Most poker tournament players are not household names. Most of the time, the media will not even know the real name of the player who won the big poker tournament. Most of the time, the Spend bucket is much too small to identify the name of the player that won the tournament. From time to time one of these players will be recognized, sometimes by their peers, other times by their opponents.
For the first Runaratmer who tried to play poker in the satellite poker tournaments, it is a hard experience to remember. The tournament was a 6 to 10 Million dollar plus tournament. The fortunate policy was that the tournament would last longer than most of the other satellite tournaments. Great results were achieved in the satellite poker tournaments. Chip Counts went up and players who were eliminated did not come back to play in the tournament. These were all great learning experiences for the first Runaratmer.
As the Runaratmer played in the poker tournaments, he learned from other players on how to improve his skill and his style and by his second try, he was a completely different poker player. He got to see these different players, learn from them and adapt your style to them. He changed his name to William ‘ Cupeek’ Howell. A completely different person altogether.
Howell was one of those players that made a name for himself in the poker tournaments. He was strong willed and proud of his Strategy. He had a lot of humility and thought that the Poker Games were all about having the best hand and playing the others as well. That is so far from the truth. All the PokerPros know that they are better than everyone and that the players can change their style and they reached a very high level of achievement in the late event. They are not trying to get all the other players, they are simply playing their different styles to exploit the others’ weaknesses.
Howell was a nice guy. He was strong willed and proud of his Poker Skill. He had enough self confidence to take on the world champion Phil Hellmuth and comes out on top. All of us poker pros know that we have to be tough. We have to be aggressive in our style and when we get an Ace on the flop, we have to bet it aggressively.
Hellmuth came into the emergency room complaining of severe back spasm. He had a resting point bracelet on his wrist. He was taken to the operating room and awake and placed in a patient waiting to be operated on. While being operated on, Hellmuth continued to complain that the Poker Tournament was not going the way he wanted it to.
Howell was in a different situation. He was not feeling well that he could play and he was not sure if he would be able to play. He was exhausted after a long day at the end of the event. Howell’s right-hand man was very concerned that Howell was not getting adequate rest because he was sure that he would be used to the lights and the glamor of the event by then.
Howell was scared. He wanted to play but he could not be with himself because he could not leave the house. He wanted to be with his wife and kids. His wife was very unwilling to let go of her man. They had a fight and she leaked confidential information about their relationship to friends.
Howell had to return to the event. He was desperate and he had no where to go. Then he got utter heartbreak when he tried to leave the event. He was very depressed and afraid that the event was coming to an end.
Knowing that he had to return to the event, Howell could not leave the house. He had to stay with his wife and kids. Luckily, a friend came along and offered him a place to stay. But, Howell had to decline the friend’s offer.
Knowing that he had to return to the jayapoker tournament, Howell decided that the best thing to do was to play the event’s last 30 minutes for free. He was determined to win back all the money he had lost to Phil Hellmuth.
Howell’s free Poker Tournament started with 15 players, and shortly after that there were 27. Howell was sure that he could not win that tournament because of the number of players. Yet, he felt fine because he had $1.14 million.
Many viewers wondered, ‘Howell never won a big poker tournament before?’ However, Howell replied, ‘I have not? But I promise you that I will win this tournament…I am coming for it.’
Knowing that he would not be well enough to play in the paid LAPT’s [would only begin in a pro tournament] for $1,000,000, Howell decided to play in the feeder games. He won a seat in the feeder round, $45,000.