From this vantage point I was able to see that there are three ways to go about playing on Day One of a poker tournament this large. From the joker table I heard some of the most exciting words you can hear at the Series, “All in and a call.” Players rushed over from neighboring tables. An ESPN crew jogged over and set up their camera and mike. And for what? On a king-high flop one joker had pushed all in with pocket 6s and another joker had called with K-4. This is one way to play on the first day of the world championship of poker, but I don’t think it’s the right way.

David Williams might have it all figured out. After all, having finished second in the 2004 main event, he knows a little something about how to go deep in this event. What was he doing for much of the day? Watching television! That’s right. He had some TV show playing on his iPod—I think it was Law & Order—and he seemed way more interested in that than the action at his table. In half an hour I watched him fold his small blind—it was only $100 more to call!—several times and play but a single hand. From middle position he raised to 700. The small blind reraised to 2.3k. Williams called and as he did he paused his show and sat straight up in his chair. The flop came [10d 2 s 7h]. The small blind bet 2k. Williams showed A-K, which he folded, and resumed watching television.

Ten feet away from Williams, Patrik Antonius was playing in an entirely different manner, getting mixed up in as many pots as possible. He limped in as often as he could from any position. On a particularly exciting hand Antonius limped from the button. The guy in the small blind, who had been collecting autographs on the WSOP hat he was wearing, raised 1k. Antonius called and the flop came A97. The small blind bet 1k, and Antonius called. The turn was the 4. The small blind bet 1.5k, and Antonius raised to 5.3k. The small blind mucked what I suspect was a fairly big ace. Respect.

On the very next hand Antonius raised to 1.4k from the cutoff seat. The big blind reraised 2.1k. Antonius mucked. And so it went. Antonius played over half the hands he got dealt each round, sometimes raising, often limping, occasionally calling a raise. He won some pots, lost some others, but you got the feeling that with his experience and skill this style was going to serve him well in the end. He was definitely embracing the school of thought that advocates trying to accumulate a lot of chips against inferior players… or else going home early. As a big cash game player, barely surviving for four or five days only to get knocked out before making any money would not serve him well.

From what I could tell Farha was playing a mixture of these two styles, looser than most players but hardly as loose as the man can be. So which style is better? Only time will tell, but I do know that the best approach doesn’t involve moving all in with pocket 6s when there’s a king on the flop.