A member of ESPN crew just stole my watch. He sidled up, directed my attention in another way through a clever bit of trickery and deceit, and then pocketed my watch (remarkably, a replacement for one that was snatched while I was working a few months ago). This guy left me off the hook quickly.

"Hey," he said. "I was at Venice Beach and look what I found!"

There was my watch.

That's the mood right now. This is is the biggest thing that's happened this year, but the tension hasn't quite kicked in yet. The $50,000 HORSE World Championship is scheduled to begin in ten minutes. The ESPN crew is white balancing its cameras and joking around. I spotted Barry Greenstein in a TV interview as I walked in to set up beside the final table stage.

Final table preparations

As I told you last night, Barry Greenstein has made the final table of the HORSE event (check out that link for a rundown of HORSE coverage and a rundown of the final table).


Reserved seats for Barry's sweaters

While Barry's stack isn't huge, the chances of him going out first are slim. Thor Hansen sits on a 40,000 stack--less than half of what he started with and not enough to get him through the blinds in the hold'em round. Privately, there are people (read: dealers) hoping Barry wins this thing. Apparently, he's generous when it comes time to tip out.

As the players it down to play, Barry came in to get his TV microphone.

"Hey," he said when he saw me, "I'm still sick from yesterday."

Yesterday--at least the end of it--was bad. He lost too many million dollar pots and didn't win enough.


ESPN hooks Barry up with his mic

The focus now turns to today.

For some reason, though, I'm hyper and feeling good. Hopefully Barry feels as good in the early going.

Here we go.