You're tired, grumpy, you're not sleeping well, the jetlag still hasn't completely worn off and you're hungry at odd times of the day. But, you're still in the World Series main event, and happy about that. But you turn up for work at the Rio and find that 2,000 others are experiencing the same thing, and endless flow of humanity. To all of them it must feel like the poker tournament without end.
But there is some hope, for today will be the last of the busy days. When people leave this afternoon and evening they won't come back, replaced by similar looking clones filling another room a day later. That's because today is Day 3, the first day in which all players are united under one roof. Actually three roofs. But you get the picture.
Today, spread out across the Amazon, Pavilion and Brasilia Rooms, they face a further five levels, a third marathon session which still won't guarantee any kind of cash compensation for all the work put in. As always in these circumstances it stands as quite an achievement to have made it thus far. And yet, it means nothing to the defeated. They may as well have busted on day one and saved themselves the price of a hotel room.
It's all just a blur now
But this is not a time for pessimism, but instead for that blind optimism that allows every player, young and old, to wake up in the morning and say to themselves "what if?" What if I get a few hands? What if I have a great table? What if I make it through the day?
What if indeed. Today will be another of those occasions. Some 1,753 players will be cut by at least half, with the hallways full of one way traffic.
Team PokerStars Pros will be trying to avoid that traffic. Here's how they line up at the start of today.
Mikhail Shalamov - 283,600
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier - 246,600
Marcel Luske - 226,100
Theo Jorgensen - 187,900
Jake Cody - 160,000
Liv Boeree - 158,000
Ivan Demidov - 157,600
Isaac Haxton - 106,000
Adrienne Rowsome - 75,900
Matthias De Meulder - 52,100
Angel Guillen - 50,300
Gabe Nassif - 13,600
Welcome to Day 3.
Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter. Pictures courtesy of Poker Photo Archive.