For me, the World Series of Poker is over, and I’m just beginning to climb out of my suicidal phase. I hate losing. It’s a blow to the gut, and I’m doubled over. What’s worse is that I hate the walk of shame out of the tournament area, where I feel like every eye is on me, watching me leave in silence, shame, and despair.
In reality, no one is looking at me, and that’s all the worse. They are consumed with their own hands, what they think their opponents’ have, and what they think their opponents think they have—a never-ending cycle of analysis. When it comes to figuring out poker, there are wheels within wheels.
As I exit the Amazon Room at the Rio, my WSOP in shambles, I am merely ignored, just like all the other bust-outs, another loser heading to the door.
I made a run into the second day, but it was far from good enough.
It wasn’t always that way. Day 2A began with 1,034 players, with approximately the same number scheduled to play on Day 2-B. I was 421 out of 1,034 who were playing on Day 2A.
Things started nicely enough. I was the big blind on the first hand played and won on a walk when no one called me. Just a few hands later, I raised $5,000 with J-J and picked up one caller. I bet $10,000 into a 9-9-8 flop and my opponent folded.
At 10:40 Alan Smurfit, who won a bracelet earlier in this year’s WSOP, is knocked out at my table when his pair of sevens loses to A-A. The guy with the pocket rockets flopped a set, turned a full house, and to add insult to injury a third seven fell on the river, giving Smurfit a full house too, but it was too little, too late for the native Dubliner who now lives in Miami.
A minute or two later, Nolan Dalla announced that TV personality Montel Williams, who was the chip leader for quite a while on Day One, was just eliminated. At the end of the first hour of play, another player at our table is eliminated. I take a beat too and am down to $45,000.
At 1:15 Dalla announces that 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem was just knocked out. The remainder of the second hour was uneventful for me. I was treading water and entered the break with $43,600.
