Day 1 of Play

May 23, 2004, 12:30 pm PST, Las Vegas

Ok, the big event for MZ starts in 21 minutes...These monitors showing the round timing are all over the place...This is his starting seat...and his starting "stack" ($10,000) ...and the room his table is in...

Our star arrives...Let the game begin!

This is pretty much the scene for the next 12 hours..

MZ's game is "on"...he pulled in a nice load of chips in the first few hours...

 

After 1 hour and 40 minutes of play,  Round 1 ends...time for a 15 minute break...looking good!

And we're back from break...Back to the grind...After another 1 hour and 40 minute round (the blinds are now 50-100), MZ is still holding on quite well!

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At the end of Round 3 (100-200 blinds), lot's of folks had busted out, and tables were regularly being consolidated. MZ's table was split up...too bad; it was a GOOD table...the move could make things tough! (It certainly made photographing him tough!)

With people dropping like flies, the new table did not last long...early into Round 4 (there was a whole 70 minute dinner break between Rounds 3 and 4, by the way) his table split again...he'd ride the new table through the night...

btw.. i saw Tobbie Maguire..but couldn't get a picture! A number of other names of note that were around .... Rob and Amber from Survivor, Ben Afflack, Amarillo Slim, Dutch Boyd, Matt Damon, Phil Ivey 
During this crueling 5 1/2 hours between 8:00 pm and 1:30 am, MZ's table had camera's around it a few times! Tune in June 8  on ESPN.

With $19,000 entering Round 6, uncertianty was in the air.... BUT...MZ triumphed, ending with a personal WSOP best at the end of 6 rounds of $48,125!!!!!!!!! Of over 1200 players starting today, there are less then 550 remaining. Only 33 from yesterday's 1200 (down to 580) players ended up with more then $48,000.  Day 2 starts in less then 12 hours...