The focus on today was not on endings but beginnings. It was about the start of one event that completely overshadowed the rest.

It marked the start of the $50,000 HORSE event, which saw the PokerStars media team on duty in the Amazon Room’s press box for the first time to watch over five days of poker. Whilst that went on were we also following the progress of Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem, on a run for the final table of his event, the $1,500 PLO8. The final remained elusive but Joe recorded a cash of $4,600 for 35th place.

It was also the start of a roller-coaster style re-buy event which saw a bundle of Team PokerStars Pros rolling up their sleeves. However, only one would make it through the carnage on day one, that being Humberto Brenes who will be looking to sew up his 52nd cash of his World Series career, and his fourth of the year. He ended today with an average stack for day two.

But the story today remained that of the $50,000 HORSE. It attracted 148 of the world’s best players which will see just 16 finishing in the money; the winner taking away nearly $2 million. Team PokerStars Pro was well represented at the start with a roll call of Barry Greenstein, Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Katja Thater, Chad Brown, Bill Chen, Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier. There were noted PokerStars-sponsored players also in Kiril Garasimov and Alex Kravchenko.

Such is the pace of the game chip counts are academic in the early stages but there were some slight changes. Both Bill Chen and Barry Greenstein finished among the leaders and whilst Daneil Negreanu was roughed up at stages leaving him with just 26,000 he rallied well to end the day in the comfort zone.

Play resumes at 3pm PST in both the $1,000 Rebuy and $50,000 HORSE events. Tomorrow begins the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Short-Handed event at $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo tournament. We'll be here for it all.