July 4th is always an emotional day within the United States as people move forward to celebrate the birth of a nation. In the poker room, despite the negative view of poker by the United States government, there was still a moment taken to honor the country with the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Once that was over however, it was time to get down to business with Doyle Brunson ordering everyone to shuffle up and deal before sitting down to receive his cards in the first poker hand. In addition to Doyle, his son Todd Brunson was playing.

These two were not the only duo in the room however. Barry Greenstein and his son Joe Sebok were both present and playing on day 1B. At the same time, the first two major online amateur winners were present in the room as well. Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer won the World Series of Poker in 2003 and 2004 respectively and both were in the room today looking for their second Main Event title. They were joined in that quest for additional immortality by 1972 winner Amarillo Slim, 1993 winner Jim Bechtel and 2001 winner Carlos Mortensen. Mortensen is a pro favorite because he was the last professional player to win the Main Event.

About five minutes after the cards went into the air, Kim Sherlin had the dubious honor of being the first person to be knocked out of the tournament on day 1B. He can soothe himself with the knowledge that he was not the first to be eliminated in the overall tournament, but it is still definitely a tough pill to swallow.

Many of the top professional players were in this field as well, including Erik Seidel and Mike Matusow. A number of players were able to navigate through the field and make it successfully to the end of the day. Chris Moneymaker was not one of those players however, as he was eliminated in the second round of the day and continues his streak of poor performances at the Main Event following his $2.5 million win in 2003.