Barny Boatman, The Heart of a Champion

Barny Boatman rarely fails to make me laugh. Even when he’s not trying to. Years ago, he did a Late Night Poker preview on the Hendon Mob site in one liner form. Mike Magee “Mystic Mike : He can put you on a hand before you look at your cards.” “Jacjkarama : The Crew Alexandra of poker. Can’t string two passes together.” are just a couple of Barny’s goodies I can remember as though I’d read them yesterday. Barny’s poker stories are usually hilarious, especially when they’re not meant to be. Sometimes, only Barny and The Gods understand exactly what happened, and occasionally even the Gods are a little baffled.

It was one of the privileges of my poker life to watch Barny win his bracelet, putting on a master class in front of an audience who would have run onto the stage and carried him over the ****ing line if that’s what it was going to take. There’s bracelets and there’s bracelets. This was one of the very special ones.

If Barny was a soccer player he’d be Roy Keane. His game isn’t all about an extravagant talent. It’s about tenacity. It’s about not knowing how to quit. It’s about being the last man standing because you love the game and you want it more than they do. It’s about heart. The heart of a champion.

To the friends and fans of Barny who value heart in a player and a man above all else, he was already a great champion. The bracelet just makes it official.