Without a doubt,  this year's World Series of Poker is the largest gathering of the best poker players in the world.  In fact the prize pools and entrants in every single tournament held so far this year has reached record numbers.  That is an indication of the popularity of poker and the impact television has had on the WSOP.

It feels weird to walk around and see the faces of the same pros that I watched on TV.  The first final table I covered had 2004 WSOP main event runner-up David Williams seated in front of me.  He would turn around from time to time and ask me questions about the payouts or blind structure.  The next night,  I sat next to Andy Bloch while he wrote code for one of his websites.  We got to chat about blind structures in various events.  I discovered that the best time to catch pros is on their way to the bathroom.  During my first day there,  I saw Scotty Nguyen fixing his hair in the mirror.  I also bumped into Greg Raymer,  Daniel Negreanu,  and Phil Ivey while on a bathroom break.

Yeah,  all the biggest names have been spotted.  Mike Sexton stopped by to cheer on his friend Cindy Violette.  I caught a glimpse of James Woods as he bought a sandwich.  I spotted Minneapolis Jim Meehan eating a slice of pizza while on break at his final table.  He was also knocking back Heinekens pretty steadily during the entire tournament.  I caught Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu enjoying massages while they played.  And I saw legends like Doyle Brunson and Puggy Pearson taking pictures with adoring fans.

The poker room at the Rio is located in their convention center area.  The actual room where it takes place resembles a huge football field.  The first part is dedicated to cash games and satellites.  I’ve been afraid to play any games there,  because the tables are filled with sharks and pros who busted out of their tournaments.  Some pros come to the WSOP exclusively to play in cash games.  After all,  you can possibly make more in one night in a side game than you can grinding your way into the money in some of the smaller events. Satellites for various events are running 24 hours a day,  seven days a week.

Andy Nguyen won the first WSOP event ever to be held outside The Horseshoe. Ironically,  he happens to be a dealer at the Horseshoe.  He beat out 662 other casino workers to become the 2005 Casino Employees World Poker Champion.  He won $83,390.  That’s not a bad payout for a non-professional player.

Allen Cunningham won Event #2,  $1500 NL Holdem,  which had 2305 entrants in one of the largest fields in any WSOP tournament.  The prize pool was over $3 million.  He beat Scott Fischman heads up to win $725,405.  Cunningham also survived Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot at his final table.  Scott Fischman was seeking his second WSOP bracelet.  He’s part of the generation of poker players who are under 30 years old who made such an impact at last year’s WSOP.  This year he’s continuing to prove that he’s the best player in Dutch Boyd’s  “The Crew.”

Thom Werthmann won $369,535 in Event #3,  the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament.  The prize pool was worth over $1.4 million.  He outlasted 1071 players and beat Layne Flack heads up.  I did not see the final table,  so I cannot offer up any more information on this event.

Eric "Efro" Froelich,  who is friends with the 2004 WSOP main event runner-up David Williams,  won Event #4 Limit Holdem.  The prize pool was over $1.4 million.  The 21-year-old took home $361,910 and his first WSOP bracelet after he outlasted 1048 other players.  He played heads up for almost three hours and finally won at around 4 AM.  Efro dropped out of college to play poker full time and he has a great mentor in David Williams.  Efro would get tips from time to time from Williams in between hands.  This was one of the toughest events to cover.  Limit tournaments are a grind,  and they take forever to finish.  ESPN taped the event for their World Series of Poker coverage and I could sense that their crew was exhausted both mentally and physically.  Efro ended up making history as the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet.  In an interview with Norman Chad,  Efro was quoted saying,  “This win basically justifies my whole life.”

In the largest Omaha Hi/Lo tournament of all time,  Pat Poels won Event #5.  He beat out a field of 699 players who were competing for a prize pool worth almost $1 million,  and took home $270,100.  I never thought I’d see someone win a quarter of a million dollars for an Omaha Hi/Lo event.  Pat Poels' is a great story.  He recently quit his job to play poker full time and beat out one of the most difficult fields of Omaha players of all time.  His wife encouraged him to play poker full time and only a few months later,  he won the largest cash prize in any Omaha Hi/Lo tournament.

Event #6 was the $2500 Short Handed 6-Max NL Holdem.  This is an interesting event because the action was fast and furious.  In short-handed play,  the players could not sit back and wait for good hands.  548 players in total showed up and the prize pool was over $1.2 million.  Isaac Galazan,  a nightclub owner from Thailand,  wasn't scheduled to buy into any tournaments until later in the week.  But he was itching to play,  so he entered Event #6.  He promptly won it after he beat out Antonio Esfandiari and Harry Demetriou,  who blew a big chip lead.  When it was heads up,  Harry made a terrible call with just top pair and a gutshot draw.  Everyone in the media row knew that Isaac was an amateur player and that he must have had a good enough hand to move all in.  He showed pocket nines,  and took most of Harry’s stack.  A few hands later,  Harry was knocked out.  First place paid $315,125 and Isaac won his first WSOP bracelet.  Isaac’s confidence grew the day before when he knocked out Greg  “Fossilman”  Raymer.

Phil Hellmuth has been trying to make history.  He's attempting to become the first player to win 10 WSOP bracelets.  He already cashed in two events so far and he's also currently tied with Barry Johnston with 48 WSOP tournament cashes.  In one of the funniest moments at this year’s WSOP,  Hellmuth showed up with two bodyguards.  Since them he has come by himself.