Ever experience a situation where your expensive gear just wasn't expensive enough? Well, that's everyday in Monte Carlo. You either drive a Mini Cooper (if you are a girl) or a Ferrari, Bentley or Maserati (if you are a boy). And that's just the cars. Then there’s the harbor, with so many yachts it’s overwhelming – not only if you think about how difficult parking those things must be – but also because of the sheer number of millions of dollars these ships are worth.

Are you up for a reality check? Monaco definitely is not. Beer at the casino: 8 Euro. Burger or pizza: 20 Euro. Driving five minutes in a cab: 15-20 Euro (depending on how touristy you look and how bad your French is). The special rate for poker players in the hotel: 500 Euro. And to add insult to injury – 1 Euro equals 1.6 US$.  Do the math and shake your head.

Guess not too many journalists can write about this experience – at least I hope not for Daniel’s sake. As it happened, the EPT Grand Finale wasn't a long week's work for Kid Poker, so in his post-bust-out free time he entertained himself at the players’ lounge and at the media room. At one point he paid a visit to Amanda Leatherman and her PokerNews crew, and the discussion turned to Jennicide and her Playboy pictures. I was sitting in the seat next to Amanda and overheard that neither one of them had actually seen the photos. Resourceful (as my laptop is), I asked Negreanu if he wanted to check out the pics on my computer. Amanda joined the action and soon a few people were standing behind Daniel looking at my screen. Needless to say, Negreanu was commentating on every “delicate” inch of each picture. Summing it up, let’s just say the Canadian wasn't too fond of Jennicide's exterior. Although…everybody agreed that her boob-job was pretty decent.

I had two interactions with Barry Greenstein during the EPT Grand Finale.  On the first occasion, I interviewed him for a magazine article. A day or so later, the Bear sat down at my table during the dinner break.  While we were eating, Greg Raymer stopped by and complained about the French cuisine, going on about how he hated olives…along with almost everything else offered at the buffet. Well, Raymer’s gripe reminded the Bear of a story back from his old college days. He told us that his friends back then didn’t like much of the food and often criticized the campus chef. The Bear then explained to his buddies, as he now told Raymer, that their mums were just too good at cooking, so as kids they got spoiled and now couldn’t eat anything that was less then perfect. The Bear, however, was lucky, because his mum allowed him the experience of eating food from all different sorts of places.  Was that just the Bear’s nice way of saying, “my mom is a terrible cook”?