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CREATIVE PROMOTION OF THE HOUR

Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren has affixed a large PokerStars sticker to her designer sunglasses. When asked if she thought the sticky backing might ruin the lenses, she shrugged. "The alternative was to wear a hat, and I draw the line," she said. "If it ruins the sunglasses, nevermind."

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SEMAPHORE OF THE HOUR

Right hand to logo on shirt, right arm then extended in direction of corresponding lounge. Repeat three to four times until they nod three or four times.

(Used when signalling a friend on the rail as to where they should wait for you at the break.)

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JOE GIRON'S PHOTO HOUR

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VIDEO OF THE HOUR