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Nobody likes bad beat stories. I mean, personally, I don’t enjoy sharing my misery with the rest of the world and, despite the polite smile, I doubt anyone truly enjoys hearing every minute detail of how your aces got cracked by 9-2 off-suit, or how you lost a huge pot to a three-outer that, if avoided, would’ve guaranteed fame and fortune. The truth is that people focus on the negative far too much, especially in the poker world.
Such negativity is the reason I’ve decided to devote this month’s column to another hobby of mine that makes me happy: skateboarding. The power and creativity that I feel surging through my body when I stand on a skateboard is truly indescribable. It’s a feeling of pure freedom and serenity.
As a side note, though I probably shouldn’t mention it, I haven’t been able to skateboard lately. Long story short, I was “kickflipping” an “8-stair” (these are skateboarding terms; feel free to look them up), landed awkwardly, and sprained my ankle. It didn’t seem all that bad at first, but the next day my ankle was purple and more swollen than Phil Hellmuth’s ego. So, yeah, that kind of sucked.
Bedridden, I checked my calendar and remembered that the WPT event at Foxwoods was approaching. Still cashless in my last 73 tournaments or so, I decided that a purple Hellmuth foot wouldn’t stop me from heading to Connecticut to try and go 1 for 74.
Foot throbbing, I tried to fall asleep on the plane or at least choke down the airline food. Neither happened, but I looked forward to collapsing onto my Foxwoods bed and ordering some sort of delicious seafood from room service. One hundred and forty-six hours of traveling later, I landed in beautiful Connecticut.
The moment the cabbie asked me, “Where to?” was the same moment I remembered that Foxwoods was booked and I had reservations at a small hotel about 50 miles away – a small hotel with no food at midnight except a few crackers and some cheese. Nearly starved, I finally got to bed and set my alarm to ensure I would be fresh for the main event the next day.
Only partially rested due to my injury, I woke up promptly at 10:15 am only to call the poker room and find out the main event started at 10:00, not noon like every other tournament on the planet. Shower and food would have to wait. I hobbled outside with my crutches, which I didn’t really use, and found the pouring rain to be slightly unsettling.
The cab to Foxwoods was only thirty minutes late. I entered the casino and immediately cursed its creators for building an establishment the size of Guatemala, seeing as my foot was slowly separating from my leg. When I finally found the cashier’s cage, I discovered that the bankcard I needed for my buy-in was still back at my hotel room. Drained of all energy and hope, I gave up and hobbled a few miles to the cabs to head back to my hotel. So, yeah, that kind of sucked, too.
Still waiting for my cab, I was saved by a call from my buddy David Williams who said that he could get me the 10k. So, after another few hours of trying to find my table, I was back in the action — action that lasted about eight hours. Nearing the money with about 50k in chips, I doubled up when I flopped a set and got all of my chips in against what I first thought was a flush, but realized, after I looked at the cards more closely, that it was really a queen-high flush draw that had missed. It’s hard to see because the poker tables at Foxwoods are twenty feet long.
Exhausted, starving, foot throbbing, thousands of miles from home, and with 100k, I got all my money in with A-K to Hoyt Corkin’s A-Q before the flop. The queen hit and I was done. And my foot was still Phil’s ego.
Sorry, but what I was saying before I went off on a tangent is that there are too many poker players who focus on the negative. Poker is a rollercoaster ride with ups and downs, and you never know if it’s going to be a good day or a bad day at the tables. If it’s a bad day, maybe try skateboarding, instead of wallowing in your own misery and grossly exaggerating bad beat stories to crowds of people who couldn’t care less. The best advice I can give is this: Try to keep your cool and stay level-headed in spite of the obstacles that are thrown in your way, whether you want to be successful in poker or any other facet of life.
#$%*ing queen! On to Bellagio later this month for WPT Five Diamond…
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