It's July 7 in Las Vegas, and it's hard telling who has taken over the town, the poker players or the brides. Every 50 feet, you trip over a wedding party where the obvious sentiment is that getting married on this date (7-7-07) is an omen of marital bliss -- or a way to make sure that the husbands remember their anniversary.

At the same time, the World Series of Poker Main Event got underway yesterday in what can best be described as the first flight of the first round. The field for the No-limit Texas Hold ‘em World Championship is so huge, organizers have to start the tournament over four days.

Yesterday, 1,287 players -- each paying a $10,000 buy-in -- began the week-and-a-half climb to the top of poker’s Everest at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. If projected over four starting days, that would indicate a total field of just under 5,200 (registration continues through Monday).

While 5,200 players seems like a big number for a $10,000 buy-in poker event, it would be the smallest Main Event field in three years. In 2006, more than 8,700 players competed.

The reason, for the drop-off in participation is obvious to poker observers. A federal law that went into effect last year made Internet gambling more difficult (one way was by restricting the movement of money into online casino accounts) and its impact is being felt here. Last year, it was estimated that as many as half of the Main Event players qualified in online poker tournaments.

While Main Event participation will be down, overall attendance at the current World Series of Poker -- actually a series of 55 individual events that began on June 1 -- has been good.  Records were set for participation in lower buy-in tournaments, which routinely attracted 2,500 to 3,000 players.

From yesterday’s starting field, there were just over 440 survivors. I counted at least nine Marylanders in that group. Steve Dannenmann, the Severn accountant who finished second two years ago and won $4.25 million, as well as several players from his now famous home game begin play tomorrow. Rhett Butler, the Rockville insurance broker who finished fifth and won more than $3.2 million last year, starts today.

The chip leader from yesterday was a player from Paris who had more than 270,000 chips, but there’s a long, long way to go. The highest Marylander was Brock Parker of Silver Spring, with 110,500. More locally, a guy with the made-for-TV name of Brian Hollywood from Pasadena has about 42,000.

Bill Ordine is blogging from the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.