Le Monde du Poker.

Cette dernière semaine, le navire-mère a atterri à Las Vegas pour la dernière fois cette année. Cette fois, cependant, l'arène emblématique fut déplacée vers le théâtre Penn & Teller éblouissante de lumières et des pièces pyrotechniques.

Le Poker Hall of Fame a accueilli deux nouveaux membres le mardi. La « première Dame de Poker, » Linda Johnson est vu ici donnant son discours d'acceptation.

Aussi intronisé dans la classe de 2011 a été Barry Greenstein, et il a obtenu un peu émotionnel qu'il parlait au cours des dernières décennies au poker.

Norman Chad et Jack Effel peu avant le début de la table finale. Ce dernier a été entièrement parée hors dans un trio tux avec une veste rouge et d'un nœud papillon pendant toute la durée.

Également dans la maison : Sasquatch. Don't mess avec lui.

Parlant de « the house, » Voici une vue du théâtre Penn & Teller, emballé pour les chevrons bien avant la pièce commence le dimanche après-midi.

Juste au cas où ils ont oubliaient ce qu'ils étaient jouant pour, le bracelet a été affiché en évidence renversés, looking terriblement étincelant en vertu de ces strobus.

Et bien entendu, le novembre neuf. Moments justes avant l'action coup d'envoi, les neuf joueurs posent pour la dernière fois en tant que groupe.

Tout juste 22 ans de jeunes, Sam Holden était la Brit solitaire pour rendre le 9 novembre.

Holden a introduit un groupe de personnages avec des coiffures correspondants. Ils ont été les premières fans de déposer retour hors du théâtre, bien que, comme leur guy a été éliminé en neuvième place.

Anton Makiievskyi, de l'Ukraine, le projet son premier comptant WSOP jusqu'à une finale-table exécutée.

Quelques heures dans la journée, Makiievskyi renversé son roi-Reine contre la poche nines, et un neuf sur le tour termina sa Main Event à la huitième place. Il a été le premier joueur à la table à gagner de sept chiffres.

La wild card de la table finale, Bob Bounahra du Belize fait clairement qu'il prenait plaisir à chaque minute de son temps aux neuf novembre. Il s'agit d'entrée du Bounahra de la scène.

Il s'agit de la pose de Bob Bounahra, avec que nous sommes devenus familiers. Lunettes sur le nez, cigare en bouche et ses yeux étudie la table soigneusement.

En face d'une foule de pro-Bob bruyants, Bounahra a finalement obtenu son argent de mauvaise avec une prédominance ace-cinq, mettant fin à son exécution en septième place.

Eoghan O'Dea l'Irlande a commencé le jour avec la deuxième pile, mais il connut la buzzsaw qui était Ben Lamb pour voler la quasi-totalité de ses chips à la gauche de six joueurs.

O ' Dea ne pouvait pas rassembler un retour, brouille à la sixième place.

Bon nombre pourraient se sentir son entrée dans l'air, ce soir, mais Phil Collins Impossible de trouver un double sur sa main finale. Sa reine-jack était dominée par ace-Reine de Lamb, et un déçu Collins a été forcés de quitter à la cinquième place.

Un autre homme pour obtenir « Ben Lambed » assez dur était Matt Giannetti. Dans une casserole cruciale pour une tonne de puces, Giannetti avait ses valets de poche fissurés par ace-sept de Ben Lamb des coeurs, et il a abandonné à la quatrième place.

En parlant de Ben Lamb, espionné lui bavardant avec Phil Hellmuth dans le corridor, juste avant le début de la pièce.

Et Voici ce que Benba ressemblait comme il a heurté une carte tournant chanceux de vider plus loin la quasi-totalité des puces de Matt Giannetti.

Benba de l'équipe était hors pleinement en vigueur, et ils ont même « De Ben Lamb » avec eux, une mascotte en costume d'époque qui vole presque le spectacle à un moment donné.

L'article enthousiaste de Lamb contenait les meilleurs joueurs de tournoi du monde, et il a fait usage de ses biens avec fréquentes conversations sur le rail.

Seulement trois joueurs à gauche : Pie Heinz, Ben Lamb et Martin Staszko. Lorsqu'ils sont retournés au feutre mardi, chacun d'entre eux étaient garantis plus de 4 millions de dollars.

