I can't believe I missed this

When I was going through the early chip counts yesterday, there was a name in there that stuck out at me as being obviously wrong; Jay Heimowitz. I immediately barked down to Force (Ryan Lucchesi) and The Boss (Tom Bostic) that there was a problem with the admin.

See, I figured I’d know Jay Heimowitz to see him. After all, he’s only one of the greatest poker players in the history of the organized game. The top bracelet winners of all-time:

Doyle Brunson – 10
Johnny Chan – 10
Phil Hellmuth – 10
Johnny Moss – 8
Billy Baxter – 7
Erik Seidel – 7
TJ Cloutier – 6
Jay Heimowitz – 6
Men “The Master” Nguyen – 6

No Ungar. No Ivey. No Baldwin or Reese or Negreanu. As tournament poker careers go, this is one of the big measuring sticks. Throw in the fact that along with Baxter, he’s won one in every decade. They’re the only two players to do so. How do you spell legend? h-e-i-m-o-w-i-t-z.

I saw his name again on the list this morning. Curious to see this other Heimowitz, I went to table 3, seat 8 to get a look in. There he was; hair brushed back, glasses perched on a well-rounded nose, immaculately dressed with tasteful jewelry to match. I’d been looking for the Heimowitz I knew from grainy video taken at the turn of the 80’s.

My first reaction was shock and recognition. My second was a feeling of shame in stupidity, realizing I’d missed out on a big story, at least for the buffs like me. I’m trying to rectify the situation now: He’s agreed to do an interview with me at some point. It’s going to be a real pleasure; I’m just hoping it’s happening sometime around his first WPT final table appearance.