In the regular workaday world, Mondays are cause for concern. They mark the beginning of what is sure to be another five days in the dog-eat-dog worker bee world. In poker, especially at the World Series, Mondays are merely another day in the life. The only difference you can see is the tourists have all gone home to the real world.

This Monday begins with a lot of promise. First thing this morning, I found myself in a small conference room at the Rio with Daniel Negreanu. Monday marked the official announcement that Daniel was joining the ranks of Team PokerStars. Munching on a veggie sandwich and fussing with a Wii system in the corner, Daniel was all smiles as Barry Greenstein handed him a brand new PokerStars shirt and hat. For more, check out: Daniel Negreanu joins Team PokerStars.

I also had a chance to talk to Barry Greenstein a bit this morning. If you read The Forgotten Final Table, you know that Barry was one of the dissenters in the vote to go to sleep before playing the Stud final table the other morning. Most of the people at the table wanted to take a break. Barry didn’t. At the time he said he wanted to play the $5,000 Limit Hold’em event the next day. Today he revealed that his reasoning was a bit more devious. He said when he realized that some of the people were vehemently opposed to playing on, he stepped up his efforts to finish off the game that night. His reasoning was simple: If his opponents were mad about having to play, they wouldn’t play as well. “It’s a pretty cut-throat way to look at the world,” he conceded,but, that’s poker, eh?

Greenstein has chips going into Day 2 of the $5,000 Limit event today. I’m wondering how well he’ll concentrate. His girlfriend Alex Vuong has gone deep in the $2,500 HORSE event and starts the day as the only woman left in the event.

In other great news to start the day, Team PokerStars’ Katja Thater begins Day 2 of the ladies event as one of the chip leaders. A few minutes ago, I saw something that I may not be able to convey properly in words.

Katja, a beautiful woman who also boasts a stern poker face, sat at the table with her face on. She doesn’t crack a smile. She shows zero emotion. At the same time, at the other end of her table, a girl breaks into tears when her hand…holds up. Holds up.

For some reason, and I’ll let you decide what it is, I think Katja has a good shot at a final table today.

Mondays are fun-days here at the World Series. If you don’t believe me, come see for yourself.

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