Dans un début stupéfiant de la journée, Lamb était paralysé sur la toute première main de la séance de mardi. Dans les minutes du départ canon, l'américain final avait été éliminée à la troisième place.

La vue de la finale deux depuis les gradins derrière la scène.

Juste deux hommes à gauche, chacun d'eux jouant pour plus de 8,7 millions de dollars et l'immortalité WSOP.

Dans un coin, Martin Stazsko, un pro de 35 ans de la République tchèque. Il a joué mieux que la plupart lui donne crédit pour, cueillir ses endroits bien et en modifiant les engrenages suffisamment pour garder la devinette de la table.

Et dans l'autre angle, âgé de 22 ans Team PokerStars Pro, Pius Heinz d'Allemagne. Heinz avait essentiellement qu'un engrenage, et son agression implacable s'est avéré difficile pour la table à gérer.

Pius Heinz et certains de ses fans sur scène pendant Heads-Up jouent.

Le plomb de la puce changé de mains plusieurs fois au cours de deux, mais Heinz a enfin trouvé le double qui a terminé tout mais il. Il a trois-bet enfoncé postflop avec ace juste-haute et Hobbyist fait l'appel avec un monstre à dessiner et une chance pour y mettre fin. Il a manqué.

Il était Heinz dont ace-haute tenue forte, et cela ne serait pas la dernière fois, qu'il pourrait être embrassé par son chemin de fer.

Sur la main finale du Main Event, le Hobbyist court-empilées a pris son stand avec dix-sept clubs et Pie Heinz s'est réveillée avec ace-roi. Cinq espaces plus tard et Hobbyist est sorti comme le finaliste.

Au-dessus de l'autre côté de la scène, la célébration a officiellement commencé.

Heinz retour à la table pour quelques mots avec Hobbyist, mais vous pouvez voir où ses yeux étaient axées comme ils échangeaient des félicitations.

Dans le moment de la victoire, c'est l'allemand, Pius Heinz gauche lui seul à la table avec le plus grand prix du jeu.

Heinz Pie est votre champion du Main Event 2011 !

Avec son nouveau bracelet à embrayage étroitement dans un frisson de la main, le champ a obtenu de poser pour un dernier tour de photos à l'extérieur par une nuit très froide à Las Vegas. Félicitations, Pie !

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The record-setting World Series of Poker Europe moved to Cannes, France for 2011, and the picturesque spot on the Riviera evoked scenes like this one. Located just outside the Casino, Cafe Roma was the favorite spot for players to grab a quick bite during breaks.

The Hotel Majestic was the host venue for the 2011 WSOPE, a gorgeous and, well, majestic building set right in the middle of Le Croisette.

The hotel was actually only half of the host venue. The Day 2s were being held just a couple of blocks away in the beautiful Casino Barriere.

There were a record seven events on the schedule, and the annual events saw astounding increases over the field sizes from the previous year in London. Players are seen here filing into the hotel ballroom to play on opening day.

2011 WSOP bracelet winners Antonin Teisseire and Fabrice Soulier were given the honors of announcing the "Shuffle up and deal."

A wide look at the primary tournament area, Majestic 1, located on the ground floor of the Hotel Majestic.

Shaun Buchanan played Event #1, a €2,680 Six-Max, and he cashed. Much more on Buchanan later.

Phil Hellmuth gave everyone a big sweat — including would-be WSOP Player of the Year Ben Lamb — running deep in Event #1 and all the way to the final table bubble before bowing out in seventh place.

After more than 40 years, Sweden finally crowned it's first bracelet winner as Guillaume Humbert took home the bracelet and €216,000.

Event #2 was a €1,090 "European Stimulus Special" that drew a record-setting field of 771. Three days later, Australia's Andrew Hinrichsen was clutching the bracelet.

Event #3 was the €5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha event, and Shawn Buchanan racked up his second cash with a 14th-place finish.

That big PLO event culminated in a stacked final table that included Eoghan O'Dea, Sam Chartier, Sam Trickett, Ramzi Jelassi, and Steve Billirakis.

"Smoky" got it done once again; Steve Billirakis earned his second WSOP gold bracelet and added nearly a quarter-million dollars to his bankroll by virtue of outlasting that tough final table.

Despite a very small viewing area for spectators, the rail for the final table of Event #4 was rowdy and intently focused on the action as they watched Tristan "Cre8ive" Wade and Michael "SirWatts" Watson — two former online pros — battling for the €3,200 Shootout title.

