There's more to actually playing poker than meets the eye... as Howard Swains reports

A couple of stories picked up during the break here in Barcelona. Firstly, Mad Harper, our roving reporter, spoke to Einar Sveinsson, of Iceland, and asked him of his previous poker experience. He remembered qualifying for the World Series 2006 on PokerStars, but also recalls when it all went wrong near the end of the first day.



Glancing around his table, he noticed every single player was wearing sunglasses and, as a newbie, didn't want to be left out of the crowd. So he nipped off during the break to buy his own pair and returned to take his place among the be-shaded crowd.

Problem: sunglasses make things notably darker and Einar ended up missing a possible flush on the board. He bet his top pair hard, and shipped a load of chips to an opponent who had made the flush. Einar is sunglasses-free here in Barcelona.

On the other hand, Randy Principe, of Team USA, is putting his faith in shades. Not just any old shades, though. Greg Raymer has just loaned his trademark lizard-eye sunglasses to his team-mate as Principe attempts send some cold-blooded shivers through his opponents. Principe is the short stack after the break, but who'd bet against him while sporting the world champion's eye-wear?