Someone Showed Up to Cover the US Poker Championship

The United States Poker Championship got underway yesterday at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic Shitty, and despite ESPN dropping the event from its broadcast schedule and almost zero interest from the poker media, PokerListings.com's Owen Laukkanen still made the trip and is there to report on the action.

Poor guy must have lost a bet.

A decent number of pros are braving the stench of the city "always turned on" including defending USPC champ Alex Jacob, FOWCP Gavin Smith, Jeff "Prairie Dog" Madsen, Bill Edler, Cyndy Violette, Victor Ramdin, Bill Gazes and Steve Dannennnmannanannn.

As expected, a slew of greasy hair New Joisey types with muscle tees and shaved down biceps were also among the field of 164 who started the event.

At the end of the day, Gavin Smith was the chipleader as he crossed over the 100k mark. Svetlana Gromenkova, a woman, was second and proved that all Russian girls don't necessary look like Maria Sharapova. The dour Gromenkova currently resides in Brooklyn which is actually a haven for hot Eastern European women if you're ever there, as well as the Russkaya Mafiya, which, from experience, is something to be aware of if you're casually dating a girl there.

Also among the leaders is Alex Jacob.

Get a full report of yesterday's action from Owen here and stay tune to the live action here.