The Cooler

When you cover poker tournaments the one thing you don’t want is a reputation as a cooler. If you wander over to check the action or snap a few pics you don’t want the players scowling  because they look at you as they would a black cat crossing their path. Now, I wouldn’t say that I have world-class cooling powers; not like my friend and fellow-blogger AlCantHang, who all-by-his-lonesome could’ve iced Jamie Gold’s epic hot streak during the 2006 Main Event. Seriously, no matter how thermonuclear you’re running, if Al saunters over be prepared for quads under quads or some other nightmare scenario.

But as a noted philosopher once said, “With great power comes great responsibility”. No, wait, that was Spider-Man. Heck, these days that counts as the same thing. Anyway, being a cooler isn’t entirely a bad thing. If an event is running a bit long and you’re waiting for just one player to bust before play ends for the night having a bona fide cooler on hand can be a positive boon. Oh, how many times did we tell Al to go check out a final table and, after waiting just a few minutes, hear a rousing ovation as some stricken soul was sent to the rail?

I don’t think my cooling powers are anywhere near Al’s level, but I am capable of destroying a promising tournament run just by showing my face. My first year in Aruba I wrote a post detailing the progress of a half-dozen players and, near the end of play, I made my rounds to see how they were doing. Within a few minutes five of them busted in turn–I walked over, saw a hand playing out, and seconds later my subject was morosely standing up and watching his chips ship across the table. I remember walking over to where player/author Matthew Hilger was sitting and I didn’t even reach his table before he was standing up and shaking hands. For a few minutes I had the Power, and I didn’t like it.

I had one memorable cooling episode during the most recent WSOP. I was following Day 2 of an event and happened to notice that in a Hold-Em tournament that had started the same day Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Brandon Cantu were among the early chipleaders. I walked over to the Brasilia Room and quickly found Brandon for a few pics. I couldn’t find Adam at first (something that’s normally easy to do) but after making a second orbit of the room I found him standing up as he and another player contested a huge pot. I squeezed off a shot or two before noticing the upturned cards on the table, and that’s when I saw that Adam was way behind in the hand. He saw me and said, “NOW you come to take my picture,” as he failed to catch up and the majority of his stack relocated across the felt.

It’s no fun to cooler someone when you don’t mean to, but in every big hand there must be a loser as well as a winner, and those moments of conflict is when compelling drama is made. I was again walking around Brasilia one day when I saw Lacey Jones playing in what I think was the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event. She was involved in a hand with James Van Alstyne, who, during the 2009 WSOP, won one H.O.R.S.E event and came second in another. Lacey looked to be a bit short on chips and this Stud hand could be a decisive moment, one that deserved my attention. There was also the fact that most people know Lacey as an always-smiling and always-sunny spokesperson and on-air personality. This was Lacey the Poker Player, and she was in a tight spot.

That’s Van Alsyne’s hand setting out chips for a bet, a bet that Lacey called. Though not until after some agonized deliberation:

After Lacey called the dealer tossed her the four of clubs, and I thought, “Uh, OK, maybe that gives her a flush draw??” I don’t recall if Van Alstyne bet again but he and Lacey saw sixth street and this time Lacey was dealt the ten of spades, which didn’t seem much better. “Straight draw?” I wondered a bit optimistically. Van Alstyne bet out and Lacey looked at her cards with an understandable lack of enthusiasm:

This time Lacey folded, not looking happy about it, and I meekly moved along. That’s one of the more delicate parts of covering poker tournaments, you don’t want to linger over someone else’s misfortune. And it doesn’t pay to have Lacey Jones think you’re a bad luck charm. Now of course I know there’s no such thing as luck, there’s no such thing as a cooler, that’s all mindless superstition and nonsense. Mindless superstition and nonsense…that lots and lots of people believe in, at least at some level. Think I’m gonna start remembering all the times players WIN big hands when I wander by. Good information to have handy the next time I’m accused of being a cooler.