People of a slightly more advanced age (meaning born prior to 1985) might remember an HBO series in the late 80s and early 90s called Tales from the Crypt, a spooky, off-putting show where bad things happen and worse things happened as a result.
We thought of it tonight as Daniel Negreanu shuffled off into the shadows on the dinner break.
Many bad things happened to me the first 3 levels of WSOP main event. Going to dinner with 10k in chips playing 200-400 when we get back
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 12, 2016
“Many bad things happened to me.”
It’s vague, and its vagueness makes it all the more terrifying. If these kinds of things can happen to the world’s best, they can happen to anybody.
To wit:
You might recognize that man as Jason Mercier, a 2016 double-bracelet-winner and favorite for the WSOP Player of the Year. You might think, bad things don’t happen to him. They can’t.
They do.
14,650 coming back from dinner… Going to 2/400. Grinding my face off #WSOPmainEvent
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) July 12, 2016
The terror there is in his optimism. It’s as if we, from the other side of the screen, hidden under our blankets and watching the closet for shadows, know that the bad things are happening. He may think he’s grinding his face off, but from our side of the plane we know “grinding my face off” can have two meanings.
The real horror–the kind that involves faces locked in silent screams–begins when players start to see the truth for real.
You can see reality dawning on Randy Lew before he even leaves the table. Even if he hasn’t entirely given up the ghost yet, you can see the end in his eyes.
He knows what’s coming. He just doesn’t know how it’s going to come.
And eventually, he sees this.
BUSTONOKO WSOP Main Event on level 2! All I see on the way back to my car is “STOP”,can’t stop I have no more chips! pic.twitter.com/OhI7LoeSwW
— Randy Lew (@nanonoko) July 11, 2016
We haven’t heard from him since.
The silence. That’s the worst. There is lots of that happening among the Team Pros in the field tonight. We’re putting together a search party for the rest. If you don’t hear from us again, you know what happened.
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Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging. Follow him on Twitter: @BradWillis. WSOP photos by PokerPhotoArchive.com.
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