Posted by Andrew Feldman
5:50 p.m. ET: Phil Hellmuth has arrived in a major way. As I mentioned a couple posts ago, Hellmuth was dressed as Julius Caesar, and was escorted by women in body paint, a trumpeter and rose pedals. As he walked to the secondary feature table, apparently, I caught his eye. Hellmuth walked over to me and asked if I liked his costume. Quite stunned, I said, "It's very entertaining, Phil." In fact, I was just amazed. I can't imagine what he's going to do next year, and I'll get a picture up of this year's costume as soon as possible. I haven't seen Hellmuth since the break, but I'm sure he has changed because he a) had no pants and b) didn't have an UltimateBet.net logo on. The best comment of the entrance came from the crowd. Hellmuth, waving and talking to fans, heard someone yell, "Hail Caesar!" Immediately, someone else followed that up with, "Hail moron!"
I spoke to Jack Effel during the last level. He said that they are expecting a possible sellout on Day 1D. If you're in Las Vegas and expecting to play, show up and register soon. Given that data, we're looking at a field size of approximately 6,400 players. Registration is still open for Day 1C for another hour and a half, so there is plenty of time for that number to rise.
Numerous players had solid starts to the day, including John Juanda, Lee Watkinson, Jeff Lisandro, Gavin Griffin, Dan Harrington and Scotty Nguyen. There are four more levels to play today with the dinner break coming after the third. …
Small blinds: Phil Hellmuth and Tony Cousineau are sitting at the same table. … Daniel Negreanu is off to a rough start down to $22,000 at the feature table. … Joe Hachem, Jamie Gold and Justin Bonomo are also in the bottom of the chip counts. … I just found Isabelle Mercier sitting directly in front of me. Hello, Isabelle. … The Poker Edge Podcasts for the last two days have been posted: July 4th and July 5th. …
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