Is My New License Plate 9Poker9?

At the time I am writing this column, my license plate in California is 7poker7 and Phil Ivey has just won his third World Series of Poker (WSOP) event. My hat's off to Phil, as he's playing great poker and taking advantage of some really good luck. Layne "Back-to-Back" Flack is having a great tourney, as well; he won the first two no-limit hold'em events this year (back-to-back). Johnny Chan has retaken the WSOP all-time money winner lead from T.J. and me, and is having a great tournament. T.J. is also having a fine tourney, and if his A K had beat Layne's 9-9 (they were all in before the flop for about $350,000 apiece), he would have the all-time money winner lead instead of Johnny (Johnny finished second to Layne and T.J. finished third in the tournament's second no-limit hold'em event).

At the 1993 WSOP, I won the first two no-limit hold'em events and three titles. Last year, I took the WSOP all-time money winner lead. Ah, the past; unfortunately, the past isn't all it's cracked up to be in today's "What have you done for me lately?" society. The WSOP is a tough tournament to digest when you're a little bit off your game or the cards refuse to enable you to win. (I've been a little bit off my game, for the most part, and a little bad luck at the wrong time has cost me some final tables, as well). Five weeks of WSOP futility is enough to drive you stark-raving mad! Wait a minute, though, I still have a full week left and the "Big One" to play (not to mention Bellagio's $10,000 buy-in event) before my year is blown. Believe me, I'm ready to turn things around soon.

How do I finish in the top 15 in seven of 24 events last year and then have only one top-15 finish in the first 22 events this year? How does Chris Ferguson do roughly the same thing (six last year and two this year)? How does Men "The Master" Nguyen fan (fail to cash even once) 80 tournaments in a row, and then explode at the Taj Mahal and finish first, second, and first in three consecutive days, and make seven final tables? I believe there is some biorhythmic element in poker that is often overlooked by us poker players. On some days, I can sit down in a tourney after not playing poker for a month and play so well that I am shocked. When this happens, I know from past experience that I will play great poker for the next 40 days or so. At other times, I can't seem to execute my game plan very well. In both cases – stellar play and subpar play – I maintain roughly the same routine as far as exercise, sleep, diet, and so on are concerned.

If my theory is right, and I'm pretty sure it is based on the "streaks" that most great tournament players experience, I can only hope that this last month of subpar play is about to end. Isn't one month long enough to suffer from "bad biorhythms"? I hope that by the time you read this column, I will have a couple of 2002 WSOP titles under my belt. (I will play Johnny Chan for the match-play event championship.) "Phil Hellmuth is the 2002 World Series of Poker match-play champion" sounds pretty good to me, and "Phil Hellmuth is the 2002 World Champion of Poker" sure does have a nice ring to it. My California license plate says 7poker7 (the 7 represents seven WSOP wins) right now, but I'm hoping to change it to 9poker9 or 8poker8 very soon. I just hope that my biorhythms will change soon enough for me to get the California license plate 9poker9 in 2002! I hope that you enjoyed this Hand of the Week column. Good luck playing your hands this week.

Editor's note: You can play $4-$8 limit hold'em online with Phil Hellmuth at UltimateBet.com at table "Hellmuth." For more Hand of the Week columns or more information about Phil, go to PhilHellmuth.com.