Scandanvian Open begins and Insta-Photo Gallery

Thought you folks might enjoy a few pictures of the start of the tournament, but first...some sad news to report from the poker room. PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner, John Gale, thought it was an omen. He drew the exact same seating assignment as his first day in the Bahamas. Indeedm, the very same seating assignment that sent him to the final table and eventually first prize. Sounded like an omen to me. Sounded like an omen to him.

Unfortunately, the cards are sort of fickle about omens.


John Gale in his, er, lucky, seat

Gale's pair of queens ran up against a pair of aces. It was a crippling blow from which Gale had no spirit to recover. To a round of applause, he left as the first player out of the Scandanavian Open.

Just last night, Gale mentioned something about the poker gods being on his side. It seems his particular overseers are better suited for the temperate climate of the Caribbean than the Kingdom of Denmark.

With that out of the way, let's move on to a quick photo gallery.


The Scandanavina Open begins


Each table is lit by a single overhead light


Isabelle Mercier loses the off-table smile


The Great Dane returns to his homeland saying he'd had enough of Tunica, MS


Hendon Monster Barny Boatman sizes up his table. Earlier in the elevator he'd asked me for the time. I told him he had 15 minutes until the tournament started. He said, he wasn't worried about making it on time. Rather, he just couldn't wait to get the cards in his hands


Fellow Hendon Mobster, Ram Vaswani, checks the bet


European standouts Baard Dahl and Martin de Knijff find themselves as neighbors. Dahl told me last night he used to be on his way to chess greatness, but peaked when he was 17. I said, "You can peak in chess?" Apparently, you can. Now 34, Dahl is a fulltime poker player in the midddle of a successful year.