If you want to be spotted in a crowd you can’t go far wrong starting on the basis that bright colours will work – like yellows and oranges that assist the rescue teams if you’re lost on a mountain, or out at sea. Bright pink works too. In this mass of people crowded inside the Amazon Room step forward Team PokerStars Pro Victoria Coren and her pink fedora.

Sitting forward in her chair, feet behind her and in the kind of elegant shoes rarely given a chance back in the bleak UK summer, she has adopted the best position for fighting the elements – in this case a ferocious air conditioning unit piping a cold breeze into the room funnelling it past her table – knees up on the chair, zip up on, arms crossed. It’s the Pike position, aerodynamic and best for warmth.

Not that Vicky needs to try and stand out – her tournament record speaks for itself and amid her tournament palmares is a cash in this event last year.

But there are other things going against Vicky, notably jetlag. Having arrived on the same flight from London I can confirm that, for the English, this is technically the middle of the night. But it’s also Vegas and the motivation to stay awake comes from elsewhere. If only the cards were helping, which Vicky’s wry smile went some way to explain. She’s down to around 3k in level 3.

Hats are a theme on this table. The seat one player has some kind of oriental pattern to his baseball cap while in seat six sits one of the newest members of Team PokerStars Pro, Poland’s Marcin Horecki. His style of headgear is the ‘reverse beret’, which sits next to his chips. His day has started a little better but when I arrived a deep thought hand had Marcin mucking after several minutes in the tank, a short sharp shake of the head accompanying the act of mucking, sending him back down to around 7k.

Into level four…

Postscript: Well, Vicky Coren is out. “That was a weird coup” (quoted from a text message she was sending) just about summed it up. A case of her all-in being called with one of those “mediocre” hands. But pragmatic to the end it’s nothing a cigarette break and a bit of sunshine won’t fix. Almost.

“4pm is an odd time to go out. 2pm and you can enjoy the afternoon, but 4pm…”

Regardless, there will be other events for Vicky before the main event starts next week. For now an evening off (probably spent in a card room close to here). No inclination to play the Stud Eight-or-Better later tonight though.

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