Monday night I won the BetMGM Aria Poker Open $1600 Championship. We made a deal 3-handed and saved $5k for the winner. I walked away with $227,793, which edges out a 4th place finish on the European Poker Tour in 2007 as the largest win of my gambling career.
I made a disastrous misclick at the final table, raising to 2.2 million on a hand I intended to raise to 1.2 million. I was then priced in to call the all-in of my greatest adversary. He doubled through me and I was distraught, knowing that error affected my son’s educational equity and it could haunt me for years. But the deck bailed me out and I was able to come back to the title.
Other than the misclick, I believe I played well througout the tournament. I am over the moon, feeling unadulterated joy. There are no asterisks. Late last night I shed a few tears into a Voodoo Ranger, reflecting on an incredible year that started grinding Python on DataCamp and ended with this glorious victory in Las Vegas. Hard decisions were made, especially the big one of what to do with my life. It certainly feels like the right choice today.
Of course, it was a team effort. I am deeply grateful for the guidance of so many friends. I would not have re-embarked on this endeavor without knowing I had better players to learn from, willing to share their knowledge. In this tournament, I played many hands more effectively than I would have eight months ago. Since returning pro, I’ve received a wealth of instruction from Ben Greenberg, Jon Glendinning, Ryan Hoenig, Jason DeWitt, Seth Fischer, Chris Viox and Matt Livingston. They are all better players than me. I’m so grateful for their friendship and tutelage. We did it fellas.
The person most responsible for this is my wife Melissa. She’s been home alone with our toddler and our puppy this trip and all those weekends I’ve been in Black Hawk. She supported my decision to follow this passion, knowing she’d have to parent alone for stretches and the income would be unreliable. We did it Honeybee.
Read about this in Card Player, which led me to the Substack. Am I really going to follow a stoic, modest, charitable, and winning poker player? Fo sho!
Proud of you!