WSOP Tournament of Champions

It's been quite slow progress thus far, but with 10 minutes left to spare of the first level, we lost out first man.

But what a hand it was, Allen Cunningham the unfortunate victim of a cooler colder than an Artic breeze. I didn't catch the action leading up to the all-in showdown, but with hands on their backs, Chan found himself on the right end of a set over set encounter with    versus    on a      board.

Although Cunningham was drawing to just one out, it was Chan who made quads, the   river merely adding salt to already open wounds.

"Here's Johnny!" beamed Antonio Esfandiari after Cunningham's departure.

As the table short stack, Antonio Esfandiari decided to make his move and duly shoved all in preflop. "Come on, three down," he smiled, "one time in my life." Esfandiari got his wish as the rest of the table folded and the Magician picked up the pot.

I joined the action on the     flop, but it didn't take Columbo to work out that Scotty Nguyen had raised from late position and Annie Duke had made the call from the big blind.

After tapping the table, Duke check-raised Nguyen's continuation bet of 2,400 to 7,100, but the '98 Champion had no intention of lying down, and duly bumped it up to a total of 20,000.

Duke looked perplexed, tortured by the decision ahead, and so commenced a dwell which must have surpassed the five minute mark. As she riffled intently, Esfandiari began doing stretching exercises, Chan stepped away from the table, and even the guy holding the boom mike brought out the support arm.

After apologizing for the time taken, Duke made the fold - although a reluctant one of that - and Nguyen picked up the pot uncontested. As a result, Duke has dropped to what appears to be around 30,000 in chips.

While the July 4th fireworks started early on the other table, the folks in Orange have been taking it a little easier. After nearly half an hour, we finally got to our first showdown.

Daniel Negreanu raised preflop, and Phil Hellmuth called. Chris Ferguson joined them from the big blind, and they went three-handd to a   flop. All three checked to get to the   on the turn. Ferguson checked again, and Negreanu bet 3,200. Hellmuth called, and Jesus let his hand go. The   on the river paired the board, and Negreanu went back to checking. Hellmuth checked behind, and Negreanu tabled pocket deuces for deuces and eights. That was good enough, as Hellmuth showed   on its way to the muck.

On the very first hand, we encountered an all-in, Allen Cunningham making the final all-in call with    versus Johnny Chan's   . Despite boasting the suited hand, it was Cunningham who made his opponent sweat, the board coming a nerve-jangling       to chop the pot up. A few giggles and two raised eyebrows from Chan later and it was onto the next hand.

I stand corrected. At 11am sharp, the final whistle was blown, and cards were officially flung into the air. Game on!

After the debacle that was yesterday's non-starter, we've returned today at the ungodly hour of (gulp) 11am to give it another crack of the whip. However, on first sight, you wouldn't think that in 30 minutes time 17 of the game's biggest attractions would be gathering to lock their bracelet-winning horns, as the feature table is still covered by a musky blanket whilst the audience is little more than a janitor taking a brief rest from his day job.

But Negreanu, Hellmuth, Matusow and co. are like human magnets, and I'm sure their presence will help form a rail quicker than a France World Cup exit and the room will once again be the hustle and bustle that we've become accustomed to from recent days. In fact, its the latter of that trio who boasts the chip lead heading into today's play, 'The Mouth' topping the star-studded pack with 85,500. But the road is long, and snapping on his heels like an alligator with toothache are a number of heavy hitters: Huck Seed (73,300), Johnny Chan (68,600), and Scotty Nguyen... baby (!) (64,700).

Play is unlikely to start on time given the cast and early kick-off time, but when it does, we should be in for a quite the slobber knocker as we search for our 2010 Tournament of Champions Champion. Make sure you follow all the action, right here, on PokerNews.com.