The 27th – Championship Event 1, Flight 2, found me dealing to John Juanda. He was in the 9s and pretty frisky. For me to state how the action went in the game and the hands, I cannot, I only know that he put in raises and picked up several pots because that kid doesn’t sit around and wait for a hand…he picks his spots and jumps head first into the ‘chip wars’ leaving caution and sense of reason to those that can’t keep up with him. He ended up in one hand with J-J, raised it, and got one caller – the 2s – heads-up. The Flop contained one skinny, little Ace. John made a marginal bet, his opponent raised all-in and had John more than covered. John called. His opponent held A-Q. A Jack popped off on the Turn. John brought home the spoils from the Chip Wars. And had more ammo for the next battle.

I landed in a game with Layne Flack and Phil Laak AKA The Unibomber. Layne was in the 2s and landed in his seat just after the tournament break ended. We exchanged ‘hellos’ and I couldn’t help but almost chuckle every time I looked at him. He had a huge grin when he looked at me and I asked him who was bringing him the beer this year. Last year he had someone bringing it in by the dozen in a bucket of ice. And he was passing it out to anyone that wanted one…jumping up from his seat from time to time to hand them out. Not this year though…nothing alcoholic anywhere around him.

Finally I asked, “Where’ve you been?”

He replied that he’d been in ‘rehab’ for 30 days.

I exclaimed, “No Way!”

He reaffirmed it and I said, “Ok. No more questions.”

The 1s put in a few raises pre-flop and each time he did, he put on his sunglasses, AFTER he raised it. Phil was in the 5s and he pointed out the fact – the sunglasses go on after the raise. Phil stated that it was a nice move.

The 1s looked like a fairly new player…hell, maybe he didn’t know Phil is a ‘name brand’ player but it appeared to me that he beamed a little brighter after that.

Layne was pretty quiet during this down and didn’t do much, verbally or with chips. I heard at the Awards Banquet that he’d made some major changes in his life lately. Good for him! It’s so hard to overcome yourself and make the first move .

My next game had Annie Duke and Chris Ferguson in it. These tables were filled with pros. I wondered if most of the online players had any idea of what they were up against in these games…not only did they have to fade the transition of going to Brick and Mortar play where they faced down their opponents, had to fold in turn, and looked at a lot less hands an hour – they were playing against the top players in the world.

Some where in here, I dealt to David from Canada again. *David, I edited the other post*. He was funny and chipper as usual. He wanted to know if I was going leave him on his own against all these players or if I was going to help him out…maybe not in those words but the meaning was there. We both laughed on that one. I told him, “No! You’re on your own.”

I was still on the E/O (Early Out), every time I went in to work, and that’s exactly what happened here. I went…out into the luscious night air, drinking in the humidity and warmth, humble in the fact that I was there and life was good!