Dreams of Glory

I usually room with Stephen for a few days at the beginning of the tournament, I've always soloed for the Main Event. This year I'm staying with John Armbrust, a good friend who I first met in the 2007 Main Event, the year I had the overall Day 1 chip lead. John (as he likes to remind me) went on to finish 18th and collect $383,202...and if it weren't for a pretty unlucky last hand might have won the whole damn thing. After we played together that year we went out for a few drinks and have become good friends; I went to his wedding and have gone up to teach some math and finance in his classroom. We are fiercely competitive, playing each other heads up for small sums until three in the morning, and even debating the merits of each other's blogs. (Here's his blog, with a nice description of both the Obama incident and our golf game.) Even though I have 3% of his action and he has 3% of mine, it rankles me slightly whenever he has more chips than I do and I'm sure he feels the same when I'm ahead. John constantly needles me about my age, eyesight, and technical know-how, and I tease him about his fastidiousness and overconfidence.

Even though we compete at everything, we are very protective of each other and would do absolutely anything anytime to further the other's chances. John also let me off pretty easy on the golf course and even made this nice testimonial to my prowess on the links.


The Romans were famous for their baths, and Caesar's spa feels like an underground cave with pools everywhere, water dripping from the cieling, and beautfully lit steam, sauna, and even an arctic cold room. On John's first trip to a spa he's stumbled into the nicest one I've ever seen. I tease John for thinking we need to bring towels to the spa but go easy on him in light of his mercy to me on the links.

It's already somewhat improbable that we would both have made it this far, but we hope to be roommates for another week. If so, we'd be in poker's promised land, guaranteed a million dollars for ninth place and with four full months to look forward to playing in front of all our friends and family at the Final Table for the title of World Champion. By the way, if you're reading this, you're invited!

Our nervousness manifests itself in different ways: John has a queasy stomach before we play and I sleep fitfully after about four in the morning. Once the cards are in the air, we both feel much better.