Always keep your eyes fixed on the ball...

For those who are not sports fans, let me explain what this means... specially in poker terms...

the phrase means two things to me....

1- just because its not your turn or the ball is not close to you in a soccer field, doesn't mean that you should goof off into lala-land... in fact, you should be paying very close attention to the proceedings... for one thing, it only takes a second for the action to come to you... but also, when you are just watching action and are not part of it, it is easiest to pick up how your opponents play... you have no involvement in that hand, so you can pick subtle things that you might miss in the heat of battle...

2- how many times have you seen a receiver take the perfect catch, and dodge everyone in the field and is almost jogging to the end zone... so often, you can tell that he's planning his victory dance and is not paying attention to his surroundings... and all of a sudden, BAM!... some guy from somewhere just hits him out of nowhere...

when you are on the table, or in the field... Always Keep Your Eyes on the Ball... when you have it in your hand as well as when it seems miles away from you... Keep Your Eyes on the Ball at all times...

why am i talking about balls and eyes... two words, Scotty Nguyen... if you did not see part 14/16 of the 2007 WSOP last night, please do so ASAP... i mean, Matusow is famous for his blow ups... and everyone goes on tilt once in a while but for god's sake... last night was painful... in all reasonability, everyone was gambling as they usually do so close to the final table, and my hero Kenny Tran also got knocked out when he made a bad call, but at least Tran was kinda card dead for a long while before he started getting flustered (not that i consider that to be an excuse, he's a professional isn't he... but i can kinda understand...)



but Scotty... one of my favorite players... went from almost certain to end up amongst the top 4-5 may be even the bracelet winner, to bust in a matter of 10-15 minutes... i mean the man has been playing immaculate poker for almost a week... i haven't seen him make any mistake whatsoever... yeah he caught some cards in some hands, but only cuz the other guy let him... he hadn't put in any bad bets whatsoever... he bluffed perfectly... he called perfectly... he folded perfectly... but something just snapped at the end...

i personally think it was that hand against the other Vietnamese guy that marked the downfall...

the guy had A-8, he raised... Scotty had J-8 in the blind, he called...

the flop came K-J-x, the guy bet Scotty called
the turn came another J, the guy bet Scotty called
river came blank, guy checked, Scotty made a value bet... and the guy folded...

Scotty for the first time in the tournament gets arrogant... don't get me wrong, he's always cocky, every good player is most of the time... but in a good way... not in a demeaning way... poker gods do not like arrogance... they like cockiness with a nice mix of humility... what's the difference ? let me tell you...

in an earlier hand a couple of days ago, Scotty has Q-Q in his hand and flop comes J-J-x...
the pre-flop raiser bets, Scotty calls...
turn comes blank, he puts Scotty all-in... Scotty gets up from the table.... thinks, thinks, thinks... and says something like, "if you got me, you got me baby"and calls... the other guy flips over A-K off suit...
river comes blank...
Scotty goes,"baby, you can out-flop me but you can not out-play me..."

Cocky but humble... beautiful... (i had tears in my eyes...)

in the hand with the Vietnamese guy i was talking about earlier, Scotty gets up and goes, "you f**k with me... you F**K with Scotty..."

Arrogant in my book...

i mean it doesn't take a genius to call with middle pair in the final stages, and then bet with trips... nothing special there, you just had a good hand and you bet it...

but the arrogance, got to him... he blew up so fast, it wasn't funny... even before this hand, he had over 10m in chips, he picked up another 2.5m in this one... there was no need to play anything since there is only 11-12 players left... 10m would have been the average on the final table... in fact, with blinds a 40-80k, if you have 10m in chips and you get hit by a bus and die right there, you will still make to the top 4-5... Stu Ungar had this kind of chips once and he couldn't make it to the final day of a trouney... (he was passed out in his hotel room because of some overdose of something...) he finished 9th (or something like that) in the that tourney...

but Scotty took his eyes of the ball, he wanted to have every one's chips right there... and he got careless... (arrogance generally has that affect on people...)

next hand, he has A-Q some guy has 5-5 and position on Scotty... flop comes Q-5-4... (the gods are angry...!)
Scotty checks, guy checks
turn comes K... Scotty checks again, guy bets, Scotty raises, guy moves all-in.... so many things beat Scotty, plus there is no reason to risk so many chips at this point with nothing but middle pair (the guy had about half as much as Scotty)... Scotty calls in a couple of seconds... he's drawing dead!

one or two hands later... Scotty has K-8 suited (spades)... flop come Q-x-x (two spades)... some guy has pocket 9-9 or something... he bets, Scotty moves all-in.... (WHY ?!) the other guy had Scotty covered... he calls...
the turn comes blank
river comes blank

Scotty is out in 11th or 12th place... what a waste... he was clearly the best player left... a moment of arrogance, a tricky hand, one bad call... you are dead... welcome to no-limit hold'em...