The great moments in my life are often sharing in the milestones of those that I care about. My dear friend Todd put his heart and soul into “The Hangover” movie , and it was amazing! This is surely a highpoint of his life and career and to be able to share in it was the best. This is one of the funniest movies ever made, beautifully shot, and will obviously be a worldwide hit. For Las Vegas it will surely boost business, and certainly won’t hurt the poker community. Todd is a top level poker player himself, and I hope he can make it to the Main Event to play at the WSOP if he gets a minute off from his world tour to open the film. I am so proud and excited for him I am going to see it for the second time today, it’s really that good. You will laugh your butt off. My prediction is that it will make over 100 million dollars in it’s initial domestic run.

I made it out to the Rio just in time to participate in the Champions Invitational, and what an impressive group of poker players and real gentleman there were. I was glad I finally got to meet a couple of past winners that I had not previously, and reconnect with some that I don’t get to see often enough. My friends from Affliction brought 2 limited edition beautiful jackets that were graciously signed by every champion there for us to auction off for charity. I must say launching my foundation has been more work than participating in every other charity event over the last 3 years but it will be well worth it.

Back to the 5 minutes I actually played in the event…I was seated with Carlos, Dan, Johnny, Robert and Greg (absent as he was at the final table of the 40k). Carlos and Johnny and my mom and I were telling stories of the Turks and Caicos Island tournament we all spent a week at 3 years ago which was a blast and second hand I get JJ late position with just Carlos behind me I raise he reraises which if you know him he could have absolutely nothing so I called. The board came low so I bet he called and now I think something is fishy and I might be in trouble. He would however do the same thing with top pair, underpair, AK etc. Turn gives me a straight draw with my JJ and now I feel a bit stuck, I check he bets I call. Blank on the river and I check he puts in a small value bet I tell him now I know he has QQ and I am stuck to call the 2k or so into 14k pot and he shows KK…aahhh well I could have played it better but Dan Harrington and Johnny both agreed it’s Carlos after all and the only bet I could have saved was the last bet. So I am real short now and get q10 on the button Johnny in the big blind calls the 150 and it comes q high…flash to end of hand and somehow I didn’t go broke he had aa in the big blind 5 handed oh well…last shot was on a flush draw against Dan and I missed for my last 750…it was a very fun 5 minutes.

I look forward to playing my first bracelet events this weekend, then back to LA for work and hope to get back once before the main event.

Over the weekend I met one of my favorite basketball players who wants me to coach him for the Main Event so I am excited to help and now have a small group of people depending on me to get them past day 1…we shall see, it will be a fun challenge.