What it really takes to be a WSOP main event winner

[Chambers]

quoted from liquid poker forums from some funny regular:"This is why the Main Event crowns the best poker player in the world. It takes more than just "online skill" like some of you kids may have, but real poker heart. You don't get that from online. You get that from playing on the felt, playing real poker, with real men. You look into your opponents eye and you put him on a hand, and you work from there. Forget these complicated equity calculations, that's all bullshit. This stuff is real poker, and from this real champions are bread. So you got busted with quads. That's not a bad beat, not even a cooler, it's just bad play. You put a real poker hustler, a real pro at the game, like 2003 WSOP ME Champion Chris Moneymaker in that seat, and he'll stare into your opponent's soul and see just two objects, two cards, and know what to do. And he'll do it, throwing his cards in the muck, knowing quads just aren't good enough today. That's real skill, real grit. That's what makes a champion, and you sir, you just don't have it. Don't get too down on yourself, though. Pedigree champions like Moneymaker, Raymer, and the baddest dog of all, Jamie "Terminator Eye" Gold had to start somewhere. You pick up one of their books, study their moves, and you'll get there too. If you've got enough heart, that is."

[yoyo]

Hmmm, sounds vaugely familar to a PNW post I made in April. ----Posted: 02:59 AM 22 Apr 07 Subject: Antonius v Brunson Hopefully soon Jabbs. Hopefully soon. I am desperate for credibility amongst the tourney results following crowd. On many forums I post on, players like Steve give me crap and I would love to be able to prove to them once and for all that I am a great poker player by being able to say I made a big final table. This would greatly enhance my poker forum credibility, just like it did for Jamie Gold.I'm looking forward to travelling the world playing 10k tourneys with the superstars of world poker like Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske, JJ "Pocket Aces" Liu, Mel "Silver Fox" Judah, Ben "Hollywood" Affleck (yes that's right the movie star - imagine rubbing shoulders with holywood royalty) Victor "High Stakes Poker" Ramdin and Annie Duke to achieve this aim. To become the best, you gotta beat the best. The pros don't play the kiddie game lol. You gotta bring your money to the table and see how you stack off against them. Perhaps one day I can become a household name and be on Letterman, like Annie Duke and fascinate 50mil people with tales of outplaying Phil "PokerBrat" Hellmuth. Like Mike McDermott in Rounders. After pulling that awesome bluff against WSOP winner Jonny "The Orient Express" Chan after folding hands for 2 hours, sometimes you just know that you got what it takes. I may not have the all-round game of a Jamie Gold (WSOP 2006 main event World Champion and poker god), but I think I am almost certainly +EV as I have been practising playing with 30bb stacks. The trick is to use pot control - you don't want those tricky pros pushing you around with their mountains of chips, being the table "bully", using their massive stack to push everyone around and force you to fold as its important to play small pots in big tourneys and not risk all your chips without the nuts. I mean, you could like raise to 15bb on the flop and if you step out of line, before you know it, you have a 30bb all-in checkraise power push call to consider. This is not poker for the faint-hearted and only the best players survive. Good luck mixing it with Clonie Gowan (Full Tilt sponsored professional poker player and pinup beauty) and David Williams (Bodog sponsored professional poker player and Runner-Up WSOP Main Event 2003) as they stare you down for your last 13bb's. If you don't have ice cold blood man and nerves of steel or big kahunas, you can just forget about it. You don't belong in the big league. I mean, you could have AKs in the BB and you would need to run through all the myriad of high-pressure calculations under the glare of the TV lights, with a seasoned pro like Gus Hansen (winner of multiple WPT events and poker legend/god - plays like 1000/2000 on Full Tilt yes lol that is ONE THOUSAND TWO THOUSAND blinds, hahah can I sit with onequarter of a blind? just joking lol those guys would cream me and I don't hate money lol) who openraised from the cutoff and is staring you down and has called for the clock and reminding you that its only 47 spots to the money (really letting you know who's boss - pulling out all the tricks), and in the middle of all this chaos and pressure you need to figure out if you're racing, dominating or just what the hell the World Poker Tour (WPT) SUPERSTAR who is 4 mil in debt (only cause online Frenchies and Finns get lucky - speaking of Finland, guess which side the Finns were on in WW2 - if you guessed the Allies, you are way wrong) could be holding with such a strong play from the cutoff with only a few spots to the money and you have to figure out if you want to gamble with him or wait for a better spot to get your money in. Sweat beading off your face, your heart racing at 180bpm (thats "beats per minute"), as you weigh up the chances of picking up Pocket Rockets or Cowboys in the next 2 orbits for an easy double up and then you can cruise into the money, not taking any risks or doing anything stupid and unnecessary and risk finishing on the bubble (call me bubble-boy lol), and at the back of your mind, you wonder if you've given the strength of your hand away to the pro before you've even called all-in to his raise as you fear their uncanny ability to pick up on your tells and you're probably leaking tells like the Titanic lol. I'm freaking out just thinking about it, but I think I'm ready for my shot at the bigtime. The thing is, you just won't know until you're there - no amount of preparation can prepare you for the long hours peddling full ring waiting for group 1 hands to raise with, or waiting for that perfect spot to pull a tricky call-bluff move with 84o against that aggressive UTG raiser and really show him you can't be pushed around and are prepared to call him off, all the way if you have too, cause you've played crazy players like him before and