At the end of the day, Wade was the toast of the town when his pocket jacks held against Watson's ace-five to seal the deal.

After the dust cleared, we found Wade posing with his new jewelry and a glass of bubbly in the lobby of the Hotel Majestic.

In Event #5, the WSOP tried out a new format, the €10,000 "Mixed-Max." The first two days were played nine and six-handed respectively, and the final two days consisted of a heads-up bracket for the last 16 left standing. This is a shot from Day 3, the start of the heads-up rounds.

Shawn Buchanan: Cash number three of the series.

Buchanan was on one heck of a heater, and he ran his rush all the way to the heads-up final, facing off against Michael Mizrachi. Both Buchanan and Mizrachi had been heads-up for bracelets over the summer in Las Vegas, and each of them were looking for their retribution on that day in Cannes.

Mizrachi was too much. Coming into the final match with a 2:1 chip lead, Grinder fought off a charge from Buchanan and put him away with relative ease. It's Mizrachi's second gold bracelet, and he got to relish in this one while posing out in front of the hotel on a chilly night.

One more preliminary event winner. Event #6 was the €1,620 Six-Max PLO event, and Canada's Philippe Boucher ended up as the last man standing. Or sitting, in this picture, where he's seen relaxing outside the hotel after a lightning-fast final table.

Players outside the hotel prepare for Day 1a of the €10,300 WSOPE Main Event.

Already a two-time WSOP Main Event champion, Johnny Chan made the trip over to Cannes to try for number three.

"When in Rome..." Shannon Shorr rocked up in a crisply tailored suit, and he made it through to Day 2.

The defending champion, James Bord, made a relatively deep run again, but it probably wasn't very profitable. Bord made a bold promise to play back any losing WSOPE bets up to €500 if an American won the Main Event, words he'd end up eating later in the week.

John Duthie came out to play, and this one-off photo of him looking like a badass has sparked a must-read Photoshop meme thread on TwoPlusTwo.

Men "The Master" Nguyen played the Main Event as well, but he spent most of his time complaining and arguing with everyone in sight. Tournament Director Jack Effel is seen here trying to diffuse a situation on Day 1.

A couple of times a day, the hotel servers would come prancing out with trays full of local snacks and sweets. Liv Boeree wasn't the only one who enjoyed them, but she was the most photogenic consumer we could find.

Effel did his part to spread the love. He's seen here offering Athanasios Polychronopoulos and Will Failla a taste of France.

Speaking of Athanasios Polychronopoulos, the 2011 bracelet winner was unable to add another to his tally this year. Polychronopoulos made it into Day 3 with an average stack, but his European luck ran out just a few places shy of the Main Event bubble.

Chris Moorman attacked the bubble relentlessly, and the chips he accumulated during that time would end up carrying him all the way to the final table two days later. This photo was taken just a moment before he dragged the biggest pot of the event up to that point, his queens good against Constant Rijkenberg's mystery hand on a jack-high board.

After a long bubble sweat, the shortest stack in the room could not stave off elimination. Barry Greenstein got his last few chips in good with ace-jack against Brian Roberts' king-jack of hearts, but board flushed Greenstein out on the direct bubble.

The remaining 64 players — including Brian Roberts — were officially in the money, and Roberts got a little added value as he earned an autographed copy of Barry Greenstein's book. Maybe his next work might be more fittingly titled "Flush on the Turn."

Artem Litvinov surprised everyone in the room when he won a big pot, jumped out of his chair, and started doing spin-kicks and splits around the furniture.

Shawn Buchanan. Cash number four. And once again, the middle days were just a precursor to a very deep run for the unofficial 2011 WSOPE MVP.

When the field was reduced to the final two tables, everyone got to enjoy a change of venue. The chips and the players were moved over to the made-for-TV studio, a gorgeously adorned ballroom which conveyed the personality and pomp of the Riviera rather well in person. We'll be anxious to see how it looks on TV. What's that in the very far background over there?

Oh. It's just €1.4 million in cash and the 2011 WSOPE Main Event bracelet — the winner's loot.

The last hope for France, Arnaud Mattern had to wait until Day 4 before ever amassing a comfortable chip stack. In the midst of a monstrous Day 4, though, Mattern found himself holding pocket aces in a three-way pot for the chip lead with 11 players left. Unfortunately for he and the host nation, Mattern could not fade Elio Fox's two-outer on the flop, and he was brutally put out in 10th place.

