At a final table recently, a well-known pro complimented me on what he referred to as accomplished short-stack play. Flattering though it was, it got me thinking as to how good a player you really are if you’ve earned a reputation for being a short-stack specialist, especially if it’s because you’ve gambled all your chips away.

Sometimes though, circumstances dictate that one has to adapt, not only for survival but also, conversely, for success. At the start of the 2007 WSOP there’d been many complaints about queue sizes for tournament registration. These had supposedly been dealt with, but when I rolled up five minutes before the cards were in the air to register for a $1,500 No- Limit Hold’em event, I was aghast to see that the queue was still of Damascene proportions.

Still, buy-ins were possible during the first hour of play and, as this was the only opportunity I had to play in a WSOP event for the year, I considered the entry fee a worthwhile write-off.