I Miss my Family

Posted: June 10, 2008 09:45 AM

The last week: USA Today, beer can, bad luck, depression, I miss my family!

First of all, how cool was my Friday (until Juanda busted me-below)? My article in USA Today (Sports section) came out both online (7 million readers) and in the newspaper (7 million readers), and my beer can appeared all over the WSOP! I even bought six cases for the VIP room, and for my room.

The last few years I've chuckled a bit as my fellow pros took tons of days off because they couldn't handle being at the WSOP every single day. Many of these pros had excuses for why they weren't here [Harrah's did this, I had aces and lost, the floor man did that, the structures are blah, blah, blah]. I vowed to avoid excuses (we all play under the same conditions), keep my nose to the grindstone, and play as hard as I could every day. Let me tell you something, when you're not cashing every day, or any day, being at the WSOP is a lot tougher deal! Have I been playing my best game most days? I'm not sure anymore! It is hard to separate out the luck factor: in the $5,000 "Shoot out" I made it to three handed and put all of money in before the flop with K-K (Juanda had A-A). The very next day in the $2,500 no limit Hold'em I put all of my money in with K-K before the flop, but my opponent had A-A. Two days in a row, sigh. Today in the $1,500 buy in shoot out I picked up J-J on the button, everyone folded, and I limped in to trap Humberto Brennes. Brennes called, the big blind made a huge raise, and I moved all in, and he showed me, well you know what he showed me! On the turn he hit three aces, and I wasn't even drawing live! In the 2-7 no limit I picked up a pat nine (9-8-7-3-2) and moved all in only to run into a better pat nine. Meanwhile I lost every hole in a nine hole golf match today, which I played in between the $1,500 NLH and the 2-7 tournaments, for $7,200 to P0ker H0 and Debo.

The good news is that I know that these things happen. I don't want anymore bad beat "Stories" like the ones above, and I'm not going to tell anymore bad beat stories in my WSOP BLOG, period. I know that I'm being tested (although it really isn't life or death!) and I need to keep on trucking. On Sunday I realized that yes I miss my family a ton, but this is where I'm supposed to be right now. Being at the WSOP is my destiny each year, and I embrace that! I need to come in every day with my best stuff, and if it isn't good enough, then I need to play better the next day. I need to work out, meditate, and think through my strategies at the end of each day. Was I too tight? Was I too loose? Did I make enough moves? Did I make too many moves? Does the fact that I haven't cashed yet have anything to do with my tactics, or is it all just bad luck? Judging by the fact that so many pros have cashed, final tabled, and won events, I must not be playing my best game yet, otherwise I would have cashed once or twice, right? The rest of the WSOP, all I can do is stand up, be a man, show up every day, and try my absolute hardest every single day.