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Welcome to the Rio!

Today is the first day the 2011 WSOP opens its doors to the public.

Many of us call this Day 0 due to the fact that only satellite, cash games, and side tournaments are currently running.

While plenty of people still come out to check out the sites, the building is still relatively empty.

This is what the Pavillion Room looked like last year:

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except Jack Effel. He never sleeps.

Starting tomorrow, expect this room to be hopping.

For those of you more familiar with the Amazon Room, here’s something similar to what you’ll currently run into there:

This is actually last year's pic, but other than some banners, it should look pretty much the same.

Pretty empty huh?  Fear not, as this place should be hopping, especially tomorrow evening when the 25k Heads-Up Championship kicks off.

Just about everyone in the poker world is ready to kick off this puppy.

Below are a few tweets I’ve run across today from players:

AnnieLePage Just pulled in to the Rio to check it out and play a few satellites.

tchanpoker Terrence Chan All this @WSOP chatter is starting to give me the itch.

MarcKaram Just booked my flight for Saturday, haven’t been this excited about poker in a long time. #getmetovegas

Of course, AsianSpa had to throw in a dig or few:

AsianSpa @joesebok hope to see u at the @wsop I am going to call u out and embarrass you at the Rio, its game on, Mr. Ben Hoodwinked

Controversy Already?

We also have our first controversy of the WSOP.  Apparently there are no nachos in the poker kitchen.

This from Bluff’s own Jess Wellman:

jesswelman Woah!! @WSOP red alert!!!!! There are no more nachos in the poker kitchen. Awwwww hell no!!!!!!!!!!!!

It didn’t take long for the WSOP to respond:

WSOP @jesswelman We will get our crack team of nacho specialists working on a Nacho Welman Grande selection for you!

No word as of yet whether there will actually be nachos in the poker kitchen or not.

If not, email Bluff Magazine. Maybe they will hire you as a nacho runner? But then again, if Cowboy is around, they may just hire him.

The real action starts tomorrow with both the $500 Employee’s Event and the $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship.

Action kicks off at noon from Vegas. Stay tuned to PokerJunkie.com as we will be bringing you news and blogs all summer from the 2011 World Series of Poker.

For daily recaps of all the action at the 2011 World Series of Poker, check our WSOP news section.