Mitchell Towner creates a fairytale script after defeating David ‘The Dragon’ Pham en route to the most incredulous journey in the MONSTER Stack event.
At 29-years of age, Mitchell Towner is young for a college professor. I imagine some of his peers at the University of Arizona, where he teaches finance, think he is a little wet behind the ears.
It’s not easy being the youngest; the runt; the untried and untested. You continually have to prove yourself; taking out your machete and hacking through great thick vines laden with judgment from a time no longer in touch with reality.
I am sure Towner still bears scars on his arms from that ferocious fight.
And then the chance to attend a conference in Las Vegas comes up. Towner’s eyes light up. An opportunity to get lost in the dark and tangled capital city of deviousness and debauchery. And there was also poker. Towner loved his poker, and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) was in full swing over at The Rio. What a coincidence, or was it fate?
Towner did the sums. To get beyond the right side of the velvet ropes, he would have to take a risk. That risk would cost him $1,500. 69-events twinkled at him; teased him; turned him on. He wouldn’t waiver, he couldn’t, he was a professor of finance. He would take his one shot in the MONSTER Stack, lose, and then get on with the convention.
But what if he won?
It was a fleeting moment. The moment that crops up in one’s mind like an uninvited hairy lipped Grandma begging for a kiss. The moment you dare to believe that you could win. You would be a millionaire. You could pay off the debt that sticks like shit to a shoe. You could spoil your family. You could pay off your mortgage. You could buy the Sleep Master eye mask you thought was a tad excessive at $25 plus shipping.
And then shit gets real.
There will be close to 7,000 people in this event. You haven’t even cashed in a live tournament before. Your experience of poker consists of home games with mates who don’t know what they are doing and watching reruns of the people who do winning gazillions in the European Poker Tour (EPT) on Youtube.
Dreams do come true, but always for someone else. It’s time to stop being a comedian and remember that he is a professor of finance. Do the math. Work out the odds.
It ain’t going to happen.
When Towner entered the MONSTER Stack, he didn’t do it to win a gold bracelet and a shit ton of money. Nice, and nicer – but he joined the party to prove to himself, and the rest of the world, that dreams can come true.
“I’ve only played in like two events that were buy-ins of more than $100,” Towner would later tell WSOP officials all touching him hoping his magic would rub off on them.
He had a plan. It was to avoid the marginal decisions. Play solid. Don’t get out of line. It’s an excellent way of handling the fear that comes with competing alongside some of the greatest poker players in history. Players like Donnacha O’Dea, T.J. Cloutier, and David ‘The Dragon’ Pham.
Fold.
Fold.
Fold some more.
Aces.
That will do nicely.
Fold.
“I really don’t play poker,” said the dreamer after the event had ended.
And the $1,500 floats down onto the funeral pyre.
At the end of Day 1, Towner was asking people how to bag up his chips. By the end of Day 2, he was an old hand. By the end of Day 3, with only 26 players left, Towner was still in the event. Only 25 players stood in his way of becoming a millionaire. Please, God. Please, Spirits. Please, universe. Let me win this one, only this one. I promise to be good. I promise.
Donnacha O’Dea exits in 21st, T.J fricking Cloutier bows out in 14th. And still, Towner has a seat.
“What if I can make the final table?
“I will be on TV.”
Matt Affleck is out in 10th. The man Towner had seen in one of the most infamous televised hands in history when he got unlucky against Jonathan Duhamel. He is still wearing the same clothes. This is insane. What is happening to me? Please don’t let it end.
As he enters the final table, he looks around the rail at those who have gathered to follow him down the yellow brick road. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Every human being on the planet who prays to some unknown deity before bedtime asking for a great life, all the while hoping nobody is watching, are railing Towner at this final table.
He can’t win.
He shouldn’t win.
He knows it.
The fans know it.
The dreamers know it.
The Dragon knows it.
All of Towner’s close shaves with glory come flooding back. They try to eat away at his confidence. They try to put him straight.
“Stop this nonsense.”
“Go back to school.’
“You don’t belong here.”
It works. He starts believing it. He is an imposter; a fraud; he will surely be found out soon enough. He doesn’t deserve to be there.
He blinks.
There are five left.
He has won close to $300,000. If it ended, now he would be ecstatic. What a great run it was. $300,000. It is life changing money. But what if I could win more? What if?
And then comes the roar of the dragon.
Surely he can’t beat The Dragon. The man with two gold bracelets and close to $10m in live tournament earnings. The man who eats professors of finance for breakfast.
Stephen Nussrallah opens to 1.8m The Dragon looks down at his cards and moves all-in for 10.6m. A thought comes into Towner’s head – ‘big hand, please big hand, but very big, not tens or jacks, but aces or aces’. It’s a pair of nines. Towner looks at Nussrallah’s stack and moves all-in over the top. Nussrallah folds, the Dragon shows [Qc] [Jd], and five community cards later and the smell of sulphur is no more.
Suddenly, there are four, and Towner has slain the dragon. He starts to believe. The hair stands up on its forearms. His belly tingles with excitement. He grows an extra inch.
He eliminates Daniel Dipasquale in fourth. Then he sends Stephen Nussrallah to the rail in third.
And then there were two.
Dorian Rios, a ruthless pro, and as good as they come. He ain’t no Dragon, but his fire burns as brightly.
So close.
One more.
Please.
Dorian Rios completes on the button.
One more.
Towner looks down to see [Ad] [7c]. He knows he is going with it. It’s not great, but it will do. Butterfly wings flap. The brain turns to mush. He raises to 3.3m. There is a realisation that $400,000 is on the line. Rios moves all-in. Towner asks for a count. 30-seconds later, everything he has ever achieved in his life – every thought, memory, and breath focuses on this moment.
“I call.”
Rios shows pocket treys.
A flip, with two over cards.
That’s all Towner wanted.
The biggest flip of his life.
[Jh]
[9c]
[7h]
It takes a second to register.
He has hit a seven and is two cards away from pandemonium.
[Kd]
One more card.
Please.
Please.
[9s]
It’s over.
The professor of finance who came to Las Vegas for a conference is going home with $1.1m and a WSOP bracelet and for the briefest of moments he breathes life into the dreams of everyone who thought the day of the amateur was over.
Final Table Results
1. Mitchell Towner – $1,120,196
2. Dorian Rios – $692,029
3. Stephen Nussrallah – $513,902
4. Daniel Dipasquale – $384,338
5. David Pham – $289,497
6. Andre Moreno – $219,632
7. David Valcourt-Dube – $167,838
8. Marshall White – $129,197
9. Cody Pack – $100,185