sometimes, inspired by the Rocky soundtrack playing from your Ipod 4gb, you just gotta take a stand and show the world you can't get pushed around and that if he thinks he's going to be the Table Captain, well he's going to be relegated to your First Mate (lol). Do I have what it takes to mix it with the world champions on the professional poker tour? Only time will tell - but when the cards hit the felt (no pun intended) and the TD (Tournament Director) says those magical words "Shuffle Up and Deal" (no pun intended), no one can say I didn't have a shot, and you got to be in it to win it. Cash games didn't make anyone famous, and whilst there is unconfirmed reports of Scandinavians and gangas making large sums from cash games, its tourneys that make you famous and show the forum low limit posters you can back up your chat with results! Remember, its all about results. Tourney players get the big multimillion contracts and the girls. Look at Captain Tom. You think cash game players get that kind of star-struck groupie action? lol they are too busy discussing their internet geeky strategies and plays from the latest poker online publication and they never win the minute someone like Steve comes along and doesn't play by the rules, and raises K3 UTG and calls off big bets with bottom pair. Where are your graphs and your tables and your lingo now, internet geeks? The rules only work if everyone follows them - guess what, poker ain't like that, its dynamic and fluid and no one plays the same.All that matters in life is the HendonMob scoreboard and right now mine reads: "FISH" - this will change soon, I promise. I just haven't been given the opportunities like some players. Please contact me for backing opportunities. I consider myself a TIGHT-aggressive player and my main strength is getting inside the head of my opponent and I'm capable of making huge calldowns on bluffs with weak hands when my gut says "go for it" and I just get that read on my opponent, like the cards don't even matter and I'm inside his head. I am primarily a live SNG pro wherever the fish congregate (lol of course I would never tap on the glass), mostly at the Crown $100 tourney SNG tables, which I win every 2nd time. I have made final tables in three Crown Series events, and finished 4th in the Melbourne Championships NL HE Opening Event. The Melbourne Championships is the 3rd most prestigious event on the Australian poker calender and after this tourney, I was ranked fourth best tourney player in Australia on the PNW rankings. I almost won a Series 4 satellite ticket after battling HU for three hours with none other than Leo "The Mechanic" Boxell (winner Australian Championships Main Event 2003 and Australian Bluff magazine 'Legend of Poker') and Leo said I played a tough game after our battle was over, which was obviously pretty vindicating for my game. There was lots of limping preflop as both our styles suit post-flop poker play, and we were able to put on a great show for the Crown railbirds who watched and learned from behind the rail. I felt totally in the zone against Leo and did not feel outclassed at all, which is a great confidence boost for WSOP as I know I can mix it with the best. I called down this one big bluff he did and I won on the river, and David Saab (regular high-stakes local player playing the biggest games spread) said it was an amazing call-down, which I knew, but it was nice to have the pros say it, you know?For those of you too scared to grab a seat and test yourself against the best in the world, I ask you this: Where would Joe Hachem be today if he didn't bite the bullet, put down his entry and play for the World Championship - well he wouldn't be World Champion, that's what. As a result, imagine this scenario: Mark Vos would probably be super famous, and on Current Affair and Joker Poker. Can you imagine Vos as an ambassador for Australian poker? Oh my god, all swivelling caps and lack of sleep and making prop bets and singing nonsense songs like "It's your birthday Benson" that don't even make sense in serious tourneys. I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of image I want Australian poker to present to the world. Thanks, but no thanks. Poker is a gentleman's game, where you take bad beats with class and dignity, limiting your response to a single, controlled, comment about your opponent's fortunate luck and your wish that you can one day also experience such luck, perhaps lightheartedly bemoaning your lack of luck thus far with a cute witty comment like "can't catch a cold today" or "can't remember last time I won a coinflip" or "you should buy a lottery ticket", not like Vos who says things he thinks are super funny but they obviously aren't, like threatening to put wheelchair bound online players up on bricks and asking them if they need a push and saying his favourite female player in Australia was Jonny Vincent (um ever heard of Angie Italiano or Sarah "AussieSarah" Bilney, Vos? I think they might have something to say about that lol) and calling Annie Duke a fish on TV. Hhahahaha so funny Vos so funny. ROTF NOT! (lol) how about you show some respect to poker royalty - Annie is Howard Lederer's sister, I bet you didn't even know that. Howard owns Full Tilt so if you ever want to get in bed (no pun intended) with FTP (Full Tilt Poker), you should probably pull your head in ok and start acting with dignity? Just friendly advice from one Australian poker player to another. But you would be wise to take my advice, trust me - read between the lines (lol)...this is not a threat (lol)...i'm just joking of course, everything is friendly here.Wish me luck as I take my shot on the Tour! In the words of fiddy cent, I am going to Get rich or Die Trying (insert ghetto abbreviation for street cred and to ramp up the 'cool' factor) - who knows, in July, I could be the next WORLD CHAMPION OF POKER! (Hey a guy can dream can't he? lol - in all honesty I will be so happy just to make the money, of course - I will reset my goals once I make the money. Tournaments are not sprints, they are marathons. You can't win a tourney on the first day!)As Kipling the poet/gambler said about bankroll management: "If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss;Then you'll be a man, my son."