AimlesslyChasingAmy

Tuesday night at the WSOP, the $2K Stud event started up in the tent.  The Pavilion has been running between 90-100 degrees, but last night if felt like an artic breeze in there.  The players were miserable.  But me?  I was happy.  To some extent, the stud players are my peeps.  And here they all were, collected in one room; just for me. 

As I walked into the tent, the first person I literally bumped into was Alan Boston - who characteristically was up out of his chair, bouncing from table to table.  He immediately wanted to know if I had posted the picture of his abs.  Well here it is Alan - your abs for all the world to see.  He said he was listening to the most depressing song ever written on his iPod: At Seventeen sung by Janis Ian.  He semi-sang, talked through the lyrics “I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens and high school girls with clear skinned smile who married young and then retired.  The valentines I never knew, the Friday night charades of youth were spent on one more beautiful.  At seventeen I learned the truth…”

I thought this was my seranade of the WSOP, but about 10 minutes later he got out of his chair (again) and belted out a Nat King Cole song in full voice.  After the vocal full monty, I said my WSOP experience was now complete at which Boston quipped, “I would have thought it was complete when you saw my abs.”  Cyndy Violette burst into a full giggle.

One of the people I knew I would bump into was Neal Friest.  Friest, who made it deep in one of the other stud events, is your typical old school Northeastern gentlemen and hails from New Hampshire.  I remind him of his daughter-in-law Patty.  Both stud playing Barbaras were there; Enright and Lewis.  Mel Judah, Howard Lederer, Chip Reese, Greg Raymer, Allen Kessler, Jeff Lisandro, etc. were also in the mix.  Even with all the big names, the room didn’t feel like a WSOP event.  It had all the looks and feel of a card club where old friends got together to play a game they both loved and hated.  With so many events going on at once during the WSOP this year, the “Stud Pavilion” was like a little WSOP old school oasis - albeit a cold oasis.

I had the day off yesterday and tended to the basics; cleaning, grocery shopping and photo editing.  By the way, I have a new test to know when I’ve been editing to long: I do this to Alex Jacob.

Photos:

1) Alan Boston’s abs
2) Alan Boston with shirt on
3) John D’Agostino torturing his shirt
4) Chis Bell eating his shirt
5) A study of Alex Jacob in blue