I was recently watching the World Poker Tour open during a deep stack tournament at the Borgata Poker in where players start with 30,000 chips. The field went down to 7 players, when Eugene Todd was dealt A-K suited in early position, and threw out a raise. Haralabos Voulgaris, a well-known sportsbetting expert, professional poker player, and online radio personality gets dealt aces and re raises. The pot is now $1.5 million. Eugene Todd goes all in and gets called of course, and loses the pot. Eugene Todd is now at 20,000 in chips, and when everybody was getting ready to see Eugene walking out of the table, he rapidly proved that everybody was wrong.

Eugene Todd had 20,000 left in chips, with antes 5000. He gets dealt 8-8, and pushes, and comes up against 6-5suited. The flop comes 8-J-3, with 2 clubs, making him a bit worried. However the turn was a 3, giving Eugene the full house, and thus the better hand.

Eugene is now at 100,000 in chips, and gets deal J-K off, and pushes once more. He gets called by Scott Yoon with Q-5 off, and the board comes 10–A-J-7-5, thus giving Eugene Todd the winning hand with a pair of jacks.

Eugene is now at 240,000 in chips, and soon gets dealt A-8 off. Being so short stacked, he needed to push, and that is exactly what he did. Mike Matusow was dealt Q-9 diamonds, and called. The board came A-6-3-6-K, again, giving Eugene the winning hand with 2 pair, aces and sixes.

Eugene is now at $500,000, and he was just a short while ago at $20,000! So I write this not only to comment about his extraordinary this comeback, but to make clear that sometimes all you need to win is a chip a chair and lots of patience. I mean I myself know that when I get crippled in a poker tournament, I am tempted to just give up right there and throw in the towel. But after watching this happen, I realize that it isn't over until the fat lady sings. Be patient, and wait for the right hand for you to go all in. This is how Eugene did it and he turned 20,000 into 600,000, one of the largest comebacks I ever seen during a major poker tournament. So overall, poker is not about faith but more about concentration and motivation more than anything else. Eugene never lost his objective, and eventually built his way from $20,000 to $600,000 with simply guts and patience. Now, let’s all take a bow…

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