At breakfast this morning, the discussion was about chip stacks.
“How many do we start with?” asked one anxious player, through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
“Ten thousand,” chimed the rest, variously flavoured by yoghurt, croissant and Danish salami.
“There’ll still be someone out on the first hand,” offered Barny Boatman. “How difficult is it to go like that with 10,000 in chips?” With this, the pepper pot was shoved aggressively in my direction.
Barny didn’t have this all his own way. In fact, another of the breakfast club wanted him to put his money where his pancake-filled mouth was. He amended it to “the first ten minutes”, then took the bet. Someone out within ten minutes of level one and the Hendon Mobster is one pint of beer richer.
Well, in fact, he isn’t. We’ve now been playing for about forty minutes and – unless someone has perished as I type – everyone is still present and correct.
All of which is a rather long-winded way of saying that there’s no great movers and shakers to report on just yet. Instead, here are a few photographs of some of those we’ll be following.
Rob Hollink – reigning EPT Grand Final champion
Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series champion and Team PokerStars member
Simon “Suffolk Punch” Young – journalist with The Sun
Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier
Jan Molby – former Liverpool FC soccer star
Pascal Perrault, EPT Vienna champion, and Edgar Skjervold, WCOOP champion
Barny Boatman, second from left, sandwiched between three PokerStars qualifiers: Justin Drechsler, John Brooks and Thomas Grundy. Christopher Hancock and Kevin McGroaty are also on the table, making table 16 the place to be for PokerStars players
