Sebastian Trisch returned this morning as chip leader in the Main Event. His stack of 568,000 took more than ten minutes to unpack and restack neatly, a point not lost on the seven others at his table who will spend at least the early stages of the day in his shadow.

Trisch was one of several new faces to step onto the stage yesterday, others including Torsten Pischl, seated across from Trisch in seat 6. While it might not be a table of players who get their photo taken, between them there are plenty of chips in play.

The Hofburg Palace

Pischl has 360,000 of them while Richard Milne Senior, perhaps the most interesting looking players at the tbale, has more than 250,000. Michel Dattani and Lasell King each have close to 300,000.

Milne though is, like Trisch, getting stuck in. Milne wears his poker career on his WSOP emblazoned windbreaker sleeve, from the baseball cap that looks to be almost wrapped around his head, to the casino card protector he uses. He even wears a gold signet ring, harking back to the poker fashion of a bygone era before hoodies and headphones became the rage.

Milne also plays hands with intent. Not one to ignore the action in favour of an iPad or any other distraction, Milne instead plays by the book in that regard, and when he plays a hand himself he touches his cards as though afraid someone might whisk them away.

Next to him is Sergei Baranov, the Russian player who uses conversation like others use the re-raise. His quiet chat, always carefully aimed, might well be the reason that Trisch, who looks like the weight of the chip lead is something of a burden, remains quiet. That is until King in seat eight said something to make him laugh.

Regardless, he remains the chip leader, and plays like one, winning several sizable pots within the first few hands. No pictures perhaps, but plenty to talk about.

Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter.

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