Travel Report: EPT11 Grand Final, Day 4 -- The Twenty-Euro Cheeseburger

Another late one last night as they played down to a final table (and then a little longer) in the France Poker Series Monaco Main Event here at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final festival.

That’s the tournament I’m covering, and thus for me that €100K Super High Roller final table (eventually won by Erik Seidel) existed mainly in the periphery as the night wore on. Even further distant were all of the other big sporting events playing out over night, including the Kentucky Derby, the NBA playoffs, and the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

The EPT’s Main Event also kicked off yesterday, which meant all of us were especially busy throughout the day and night. Didn’t have a chance to get away for a meal offsite this time, and so experienced that phenomenon everyone who has ever come here seems to mention afterwards -- the €20 cheeseburger.

There’s a bar close to the tournament area serving food that is really the only option for those without time to walk very far, at which the prices are exorbitant. Of course, that’s true of other parts of the city as well, although it’s possible to find restaurants with decently-priced meals if one is willing to look hard enough.

The line “I don’t want to say Monaco is expensive but...” is a much used set-up for various punchlines here. For a sample of what I’m talking about, check out Joe Stapleton’s Twitter feed from the the last few days for some of his lines and retweets of others’.

Gonna cut it short and try to walk in again today. I can’t afford to spend a whole cheeseburger on a cab ride.