An Italian player rests his hands on a countryman’s shoulders, says a few words in his ear, wishes him luck and disappears. The man in question, getting the well wishes, is Alberto Tomba – a man famous in Italy and around the world as one of the best slalom skiers the sport has ever known.
Between 1987 and 1997 Tomba (‘La Bomba’ – or ‘Tomba the bomb’) rocked the skiing world amassing three Olympic gold and two silver as well as two World Championship gold and two bronze, bringing with him movie star adulation.
His event was slalom and giant slalom, a discipline that requires concentration and courage and one that Tomba attacked with brashness and aggression, setting record after record on his way down the side of a mountain, becoming among other things the first skier to medal in three different Olympic games.
I can’t image what it takes to achieve that, not even as I performed my own less vertical slalom around the tables, following Alberto around as he changed table not once but twice in the space of a few minutes. Just the luck of the draw.
Things had been looking bad for Alberto who at one stage was down to a mere 2k. Things are better now but he remains below average on 6k, looking for a way back into this PokerStars.com EPT although in a twist of fate this may be an uphill task.
But like I mentioned earlier everything in San Remo is uphill, and there’s no difference out in the tournament area where the field is about to reconvene after both dinner breaks. We’re into level six.
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