Well there you have it...

The WSOP is over for me, what did you say?

The 2007 WSOP is now in the books for me. There is no more that I can do, or aspire to do. It is now Tuesday, and I'm looking back at the good, the bad, and the wreckage. For one thing, my neck and upper back are worse now. They ache more, I ice more (even as I write this), and take more Advil. I was hoping that I dodged the whole sore neck and back thing, but now I'm hoping for a full recovery within a week. I'm not in constant pain, and I sleep fine, but I hated it when my neck, which had been throbbing on the right side, suddenly switched to the left side. I know that I'm actually lucky to have these minor injuries, I mean it could have been much, much worse.

The accident seems like a wakeup call. I mean I was driving too fast, I was out of control, I was pushing the limits, I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and I didn't even have a helmet on!! I will be careful around cars, in cars, and with cars, the rest of my life. The bigger metaphor is this: I'm a bit out of control myself. What with Chinese poker, my ego, and my life in general. In Chinese poker, I will try to play less hours, and for lower stakes (no more $100,000 nights, never mind $500,000 nights!). As to my ego, what can I really do? A lot, actually. My wife and kids really normalize me, and that's who I need to be with exclusively for awhile. Finally, I should cut back my hours a bit, and focus on family. We do have a two week long Wisconsin trip planned in Late July.

Winning a bracelet this year was great stuff, but I should have won one more. One more, and I would have been totally happy.

Tuesday interviews and wife

I woke up at 1:45 pm, and rushed over to do four interviews in succession at the Rio. Then my wife and I slowed way down. First we went to Paymon's (my second favorite Vegas restaurant) for a nice Mediterranean meal, including Hummus, Baba Ganoush, and a chicken kabob, yum-yum. Then we hit the movie "Live Free or Die Hard" to watch Bruce Willis reprise his role as John McClain. We both loved that movie! While we were there, we bought tickets for Harry Potter at 12:30 am. We wanted the IMAX (at the Palms) but it was sold out. This presented a decision for my wife. After the first movie, should she go to the movie or go to bed? I mean 12:30 am is early for me, but she gets up before 6:30 am most days (I get up after noon most days!). She decided to go for the adventure, and this movie was great too. One weird thing happened: they didn't have hot dogs for 30 minutes! Saved me, I guess. On the way back to our suite my neck was acting up and aching quite a bit.

What did we do today?

Well, I was up at the crack of 3:00 pm. I called Jack McCelland to see if he could sign me up for the WPT event at the Bellagio, but he said I was too late, and that I'll have to play tomorrow (there are three first days). Then I wanted to get out of the room for coffee. I went to the pool for 15 minutes of sun while my wife faxed something. Then we were off to the Forum Shops for coffee, and we stopped at "Spagos" for a 5:00 pm meal. Then we made our way back to the room, and chilled. Then it was room service, movie, room service, movie. Finally, at 2:00 am I wrote my article, and this BLOG, but it was a super slow, super easy, super relaxed day. We both could use more days like this one. Tomorrow I play the WPT event at the Bellagio, and I'll be there on time, yeah right! You can follow tall of the live updates at Cardplayer.com…

Friday or Saturday I'll do the "Best Damn Sports Show." Sunday I play on a UBT (Ultimate Blackjack Tour) final table (on CBS and WGN later this year) at the Venetian Hotel. I believe that the UBT is the next big thing after poker. These blackjack tournaments are in absolute BLAST to play in! The UBT even has a new subscription based-20 bucks a month--website (clububt.com) where they give away $100,000 a month in prizes…