I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. There was this niggling tickle somewhere in the area of my medula oblongata that said, “Pssst, you’re missing something.” Still, I couldn’t figure it out.

It’s not a massive field for the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em tournament today, but it’s impressive enough that it’s sometimes hard to find people. Me? I was looking for Joe Hachem. Word had spread quickly that he had spent the first part of the day climbing the leaderboard.

I’d gotten a call from Barry Greenstein. He, too, was in the event, but went over to play in Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Still, it was almost easier to find him…or, at the very least, his seat.

Barry’s chips and book wait for his return to the Pot-Limit Hold’em event

Eventually, I coaxed a fellow member of the media to take me to Hachem. There he sat in the one-seat. His collar pulled up, sunglasses on, and headphones blocking out the noise, he was quiet. It was the focused, almost sour look of a man on a mission.

Still, my finger was dancing all around but not landing on It. I mean, in a land where a dozens of tournaments make up the World Series, why did Hachem’s early rise today seem significant? Why was it pushing me to think?

Hachem in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event

I’d given up. I’d decided this would just be an eHarmony post (that’s “picture and a paragraph” to those of you who don’t have the commercials and their creep host burned into your brain). I was on my way out of the tournament room when it hit me. I ran back to my computer to confirm my revelation.

I was right, albeit a little late on the uptake.

Eleven months ago, Hachem made the final two tables of this very event. A week or so later, he hit another Pot-Limit Hold’em event and made the final table. So, I’m not saying he’s going to win this thing or anything, but an early chip lead in a pot-limit hold’em sounds awfully familiar, no?

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