More than deriding Wilkinson’s game, I have been trying to emphasize how great the competition is at his table. With Wilkinson gone the bracelet is now being fought over by Sheihkan, Erick Seidel, and Chad Brown. At last glance Sheikhan had a large chip lead. He had a large wall of orange $5,000 chips in front of him that climbed halfway up his chest. Do I consider him to be any more of a poker star than Wilkinson? Well, after cashing seven times at the World Series, making four final tables, and finishing 11^th in the main event in 2005, all in the course of six years, I would have to say that he is indeed one of the top players in the world. If he ends up winning the 2-7 bracelet tonight, then I will reiterate that last statement with a lot more emphasis.

Meanwhile, the line to register for the main event continues to snake its way down the hall. It has been the same length the entire day: extremely long. Poker players are starting to remind me more and more of Dead heads.

Despite a half an hour delay to accommodate a slew of last-minute entries which pushed the field from 800 to 900, the tournament got off to an excellent start, especially when compared to last year when the event was played with only six players sitting at each table. Even with nine players at a table, the field was still large enough to require the use of the Poker Tent, where, you might recall, “Eskimo” Clark collapsed yesterday afternoon. Amongst the big names forced to schlep themselves out to the Tent were Erick Lindgren and Eric Froelich (“E-Dog” and “E-Fro”!).

What I find most interesting about this tournament is how different the play can vary from table to table. At some of the faster and looser tables a winner of Round 1 was crowned within an hour or two while at the slower tables a champ might not emerge until this evening. At one of the faster tables to get down to two players Erick Seidel is battling Mitch Shock heads-up. At the outset Seidel only had 10k while Shock had 20k, but Seidel knows a little something about heads-up play. Relying on his experience and guile as well as a hand where he got quad jacks, Seidel grabbed the lead 17k-13k, which at last glance he had stretched to 19k-11k. “You got the best of me on this heads-up,” Shock said at one point. “I really want to suck out on you so if I say I beat Erick Seidel I can then explain that I was way behind in the hand.”

As important as who is left is who is gone. Fresh from winning his record-breaking 11^th gold bracelet, Phil Hellmuth was all smiles at his table until he pushed a little too hard with K-7 and got called by a player with A-10 and another holding pocket sevens. Hellmuth complained about his misfortune to Daniel Negreanu: “I can’t believe it. I can beat 3,000 players, but I can’t beat those nine?” Negreanu didn’t respond. He was too busy steamrolling his table. With three players left he had amassed most of the chips on the table.