Gavin, ESPN and me - well, not really.

   So, I see Gavin in the one seat, but he has no chips - only about 3K. There's another shortie with less in the two seat. I'm in the three. To my left is a Full Tilt qualifier - a woman with a big stack and a friendly personality - cute in a tomboyish sort of way, mid 30s, and working her charm on the table. There's a couple of older Euros on her left - a Ladbrokes guy from Wales with a big stack in the five, and another old guy with below average chips in the six. There's a fat dude from Houston covered in Party Poker gear in the seven seat, some cutey boy with a pink LV hat in the eight, some other random guy in the nine seat, and another blimpie, over three clicks, in the ten seat, who keeps trying to make small talk with the woman between hands in a horribly inept and goofy way, but she handles it really well.

   In my first couple of orbits I start accumulating chips. I raise with AK in LP and get called by Party in the BB. Flop KJJ, he check calls a standard bet. He leads a turn that puts two clubs on board, and I just call. We check the river and I hold up - not sure I like not raising the turn there or value betting the river, but I don't think he calls with anything I beat.
  I again raise with AK and get called by the random nine seat. He check calls a AcJcX flop and we see a blank turn. There's about 5K in the pot, and he has about that much behind. He checks, I jam, he tanks and folds, probably thinking about calling with a flush draw or something. - I end the level with 18.5K and am feeling very good and comfortable at the moment.

    Meanwhile, Gavin is just getting crushed. The woman is just getting hammered by the deck - she rivers a gutter straight after limping UTG with A3 and calling Ladbroke's raise with KK, and somehow sees a river 4 on an all overcard board against Gavin and rivers a set with 44. Gavin open jams the last hand of the level with TT for only 1000 chips and it holds up, so he sticks around as we go to break.

    All the while during this late action, there was a mobile ESPN crew filming at the table.  Since I was between Gavin and the woman, I might actually be in some footage next month when day 1B airs....

    When we get back for Level 3, he shortly jams for 2100 from UTG and gets called by the button. His AJs can't beat the button's KK, and Gavin Smith is gone.

    This would be the high point of the day for me. All downhill from here, baby - and it only takes about an hour and a half.

    Heff