Less than ten hands into play Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer (pictured at left) already found himself facing a tough decision for a large portion of his chips.  ESPN cameras crowded around Steve’s table as the following hand went down:

With the blinds at 50/100 a player limped in early position and Hal Lubarsky raised to 350 on the button.  O’Dwyer then reraised to 1,150 out of the big blind, the limper folded, and Lubarsky quickly put in a third raised to 4,350.  Steve thought for a good two minutes, counted out his chip stack, and eventually folded, quietly saying, “too soon”, as he threw his hand in the muck.  O’Dwyer later informed PocketFives that he held pocket kings, but he thought it was just too early to get involved in such a big pot preflop, especially considering he knew very little about how Lubarsky played.

Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor also found himself embroiled in a big hand during the first level of Day 1B.  Sporting his dashing white PokerStars hat amidst a sea of internet qualifiers in logo garb, Stuart reported that he flopped a set of sixes early on and took down a pot to increase his stack to 32K.  We watched as he worked his bigger-than-average stack to his advantage, betting out on a flop full of spades and taking it down with no contest.  He joked, “This game is easy!”

Steve “gboro780″ Gross showed up 30 minutes late and found himself seated at the same table as Theo “pitrounder” Tran. Theo is down to 17K early after losing a small pot to Raymond Fagan. On a board of TT35, Fagan checked to Tran, who bet 750, and Fagan called. The 6 fell on the river and Fagan immediately threw out 1,500 chips. Tran made the call after shaking his head and mucked when Fagan showed AQ.

Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold has been very active and talkative at his table. We caught up with Arnold calling a button raise of 250 from the big blind. The board brought 973 and Arnold said to his opponent, “You’re supposed to bet 400 here,” which his opponent did, and Arnold made the call. Arnold then led out for 400 when the K came on the turn and the other player quickly called. The 2 on the river resulted in a check from Arnold, and he was put to a decision when his opponent bet 2K. Todd tried to get some kind of read on the player, asking him “Are you tired of losing pots to me already?” before he finally folded. Arnold is still at 23K, which is above the original starting stack.

• July 4, 2008 -- Zpaceman Lifts Off
• July 5, 2008 -- Viva Las Main Event
• July 5, 2008 -- Beep, Beep: Who’s Got The Keys for the Deeb?
• July 5, 2008 -- SirWatts’ Tourney Future Bright