It was the 5am news. I was up late checking in on the HORSE final table and checking in on PokerStars' announcement of the new Asia Pacific Poker Tour tournament series. Back in my room, the local NBC morning news was on. A man with exceptionally...tall...hair told me it was going to be hot in Vegas.

"Well, no kidding," I thought, yawning.

I don't watch a lot of TV news anymore, so it's no surprise that I see virtually none when I am in Vegas. That accounts for my deficiency in understanding Sin City weatherguy vocabulary. When he says it's going to be hot in Vegas, that the winds will blow in smoke from California wildfires, and, again, that it's going to be hot, one should simply just stay in bed. Or, at the very least, one should walk around naked.

I left the Player's Pavilion overflow tent twenty minutes ago and I'm still sweating. The inside of the Rio reminds me of summer days when I would shove my head in the fridge just to cool off. The overflow tent, while well-air-conditioned on a normal day, is doing nothing to fight off the 100+ temperatures beating down today.

Frankly, I wouldn't have stayed as long, but I ran into my colleague Maria who writes the PokerStars Brazilian blog.

Maria with the Brazilians

Maria is working like a champ here at the World Series and following the Brazilians all over the strip. Today, she was drinking coffee--coffee!--in the middle of the tent while sweating (not the kind of sweating I was doing) a guy named Andre Akkari. Maria introduced me to Andre and I found him to be a really nice guy. He wasn't sweating, which I think is something he owes to living south of the equator.


Andre Akkari

Watch this space for more on Akkari. And, while I don't understand a damned word of what she's writing, I get the impression Maria is doing a bang-up job over there on the Brazilian Poker Blog. So, if you speak Portuguese or can at least read it, go check her out.

***

Barry Greenstein can find the silver lining in a place where no clouds even exist. After busting out of the Stud Hi-Lo event, he was happy one opponent scooped. That meant Barry only had to sign one copy of "Ace on the River" for the person who busted him. When Barry signs his book, he writes out his hand and the one that beat him.

"So, that's the bright side," he said. "It's not the cost of the book. It's having to write out two different stud hands in two different books. Some people like to stick around for the cameras when they bust out. You know me. I don't hang around."


Barry Greenstein

A few tables over, Humberto Brenes sat with his shark card capper at the ready. Apparently it had been in danger today.

"You missed me stomping Humberto's shark," Barry said.

The shock on my face must have been pretty clear.

"Well, I gave him a break. I stomped beside it," Barry said. "I'm going to wait for him to make a final table."

Both men are playing with seemingly every poker player in the Western Hemisphere today in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.


Humberto Brenes

At least they are playing indoors, 'cause, mama, it's hot outside.