Every poker player suffers bad beats. What differentiates the great players from those who are merely good is the ability to recover from them. Other then learning advanced skills, perhaps the single greatest attribute of a winning poker player is maintaining emotional self-control and always playing your absolute best game, even when the cards are not cooperating.

Late in the most recent World Series of Poker Circuit tournament played at Caesars Atlantic City, Dan Goonin took a bad beat. After losing most of his chips on the key hand, it appeared he would probably finish as the runner up. But instead, Goonin continued to focus on victory, patiently waited for the right opportunities, and gradually wore his opponent down and regained the chip lead, eventually conquering his final foe, and ultimately winning his first major live tournament after several years spent tooling his game on the Internet.

In fact, soon after Goonin was dealt a bad beat, he somehow managed returned the favor – with interest piled on for pain and suffering. Goonin found himself all-in at the final stage of the tournament and needed to catch a miracle three-outer to survive. He managed to do just that -- and then proceeded to go on to victory, seemingly immune to the financial and emotional roller coaster of it all.

The $300 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament attracted 619 entries, which generated $185,700 in total prize money. The top 63 players collected payouts. All of the action took place over a two-day period inside the Palladium Ballroom, only steps away from the famous Atlantic City boardwalk.When final table play began on day two, John Gerasimov enjoyed a sizable chip advantage over the final ten players. He had a quarter of the total chips in play. Eventual winner Dan Goonin was ranked third in chips. During the four-hour finale, Gerasimov was the chip leader perhaps 80 percent of the time. However, Goonin made the late charge and took first place.

Additional information is available at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/.

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by Nolan Dalla