There was only one final table today, and centre to that was the minute pixie figure of Dario Minieri. The Italian youngster first broke onto the scene at the Baden EPT a couple of years ago, when he finished third in a tournament that was eventually won by Thang Duc Nguyen.

But Minieri had been the star during the event, his style was just so different, so much more aggressive, even more than the Danes, Norwegians and especially the Swedes. His re-raising range preflop was basically any two cards and he began to accumulate a vast quantity of chips without ever having to even see a flop, let alone a showdown.

Since then, he came third in the San Remo EPT, another event where he looked to be coasting to the title, only to lose a coinflip to the eventual winner Jason Mercier, who had re-raised preflop with A-3, and Minieri had slowplayed his queens perfectly, only to be felted by a rivered flush.

Between these two events Minieri became a fully-fledged member of Team Pokerstars, but has, crucially, never picked up that bracelet to truly establish himself as a star.

In the event itself, Stuart Markshak was an early bustee after he tried to squeeze with Q-J but came royally unstuck against Justin Filtz who was holding pocket kings and that quickly left us with five. John O'Shea was next to go, making a big move on a A-5-2 board with 4-2 but, not being able to hold out against Seth Fischer's A-9.

Dario would bust out Kevin Song in 4th, before we saw some incredibly sick outdraws in the 3-handed game. First, on A♣ T♦ 2♦ board, Justin Filtz was all-in with 5♦ 3♦ against Dario's Q♦ J♦ and somehow manage to catch his unlikely saviour card, the 4♥ and avoided a diamond to stay in.

Filtz however would suffer a beat equally horrendous, when he was all-in with aces against Seth Fischer's ace king. Filtz cheered with delight as he saw the spot he was in, but that brought the wrath of the poker gods, as the board came out K-J-9-K-J giving Fischer a house and eliminating Filtz in 3rd.

Heads-up continued this sickness, as Dario, by this point, faced a 2:1 deficit in chips but managed to get it all preflop with 4♠ 3♠ against Fischer's kings. Dario must have liked the J♠ 8♠ 2♦ flop, but when he caught the 4♥ and then the 4♦ to complete a big suck-out, he already had one eye on the bracelet.

Going good in the Stud8.

The diminutive Italian finally got hold the bracelet when his queens held against Fischer's K-T and he became the second Italian bracelet winner inside of a week, after Max Pescatori's earlier triumph in the mixed pot-limit hold'em/omaha.

Elsewhere, today was the very first day of the WSOP, where neither event that was starting was in fact a hold'em event. The $1,500 PLO saw a staggering amounth of rebuys, 1,350 in total, as players needed to scratch that gambling itch. Daniel Makowsky finished the day as chip leader, with just shy of $400,000, Jerrod 'Ron Burgundy' Ankenman, Thomas Wahlroos, Ted Forrest and Layne Flack are all in the top ten chip counts as well.

The other event which began today was the much more quiet and reserved $1,500 Stud-Hi event, which tended to attract the more thoughtful and less inclined to gamble players. By the end of play, Ali Barbieri was the chip leader, with Bryan Devonshire and Chip Jett also thereabouts. Chad Brown manage to make the upper echelons as well, earlier he'd got all-in with trip aces against quad threes only to catch his miracle case ace on the river to stay alive!

Another of the stud8 heavyweight final.

In the two ongoing events, Jose Luis Velador dominated the no-limit event, finishing the day with $2,000,000 going into the final table, way ahead of every other player on the table, in what looks to be a big battle of the unknowns.

The 7-card stud hi/lo had a long and drawn out day, Steve Sung and Sebastian Ruthenberg were vying for the chip lead but towards the end of the day, Annie Duke took over that coveted position, while Marcel Luske swung from almost being out to being chip leader throughout the day.

Eventually, Howard Lederer would surprisingly turn out to be the final table bubble boy, but that still left a strong final table.