One thing that has never been said about poker players is that they show up early. For a lot of players, the whole point of the poker lifestyle is to be able to ditch the schedule and avoid having The Man calling shots that they have to hop to.
For a lot of people, that works. Most of the time you can find a game, get a seat in a tournament, and if something comes up you walk next door to a different casino (at least in Las Vegas). But there are times like this past weekend — the weekend of the record-breaking $565 buy-in Colossus at the World Series of Poker — when events that attract a big crowd are on, where that strategy can run into some barriers.