The remaining nine players needed to be combined around one table, but one of them wouldn't make it that far. While Alex Dovzhenko and Mattern were falling in 11th and 10th place, respectively, a big pot was in progress on the main table as well. Chris Moorman got his money in bad with ace-seven against Patrik Antonius' ace-queen one hand prior, but the seven on the river doubled Moorman and left Antonius both short-stacked and rather grumpy.

On the next hand, Antonius got his remaining short stack in with ace-ten, but Moorman found the mighty aces to send Antonius out in ninth and set the final table for the following day.

There's something very European about the betting plaques, and a few racks of shiny, sexy, blue T100,000 plaques were put into play for the final table.

Max Silver was the first man to fall from the final table, and he still seemed rather pleased as he made a lap around the table to wish everyone luck.

Silver's exit left Moorman and Jake Cody (center) to try and win the title for the United Kingdom, but Cody's day would come to an end in brutal fashion with seven players left.

Elio Fox (left) went with pocket tens against Cody's jacks, and the flop was an awful sweat for the Brit. This photo was taken the moment the ugly nine dropped on the turn, completing Fox's straight. Cody was stricken, and he had to settle for €150,000 and seventh place.

Shawn Buchanan. Final table of the 2011 WSOPE Main Event. He was the only player to cash in four events in Cannes, and he rode this deep run all the way to sixth place, good for an even €200,000.

Fans of Dermot Blain crane their necks to catch sight of what would be his final hand. Brian Roberts' ace-jack was too much for Blain's king-queen, and the Irishman fell in fifth place.

It wasn't much longer before Fox was sitting alone at one side of the table...

... and Chris Moorman alone at the other end. Moorman began the heads-up duel facing about a two-to-one chip disadvantage.

With all the drama befitting an event of this magnitude, Fox and Moorman jabbed back and forth, but one of them won every noteworthy pot over the course of the relatively short duel — finally landing several big punches to drop his opponent to the mat.

It was Elio Fox, the American, left standing alone with all the chips, all the money, and the penultimate gold bracelet of 2011.

It's a photo he'll likely remember for a long time. The soft-spoken Fox took a few minutes to pose outside and enjoy the moment after what was, by his own admission, a difficult and exhausting day of poker.

Goodnight, Cannes. See you next year!

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We'll pick up where we left off last time, starting with Day 5 of the Main Event. The starting field of 6,865 had been reduced to just 378 by this point. They were all in the money, and Manoj Viswanathan was the only player over the 2-million-chip mark as the bags came back out on the tables. However, he was reduced to the felt within four short levels.

Sam Barnhart snagged the first bracelet of 2011 when he took the title of World Series of Poker Circuit National Champion in May. On Day 5 of the Main Event, he found himself comfortably in second place on the chip leaderboard and was riding the WSOP rush.

In third place was Pius Heinz, laying the chip foundation for what would be a very deep run. In and out of the chip lead, he finished up the day one spot better than he began -- in second place.

Other major players in Day 5 included Bryan Devonshire, who used ace-queen to topple Matt Matros' ace-king and begin a big, steady push toward the top of the leaderboard.

Alex Moore started the day short on chips, but he went on a charge to the front during Level 20, busting players faster than he could stack up their chips.

Speaking of chip-stacking issues, David Bach's 16-high stacks make his chips hard to count -- even for him. He was forced to get an exact number at the end of the night, and his 4.706 million ended up being the score to beat.

Bach had to fight for it, though. Ben Lamb just could not be brushed away, and he too was in and out of the chip lead all day long.

Other members of the 4-million chip club at the end of the night included Phil "USCPhildo" Collins…

…and Kyle Johnson.

Jean-Robert Bellande's Day 5 was a kind one as well, and he finished the day with more than a million chips and 50 big blinds to his credit. A large portion of the high-stakes poker world came out of the woodwork to root for JRB as he ran deeper.

Celebrities making the deepest runs this year included "Sopranos" actor Robert Iler, who finished in 275th place…

…And Mars Callahan, the actor and producer who's listed in the credits of works such as "The Wonder Years" and "That Thing You Do." Callahan ran his stack all the way to 95th place before being eliminated.

If you're an attractive lady and you run deep in the Main Event, you're automatically a celebrity. Claudia Crawford learned that well as she built a formidable stack through the middle stages of the tournament, driving her Google search traffic into a frenzy.

