...I don't think Chris has it locked up quite yet. There are still 11 events to go for WSOP Europe to be decided.

I first met Chris back in 1994 when playing in a satellite at the Horseshoe. It got down to myself & Chris, plus one other guy. I was running very late as I had to shoot pool that night. I asked them if they would be open to a split, we each take a $500 Lammer & they split the cash. They agreed & I was on my way. Over the next couple of years I would see Chris at the WSOP & we would say hello & talk briefly. We even went to lunch a couple of times. He is one of the nicest guys I have met. One night in 2000 I won a satellite at the then Union Plaza. They never had the lammers there, so we had to walk to the Horseshoe to get my 3 $500 chips. Once there I saw Chris walking around downstairs by himself. He seemed a little down. He said that he just could not seem to break through at the WSOP. I told him he was a great player & it was just a matter of time. A few days later he won his first bracelet. He also won the Main Event that year. The following year I bought 100 of the $2.50 chips that came out for Chris. He even autographed 20 of them for me. That is the Chris I KNOW!

It is easy for some of you to bad mouth him from what you THINK you know or have read. I can even understand being upset if you lost money at Full Tilt. Now Chris has never publicly spoken about his part there. He did make a deal with the government that had him paying back millions. But he was never convicted of anything, nor did any prison time or probation. He helped develop the software for Full Tilt & was a 20% owner. A lot of people said he was never involved in the day to day operations. We might never know. I do think though that if any of those bad mouthing him were in his position, you too would take the money, that at the time you thought was rightfully yours.

I have not seen Chris in a number of years. But if I did, I would walk up to him to say hello & even have another lunch with him. I will not be answering any replies to this, I have said what I wanted to.

Andy - Las Vegas