The voice of poker Jesse May is blogging on MatchroomPoker.com from the bright lights of Vegas at the WSOP – here’s the first instalment:

Thursday at the WSOP

9am: Coffee at the Starbucks outside the Golden Nugget with Padraig and Katharine. Padraig is in unbelievable form. He’s been here two weeks and has only played three times. Probably the most rested guy in town. Looks a cert for todays half and half pot limit event. Peter “the Bandit” Evans was there. He says Surinder is still mad at him for drawing out in the final of the first Late Night Poker. John from the Midlands says that he is happy to walk a mile in most people’s shoes as long as he can buy a new pair shoes once he gets a mile away.

12pm: Visited the Machine Gun range to discuss outing for Team Ladbrokes. They say under no circumstances will anyone be admitted to the range if they’ve been drinking. Define “been drinking”. $100 gets you your choice of three machine guns and three different targets. There are no poker players among the target selections.

2pm: Burger from In’n’Out burger costs $1.65

4pm: Bumped into Channing at the Rio. He is nearly at the point of having an entourage. Definitely could use a clerk and a handler. In the space of five minutes he was asked to perform a dazzling array of financial decisions. I give the quality of his decisions about an eight on a scale of one to ten, which is over par for two weeks in Las Vegas during the biggest run of his life.

5pm: Keith “The Camel” Hawkins in very good form, just in town to register for his main event, which starts tomorrow, the 10k Heads Up. Chufty came by, all smiles, calm and bright eyed as the day is long. He’s got to be a good bet in some of these events. I nearly fell down when Roland walked through as he was wearing a clean shirt, ironed!! Who is this man? The Camel told me a funny story about being in Australia with Roland.

The Camel is having a terrible trip in Australia. It’s the last night and he’s lamenting his woes to Roland de Wolfe. “Relax, Keith,” says Roland. “Here’s what I’m going to do for you. How much are you down for the trip?” Twenty thousand, says the Camel. “Well, that’s fine,” says Roland. “You put up seventeen thousand, and I’ll put up twenty. Next flop, red or black?” I’ve kicked myself ever since for not taking it, says the Camel. But that’s what changes when you have a wife and kid. He’s right, of course. Roland is a legend.

7:30pm: Drinks at Binion’s Horseshoe with Mad Marty, Katharine, Scofe, and others. Marty is telling the story about how his life was changed by the Lord Mount Louie tapestry at the Chittenden Pub. We look at the framed and autographed poker table in the poker room from the WSOP four years ago. Marty’s signature is in big letters on the left side. The Devilfish's signature takes up half of the bottom of the table.