Event #13 $1500 NL Shootout

I got to the Rio ten minutes early for the tournament, which allowed me to buy a banana for $2.50 and talk to my pal and Poker Hottie of the Day Joe Sebok.


I realized for the first time how much Joe and I have in common. We've both failed to achieve our goals as professional poker players despite plenty of successes. Both of our careers are winding down in melancholy fashion, far from the heights we once tightroped. We're both willing and even somewhat excited to say goodbye to the game, but a little unsure about what to do next. We talked about not being able to match the passion and drive of the younger players infiltrating the circuit, about how we used to obsess constantly over poker hands and now tend to think about other stuff most of the time.

I spent only a little more time playing the tournament than I did talking to Joe. This was the second-quickest bust I've ever had at the WSOP, behind last year's shootout. An amateur player opened for 300 at 25-25 and I just called with black kings. I raised his 350 bet to 750 on the 5s5h4s flop, then called a check-shove for 1200 more after betting 800 on the Ts turn only to be shown red tens.