Wednesday morning was a morning not unlike other Wednesday mornings.. Psyche!! What kinda nut would publish his life story after winning one tournament anyway? :)
One short story:
At the previous 3 "majors" (LA, Superstars, Dallas), the night before the last 3 rounds, Matt Graham and I had the pleasure of closing the hotel bar down on each occasion. (Tough to do in Vegas, actually, but as the last band left (a former Pip, I believe), I felt I had been validated.) My combined record for the following days' play: 0-9 . Not one to be superstitious, I was determined to get the monkey off my back. After stumbling out of Crossbow's with Rita Jan and Matt at 2am, I felt pretty good about establishing a valid testbed. After lying in my own testbed for no more than 4 hours, I awoke in wrecked condition. A gallon of water and 14 ibuprofens (200mg) later, I was good to go.
Things started out on par as I lost the first two games, tumbling out of first. In all honesty, I played near perfectly, just didn't pick shit. (My blank picking on the final day: 1 out of 8.) Nevermind, when you're cocky as an unbroken colt, you take such reversals in stride and plunge forth. I knew the only chance I had was to beat Steve Polatnick back-to-back. I think God decided 11 in a row on the last day was enough, and I had some decent luck to win the final two games. The sophisitication of my play in the last game was about 10% what it was in my loss in the morning to Joel, but I guess it all adds up over the course of the tournament.
Thanks to Chris Lennon and Matt deWaelsche for picking me up in Louisville and hauling ass after the awards ceremony. (There's no SouthWest gate in Cincy, and it was a FF award ticket). Here's an important tip: SouthWest, unlike most airlines that give away your seat 15 minutes before the flight, doesn't do so til 10 minutes. That made all the difference as I ran to the counter with 12 to go.
Iconically Yours,
JG
..and Alexander cried for there were no more worlds to conquer -- so God said, "Let there be SOWPODS."
Last Modified 9/26/00
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