There is so much going on at the Riot…er…ahhh…Rio that one has to wonder what the level of patience, peace of mind, and tolerance is for each player that’s involved in playing in a satellite or in an event – not that I’m undercutting the ring game player in this picture. Themagic of the WSOP has disappeared. There is nothing orderly, organized, or sane about the platform of the biggest poker event of the year. One has to wonder if there is any upper level management, and if there is, do they have any control over what is happening in levels of management below them. I won’t even begin to go into some of the horror stories that are unfolding, if you’re curious, there are newsgroups and other places on the internet that will give you an idea of the mass mayhem. One of the best places to check for daily reports and news is PokerNews.

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On another front, I’m firing a Dr. and I arrived at his office yesterday, asking for my medical records. They will have them for me today – at the cost of 50c a page. Unreal! Of course I argued. Of course they remained adamant. I checked with two other Dr.’s offices after I left that office and they would give the recordsto me for free. I could just go to the new Dr. and have them request my records but that slows everything down. I’ve sent an email to the Nevada Medical Association, querying the charge for medical records. Anyone else run into this with a Dr. before?

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At the Rio – I tried to get myself into real trouble with the media pass thing. But honestly, it was innocent as hell, I just didn’t know. I was cruising, looking for Michael Craig as I knew he was playing inone of the day’s events. I didn’t see him anywhere in the tournament area and became sidetracked by two tables that werein the tournament area, but offside to the rest of the games. There were no ropes or barriers. Some of my little poker buddies were at these tables. Of course I stopped to take pictures and say hello.The first person I photographed was Rafi Amit. He was so busy laughing and trying to get me to go away that he knocked a $100 chip off of his stack. WTG buddy. He was in the 8s and I found it under the 1s.

The next person I wanted a shot of is one of my favorites, Chau Giang.Chau was in the 3s, smiling at me, and I snapped away. Funny part of it is that the player on Chau’s left is Eric Froelich and he won the event…oh well, how would I know? I thought Chau was a favorite…he did take 2nd place.

I moved around behind Chau, spoke to him for a moment on personal matters, went back to talk to Bruno, gave him a hug, and the tournament director for that tournament came up and told me I couldn’t be there. I said ok and that I was just saying hi. He walked away. I moved around behind Chau and snapped a picture of Bruno.

Off I went, still in search of Michael Craig. The final event was running under the cameras,no spectators other than a few people in the stands, and I stood right at the velvet ropes and took a couple of shots of the scene. I only knew one person there, he won the tourney – David Pham – he’s hidden behind ‘BYNUM’.

I called Michael Craig. He’d busted out Q-Q vs. A-A. He was on his way back home for a few days. So what did I do? I went back towards the table that held Chau, Rafi, and Bruno. Tony G. was in the aisle, moving back to his seat in the same tournament as the above named, and we had the chance to visit for a few minutes. When he took his seat, I took a couple of pictures. Ruh-roh! Here came the dude that was directing the tournament. He told me that if he had to tell me again, I would have my media pass revoked. YIKES! Here’s Tony in the interim.

I got the hell out of dodge for a bit. I wandered over to the Media Lounge, ran into Brad-Otis-Willis and had a little chat with him – hugs too. April and Kristin appeared, they are working for CardPlayer, Brad works for PokerStars. But we’re all blogger buds.

I have to come back – other things on the menu right now, this definitely ISN’T the end. 🙂