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A True Champion

Watching an event at the World Series of Poker can be a bit like going to a meat-packing plant—you might really, really like sausage, but after you watch how it's made you might lose your appetite for a few days. When you watch a final table on TV you don't realize how few hands actually make the final cut. You forget that poker is a test of endurance, as well as of skill, nerve, and luck.

The players fighting for the 2007 World Championship played until 4:15am on Wednesday, over 16 hours after they started. And that came after another 16-hour session that ended in the wee hours on Monday. Doing anything for 16 hours is exhausting. Heck, I just WATCHED the contestants play and it left me physically and emotionally drained. How much adrenaline the players used up during the Final Table would probably best be measured in gallons.

Before the Final Table started quite a few people were asking the question, "Who would be the best champion for poker? Who would best represent the game?" With poker's legal status in the U.S. so much in flux it would be a great help if the 2007 Main Event winner could serve as a rallying point for the game's supporters.

And so it might be hard to imagine a better champion than the person who actually won. Jerry Yang is a 39-year-old Californian who spoke movingly about his life after he defeated Tuan Lam to win the title. Yang was born in Laos, where his family was captured by Communists, threatened with execution, and thrown into a labor camp. They escaped, made their way to Thailand, and eventually gained entry into the United States. "The greatest day of my life," Yang said, "was the day I came to America."

Yang is a humble and deeply religious man who spoke openly about his relationship to God and how he believed that, for whatever reason, God was watching over him and even helping him as he progressed through the tournament. Yang did win some sick hands—he hit a gutshot draw early in the tournament to stay alive and made a runner-runner straight to eliminated Lam—and as ESPN's Norman Chad interviewed Yang immediately after his win listened to the champ list those hands where he felt divine intervention saved him, Chad quipped, "Do you think this is the most poker God has ever watched?" Yang laughed at that, but you could see how truly moved and grateful he was to have won. He announced that he plans to donate at least 10% of his winnings for various charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House.

He received a loud ovation from the crowd when he said that, and it seemed like the audience, who really didn't know Yang until he took off his sunglasses and spoke for the first time were moved as well. Poker has gotten a lot of bad press lately, especially from those who consider themselves religious and think that THEY should be the arbiters of what's right and wrong in the world. To have a champion like Yang, a man who isn't afraid to talk about how much he loves God AND how much he loves to play poker, a player who ferociously stole pots and then announced he plans to donate hundreds of thousands to charity, is almost more than the game could hope for. A good, decent man, who now deservedly wears the mantle of World Champion.