Daniel Negreanu's search traffic needs no help, but his Main Event luck could use some. Day 5 was mostly very unkind to Kid Poker, though he did what he could to keep his spirits up, at least early on.

But the day wore on Negreanu, and he was pretty battered by the time he bowed out during Level 21. His pocket tens got in good, but Rupert Elder's ace-seven turned lucky to send Negreanu home in 211th place.

Only 142 players survived to make the final three days of the Main Event, and Day 6 belonged solely to Ryan Lenaghan. He turned 2.382 million chips into 12.865 million over the course of the day, more than 3 million chips clear of second place.

By the way, second place was -- who else? -- Ben Lamb. As the field was trimmed down under 140 players, Lamb overtook Phil Hellmuth for the top spot on the Player of the Year leader board. But Lamb was thinking more about November.

Tony Hachem sparked a lot of chatter when he began to assemble a chip stack on Day 6, seen here knocking out Marius Maciukas during the first level of the day.

Hachem wasn't the only Team PokerStars Pro doing work, either. Germany's Sebastian Ruthenberg was down and up and back down again, and he ended the day with the shortest stack of 890,000 chips.

JP Kelly did much better than that, bagging up around the chip average and taking his stack all the way to the final three tables.

Other notable stories on Day 7 included the fall of 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong in 114th place.

Ben Logan flopped a royal flush with ace-king of clubs.

A trio of ladies were battling it out for the title of Last Woman Standing. Despite dragging this pot, Amanda Musumeci did not claim that title. Nor did the aforementioned Claudia Crawford.

The last woman left? Erika Moutinho. But more on her in a bit.

The strawberry-topped Guillaume Darcourt was just out of the top ten in 13th place at the end of Day 7.

Phil Collins was the story for most of the day, though, seen here holding up nine fingers to tell his friends on the rail how many millions of chips he had. He actually had more than 10 million at that point(!) -- the only player over that mark -- but he cooled off late in the day to end in 5th place with 7.24 million.

Day 7, the penultimate day, began with 57 players.

Brazil's Hilton Laborda was one of the early movers and shakers, seen here celebrating the knockout of Stephane Albertini to move very near the chip lead with 45 players left.

And Laborda was on hand to console countryman Fabio Sousa when he met his fate in 42nd place (Ryan Lenaghan and Matt Giannetti, foreground). But Laborda soon needed some consoling of his own.

Twice within the span of a half hour, Matt Giannetti made a full house against Laborda's big flush, and the second one sent the final Brazilian spiraling to the rail in 36th place.

Speaking of Matt Giannetti, he suddenly had 16 million chips and a huge lead.

Over on the outer table, Guillaume Darcourt was forced to part with most of his chips when he ran his pocket kings into Bryan Devonshire's pocket aces during the 27th level of action.

Darcourt could only shrug at the sight of the bad news. He was crippled here and eliminated a short while later.

Also falling during Day 7 was Erick Lindgren in his deepest career Main Event run - 43rd place.

During the middle of the afternoon, the WSOP audience was treated to quite a special sight in the main featured table arena. This is David "Doc" Sands. The boyfriend.

This is Erika Moutinho. The last woman standing. And the girlfriend.

And that is Moutinho and Sands sitting next to each other in the Main Event with 30 players left. It was remarkable, to say the least, and a feat that's unlikely to be duplicated.

Can you guess which of the couple is all in here? Yep, it's Erika. But Doc is the one doing the majority of the sweating, it appears. Moutinho's jacks held against Martin Staszko's pocket sevens, though, and Sands offered a celebratory fist bump when his lady doubled back into contention.

The union was eventually broken, however, when Sands was eliminated in 30th place. His jack-ten was dominated and soundly beaten by John Hewitt's ace-jack.

Sands must have been keeping the car cool in the parking lot. Just a few minutes after hugging him goodbye, Moutinho followed her boyfriend out the door in 29th place when her queen-ten was dominated by the ace-queen of Andrew Hinrichsen.

During that Day 7, the largest pot of the tournament propelled this man, Ukrainian Anton Makiievskyi, into the chip lead with more than 20 million chips. On a king-jack-jack flop, Chris Moore made an ill-timed shove with ace-jack, and Makiievskyi's king-jack had a hammer lock on the pot.

