Well, I had a nice little run in the $2,500 6 max Nl WSOP event. I ended up losing to a runner runner flush when we were all in, but all in all things went pretty well for me. I finished in 23 place out of 1254 entrants. That was good for $18,612 which is not too shabby. I would have liked to have picked up a few hands as we got down towards the end, but I did the best with what I had to work with.
It feels pretty disappointing getting knocked out after coming so far, but I guess that happens to all but one other person, so what can you do? The field was incredibly hard and I feel I was pretty lucky to make it as far as I did considering I only played with 2 people the whole tournament who weren’t very good (or great) tournament players. There was really no dead money at my tables because even the two that weren’t that great were at least decent tournament players. Anyway, all in all I feel pretty good, surprisingly. Beats that deep are tough to take, but knowing that I played my best makes me feel pretty good.
It’s actually pretty strange because while I am only in my 6th year as a pro, I have played so many hands of poker (over 8 million) and seen so many different things happen at the tables that I really am pretty numb to playing poker. What I mean by that is I really don’t get very nervous ever because I just look at poker as something that you do all you can do and then ultimately the cards decide your fate. So it is hard to get nervous about a card turning one way or another since the only thing I am really there to do is to make the best decisions possible. The rest is out of my control. When I played golf for a living, now that was different. I got very nervous playing tournament golf because first off I was nowhere near as good at golf as I am in poker and when you competence isn’t as high, you tend to have a lot more to deal with nerves wise. But when I more or less know what play to make in poker (at least if I get it slightly wrong it wasn’t by much from an expectation standpoint) I am pretty calm, cool and collected.
I was fortunate enough to sit near and eventually get to meet, Daniel Negreanu. Daniel is someone I watched a lot before I was a pro and always looked up to. He is a lot of fun to watch and now after getting to be around him and meet him, it confirms it in my mind that he’s just a great guy. He was great with everyone on the rail and wow, I can’t even imagine a better ambassador for the game of poker. I could never do what he does with the people who come out to see him or meet him or ask for autographs. It is really impressive. He is like the Phil Mickelson (or Arnold Palmer from the early days of televised golf) of poker. We are very lucky to have Daniel poker. Daniel is still alive as I write this with about 20 people left so hopefully he can get another Bracelet! Go Daniel!
That reminds me, I am going to host a webcast where I will be taking questions this weekend about the Poker Stars Big Game. For those in the USA, the Big Game will be on FOX so set your tivos. Daniel is playing as is Phil Hellmuth and many, many more studs. Don’t miss this one and if you happen to watch my webcast, please ask me some questions. I will get more details on the webcast as I know more.