Mike Barlow Playing for his Friend in WSOP Crazy Eights
Ohio firefighter Mike Barlow has mixed feelings as he plays Event #62: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed at the 2018 World Series of Poker. According to Barlow, he’s not supposed to be here.
Barlow runs a poker league in his hometown of Wellington, Ohio and they send five guys to the series every year to play in a $1,000 event with some spending money in tow. His friend, Kerry Smith, actually won the package but two weeks before the series, Smith asked Barlow to go in his stead as he had a pulled muscle and was out of his job pouring concrete.
Barlow agreed and a week later, his station got a call to go to Smith’s place. His friend ended up in a hospital in Cleveland and after some testing, Smith was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer. On his way to fly out to Vegas, Barlow got a text that there was another call for his friend’s home, and a subsequent message that came as he was boarding brought the sad news that Smith had passed.
Barlow’s 888 Run
Barlow’s trip to Vegas and run in 888poker's $888 event comes with mixed feelings and a heavy heart, as appreciative as he is to get the opportunity to play at the WSOP where he finds himself running deep in an event with a guaranteed top prize of $888,888. Though he runs the league of 36 players back home, Barlow was not one of the five prize-package winners.
“I sure as heck didn’t win it,” Barlow laughed. “I’m not that good.
“Kerry won it. He’s the one that should be here.”
As for Barlow, his first WSOP cash was a minimum payout last year in the Colossus, and he didn’t plan on playing this year with his busy work schedule right now. Now, he’s in Vegas with his wife, building piles of chips with 77 players left out of 8,598 total entries. The $7,149 he’s locked up at dinner break of Day 2 is already more than his total Hendon Mob cashes to date.
“Kerry won it. He’s the one that should be here.”
While a couple of the other representatives of their poker league who played the event didn’t fare so well - one lasting all of three hands and another that busted after 45 minutes - Barlow is looking like the strong horse of the group, playing well in his friend’s place with another member coming out to play later in the week.
When asked how he feels being at the WSOP, playing poker and building a chip stack in the Crazy Eights event, Barlow responded, “It’s awesome,” but the sorrow deriving from the reason he finds himself here this time around is apparent.
Barlow said his plan moving forward is to just keep making and reaching “baby-step goals.” The first of those was making his first Day 2 in a live multi-day tournament. Check. He now finds himself among the top stacks, up to more than 1.8 million chips from the 69,000 he started the day with.
“I’m just going to keep plugging away.”
Whatever happens with Barlow in the tournament, one thing is for sure — this one’s for Kerry.
You can follow Barlow’s progress in the Crazy Eights event and the rest of the remaining tournaments of the World Series of Poker via the live updates here at PokerNews.
