Now that we've temporarily taken a break from the 2009 WSOP, it's time to look back on a couple of stories that fell by the wayside during the month of coverage. Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown had a pretty darned good Series, but it was not without its hurdles. Below, he tells us about how a bad pick from the lunch cooler turned into one sick run.
by Chad Brown
Going into this event I felt very confident about doing well. I started the day at the gym and got in a nice workout before the tourney. I arrived on time and feeling good after my work out. I bought a chicken wrap and started the tournament. After two hours of play I was 1,000 above chip average and I started to feel ill. I believed it was from the chicken wrap. I made a couple of visits to the bathroom and thought I would start to feel better, but I only started to feel worse.
We were approaching the dinner break and I asked a floor man if I could resign from the tournament and get my buy-in back, since I was 1,000 above average. He checked for me, but said they couldn't do anything. I figured on the dinner break I would go out to the pool, rest, and hopefully feel better afterwards.
As I was walking back, I felt like I could pass out. My friend Mike Ross saw me and thought I looked so bad he wanted to take me to the hospital. I declined, determined to finish what I started. I was at the table with my head down between hands trying to rest. When we got to the 400-800 level, I started to get the chills badly. I text a friend of mine who was staying in the Rio and asked him to bring me sweat pants and jacket. I decided my best option was to skip this level (even though I was only chip average ) and go out to my car and rest with the heater on to warm up. Thankfully, this plan worked and I felt well enough to continue. I got back and was now half chip average, but was able to pick up a couple of pot and come back on Day 2 in the top five in chips.
I felt much better on Day 2 after what I still think was food poisoning. After getting into the money, I felt I had a really good shot at winning the tournament. There weren't many good players left. One of the really good players was Phil Ivey, but he was a little below average. We re-drew when we were down to 16. I had Carlos Mortensen at my table. I think Carlos is one of the best No-Limit Hold'em players in the world. In OE, I like having him at my table.
The first hand I played with Carlos was in Stud-8. I raised on third street with a five door card. I had aces in the hole and Carlos re-raised me with a king. Everyone folded and I just called. I caught an ace on fourth giving me three hidden aces. I bet out and Carlos called.
On fifth. I pulled a jack and checked. I wanted to disguise my hand to get the most value on it. Carlos also checked. On sixth, we both caught an eight. I bet and he called. Going into the river, I bet blind and he called blind, leading me to believe he was drawing dead. I told him before I looked that I had three aces. He said he had two kings and two eights. He squeezed his last card to find the case eight. I checked my river, realized I hadn't filled up, and conceded the hand.
We moved to Omaha, and without describing each hand, suffice it to say I lost the next two hands in row to Carlos and he had to once again hit runner-runner to beat me. I finished in 14th place. Phil Ivey went to the final table short and was able to capitalize on an easy final table to win his 2nd bracelet for the 2009 WSOP.
It was almost a storybook finish, but I was happy to do as well as I did in light of the circumstances from the night before.
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