I was honestly expecting an archived version of the Eugene Jarvis talk to be at that link.

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I came over during E finals to chat about them. Thanks for sharing, they are a great idea.

Hey Tom, congrats. It’s great to put a face to the Pinside name. My friend Ben was in the final 4 with you, I’m on the left in the pic.

How’s this for a story. Last year, Ben and I were in the 130s on the wait list. We made the trip because we wanted to support our friends, some were playing there for the first time, as well as hopefully get in. My name was called and Ben’s was called right after. In the off to the side area where they had the lucky wait list group, they did a confirmation recount and found out they took one too many. They said “sorry Ben we took one too many and can’t take you.” Major bummer. As we are walking off a local said “he came all the way from Arizona and I live here, he can have my spot.” Total hero move.

Fast forward to this year, again they go into the 130s apparently. I got in during the original 11 second scramble for tickets. Ben was on the wait list as were our other friends. Those others got their tickets within the first few days of getting on the waitlist. Ben is there yet again without an entry.

KME is not the only person with a 2018/2019 back to back Pinburgh story. Ben was the last person to get into Pinburgh, back to back. Getting on the podium in B was a pretty cool way for him to cap off the weekend.

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I saw a player that had a yellow lanyard and the Pinburgh badge was different. Was this a VIP badge?

Got it. I didn't notice it until in pictures after the fact. 50 gone in an instant, had to go somewhere. I forgot about them, or I would have gotten up earlier (on vacation in Pacific time, so up for 8:30?) and given it a shot.

Click faster Levi.

They have start times, and don't start rounds before that. If you look on the main page while a round is still ongoing, it said "X of 250 matches completed". If a round went beyond the next round's start time they started the round right after that round was recorded.

Pro tip: If you don't want to keep refreshing on your phone, watch the crowd. When everyone gets up, it's time to refresh your phone.

I'd be curious to know if there was a pattern of banks running that long. Last year there was a World Poker Tour that still had post rubber in it and that was fixed later on.

I actually went to the window area and rested for 45 minutes after one of my rounds. Was really nice. I can't imagine being in a group that went the full time more than once.

I'm not saying anyone is at fault for long rounds this year. I was just pointing out a funny story from last year. I'm just curious if the same bank(s) were running long more than one round. I know that there are time sessions through the year to try to get everything balanced, and I imagine there are a lot of new bank combinations this year. I think all of that work showed and the event was great.

Player 4, ball 3, game sh!ts the bed. Ah! Off to the backups to basically play a 5th full game. With as many groups/rounds played I can certainly see that being the case. Not much you can do at that point. You all have always been very fast to assign backups and keep things rolling. Many kudos to you and the crew.