The flopped full house skyrocketed Makiievskyi to the top of the heap, and he's seen here sneaking a peek of the Main Event bracelet that was perched by the feature table.

A Czech guy named Martin Staszko was in the middle of the pack with 6 million going into the final day, by the way. Spoiler. He went on an absolute rampage during Day 8 to take the chip lead into November.

Day 8. Twenty-two players left.

Sam Barnhart bid farewell in 17th place.

And lest you forget about Ryan Lenaghan (blue shirt), he lasted all the way to 16th place before being given his marching orders and a check for $378,796.

Bryan Devonshire did even better than that, but his November Nine dreams were dashed in 12th place when his king-queen could not overcome the math and Eoghan O'Dea's ace-queen.

Speaking of which, you should meet Eoghan O'Dea, and you'll probably want to remember his face.

When Khoa Nguyen was eliminated in 11th place, the remaining ten players were combined around one table to play the biggest bubble of their lives. We had our July Ten, but that was still one too many for the November Nine.

This guy was still there. Ben Lamb was above average and above 20 million chips as they combined and returned to action.

So was this guy, Day 5's big stack - Phil Collins.

And another one of those earlier leaders still going strong, Pius Heinz, though he began the unofficial final table just below average.

And very quietly this guy, the UK's Sam Holden.

And from Belize, Badih Bou-nahra.

And Costa Rica brought John Hewitt to the party.

And then there was Matt Giannetti, who had to sweat a huge all-in when he took his pocket jacks up against Ben Lamb's king-nine.

The board ran out clean, though, and Giannetti was given the double up to all but cement his spot in the November Nine.

He was all smiles, but it had to crush Hewitt when his pocket threes lost a coin flip to Eoghan O'Dea's king-jack, sealing his elimination and setting the November Nine without him. He did get a consolatory hug from chip leader Martin Staszko on his way out, though.

And here they are, your November Nine from left to right: Badih Bou-nahra, Phil Collins, Matt Giannetti, Pius Heinz, Sam Holden, Ben Lamb, Anton Makiievskyi, Eoghan O'Dea, Martin Staszko

The November Nine with Jack Effel. All trying to get their hands on the coveted bracelet.

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The Main Event is more than a week behind us now, and we thought it would be a fitting time to clean out the camera and take a photographical refresher of the first couple of days of action.

The greatest legend in the game, Doyle Brunson kicked off the Main Event festivities on Day 1a. The event drew 6,865 players, each of them required to put up $10,000 as an entry fee.

Since we're talking old school, here's another veteran Main Event champ, Berry Johnston.

Scotty Nguyen, baby. Another former Main Event champ, baby. Old school, baby.

Olga Varkonyi is not a previous Main Event champion, but she does have a gold bracelet from a side event. And her husband...

Her husband is Robert Varkonyi, and he is a former Main Event champ -- from 2002.

Johnny Chan. Boss. And two-time Main Event champion.

The man who beat Chan out of a third Main Event title in 1989, Phil Hellmuth tends to make an entrance during this special week. This year's spectacle was a bit more subdued than usual for The Brat.

The cameras always lurk nearby for the inevitable Hellmuth eruption.

It took Carlos Mortensen until Day 2b to accumulate enough chips to work with. And for Carlos, "work with" means something a little different than it does for others.

Remember this guy? Yes, that's 2003 Main Event champ and the face of poker in the modern era, Chris Moneymaker.

The man who followed Moneymaker in 2004, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, seen here sporting the piece of WSOP jewelry that put he and his fossil-trading monopoly on the map.

The man who followed the Fossilman, Joe Hachem. Pass the sugar.

The other Hachem, brother Tony ends up playing a significant role in the later stages of this year's Event.

The next champ behind the Aussie, American Jamie Gold. In 2006, Gold won the largest prize ever awarded in tournament poker - $12 million.

The runner-up from 2009, Darvin Moon.

The man who shot the Moon in 2009, Joe Cada.

The defending champion, Montreal's Jonathan Duhamel.

Annette Obrestad won the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2007 at the age of 18. She drew one of the more enjoyable starting seats on Day 1, out of position against Jason Alexander.

Apart from Obrestad, the other women in poker were well represented during the starting days. Ellen Deeb (grandmother of Shaun) takes the new title of most senior member of the Main Event field, weighing in at a feisty 91 years young. And she's rolled, apparently.

PokerNews' own Elissa Harwood survived a tough table with a smile on Day 1d.

