Another major World Poker Tour event, the Southern Poker Championship, began yesterday near the terminus of the mighty Mississippi, with 208 players coughing up $10,000 each, to sit down and compete.

The Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi is the setting for this most recent event, and despite not being located in one of the more known gambling epicenters, this year the Beau Rivage still attracted an impressive number of famous poker faces.

Some of the players spotted during the first day of tournament play included Christian Harder, Bill Edler, Jeff Madsen, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Eric Baldwin, Lee Markholt, Carlos Mortensen, Nick Schulman, Kathy Liebert and PokerRoad Radio's Gavin Smith, who was among the chip leaders for much of the day, before settling in around 105,000 in tournament chips. 

Other players with formidable stacks by the end of Day 1 included Hoyt Corkins, Chad Brown, Jonathan Little and chip leader Dwyte Pilgrim, who came into the main event on a significant heater, having already taken a first and second place during Southern Poker Championship preliminary events.

For more information on the 2010 Southern Poker Championship including updates, chip counts, photos and videos starring PokerRoad's Amanda Leatherman visit www.worldpokertour.com.


Story by Mark Anderson