#579 – Clonie Gowen Has $183k … and Jury Duty – Part I

After writing about Clonie Gowen for three years, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to run to catch the bandwagon. I have only myself to blame. As much as I’ve written about her, plenty of it has focused on my own bumbling attempts at friendship rather than her poker skills and merits. Now, with two big tournament wins in 2008, a third Poker After Dark victory, and a successful World Series, I’m probably the last person on the internet to write about Clonie’s monster year. And the time I have with her on the phone is wedged between family errands and jury duty.

Tuesday night, Clonie won the $5,000 buy-in Main Event at the World Poker Open in Tunica. She took home $183,000 and a $10,000-entry into the January WPT Tunica event. It was, by all accounts, an impressive performance.

With 12 players remaining, she had the chip lead and flopped second-and-third-pair against her closest pursuer. She gave her opponent the rope to hang himself, but the turn and river were sufficiently dangerous that when HE moved all-in, Gowen had to seriously consider whether he had flopped a set or she let him luck into a better hand. Replaying the hand carefully in her mind for four minutes, she decided that this player, who had played solid poker for hours, was running a bold bluff. She called, and was proven correct when he had only a small pair he had caught on the turn and a failed draw.

Even with that big chip lead, the final table was a trial. After making a big laydown, she was in fifth chip position with eight players remaining. But she bore down, make some proper calls in marginal situations, and accelerated to the win with some canny, aggressive heads-up play. (It didn’t hurt that, with a big chip lead, she closed out the tournament with pocket aces.)

My conflict in writing a profile like this – especially because, though I spoke with her the night of the victory and two days later, I wasn’t there while it was happening – is that I feel anything I write has to be impossibly good. First, everybody’s writing about the victory. You should expect more here. I do. Second, I’ve known Clonie Gowen a long time. I’ve seen her in a lot of different situations – good and bad. I’ve probably put her through more than most friends and more than any other writer. I don’t feel like I’m doing her justice or my talent – mostly her – if I don’t take advantage of all we’ve been through and all I’ve written to give you something you can’t get anyplace else.

On the other hand, I’d like to COMPLETE it while we’re all still young enough to read it without glass much thicker than the ones I wear now. So the remainder, in Part II, is going to be a stream of consciousness of what I think you should know about Clonie Gowen, how to put her accomplishments into perspective, and why I like being her friend.

Look for next next Part!

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