Erika Moutinho is a face you'll see a lot of on the ESPN coverage this summer, but we'll try not to spoil any more of the details for now.

Straight from Croatia, the lovely Tatjana "TattyTats" Pasalic.

And this gentleman dressed up as Snow White, we'll count him, too.

Props to Sara Abdich, winner of the Dealer of the Year vote for the 2011 WSOP. Adbich was given the honors of announcing the most famous words in poker on Day 1c of the Main Event.

That Day 1c was the day that 2008 Miss World contestant Krisztina Polgar began turning a lot of heads at the poker tables.

And Shannon Elizabeth always brightens her table a little bit. Elizabeth is one of the more formidable celebrity-turned-poker-geeks out there, but she wasn't the only one to show up to play for Day 1.

Everyone took a few minutes to let Brad Garrett and Ray Romano open Day 1c with a little impromptu stand-up comedy routine.

Garrett tries to look serious at the table…

... but it doesn't work for very long. The Main Event got to enjoy a few good days of Brad Garrett this year before he bowed out shy of the money.

Garrett's partner in crime, "Everybody Loves" Ray Romano. An early exit in this year's Main Event.

Another funnyman from your television set, Jason Alexander. He's one of the most accomplished and well-rounded performers of our time and can hold his own at the poker table. Things went well in Alexander's Main Event for a while…

... and then not so well.

Another face from the television realm, but one that's a bit harder to pick out of a crowd. Creator of, among other things, The Simpsons, please put your animated hands together for Sam Simon.

The owner of this ring played the 2011 Main Event as well. And he surprised a lot of people by advancing a few days into the Main Event.

It's Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce, son!

Even Nelly popped into the Rio, spending a few minutes of Day 1d playing the Main Event.

We think he's a celebrity, so we'll include him, too. PokerNews' former Live Reporting Manager, Garry Gates had a great Main Event, grinding his way through some tough (and featured) tables to cash in 173rd place.

As the early days thinned the field, the story lines began to develop.

Notables fell by the scores. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and his white coat were two of the early victims.

Ali Eslami couldn't make anything happen with his short stack.

And the Mizrachi brothers were sent off one, by one, by one, by one.

Daniel Negreanu had one more shot at bracelet No. 5 this summer, but he was brutally run out a few days deeper into the event.

The aforementioned Hellmuth stuck around for a while, too...

... but Kara Scott was eventually faced with the exit interview and hearing about the series of unfortunate events that led to his elimination.

And with that, he was off.

Andrew Robl. Out.

Carter Gill. Also out, but in a most unusual way. After surviving Day 1c with 49,000 chips, Gill had a day off to, well, get himself into some trouble. Gill found himself banned from Harrah's properties, a significant hindrance to one playing the Main Event at the Rio. He was blinded out completely on Day 2.

Day 4 brought the money bubble, and Paul Baron was just one of a hundred short stacks praying to survive a few more minutes.

With 694 players remaining, the tournament was hand-for-hand. A single hand would be played at each table, then the dealer would stand and hold the action until the rest of the room caught up. Then, another hand all together.

It was Reza Kashani who was the unlucky winner of the wooden spoon, though he was given an entry into next year's Main Event as a consolation prize.

And he got to spend some time on TV with Kara Scott, too. Not so bad, is it Reza?

You probably won't remember Reza Kashani for very long, but here are a few names you won't want to forget. Starting with Ben Lamb. Already a bracelet winner and (at the time of this photo) second in the Player of the Year standings, Lamb decided to, you know, lead the Day 1b field after the first five levels, and on-and-off for much longer than that. You're going to be seeing plenty of him in the upcoming months...

As you will Bryan Devonshire.

And Eoghan O'Dea, the Irishman. In case the name didn't tip you off to the nationality.

Remember the hair. Guillaume Darcourt. He'll play a significant role in the French subplot of this Main Event as it progresses as well.

We'll take just a quick moment to recognize the WSOP staff who worked so tirelessly for the full summer. Including one Friday afternoon when they all decided to show up for work in their whites.

And we'll remind you (as Ty Stewart did the players before Day 3) about the 2011 WSOP Europe in a new location this year. Cannes, France, will be welcoming the brand to one of the most scenic locations in the world from October 7-20.

And we'll leave you with an unusual look at the Amazon Room for now, with the rest of the unusual story to come very soon in the next edition.

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