A friend's perspective on Patrick Chan's November Nine journey

My good friend Patrick Chan accomplished something that 99.9 percent of poker players can only dream of: He made the November Nine, the final table of the World Series of Poker main event.

His journey leading up to the WSOP and during the main event was incredible to follow, and it all started earlier this year in Los Angeles. Patrick came to Los Angeles in February for the L.A. Poker Classic, a tournament series at Commerce Casino. He had a successful series, getting to the final table in two of four events he played, but spent most of his time grinding cash games and enjoying L.A.

Patrick’s poker background is as an online tournament player. Since Black Friday, he's made a living grinding live tournaments, mostly on the east coast. He's had plenty of success with six-figure tournament scores and some big wins in the cash games.

Previously staked, 2015 was the first year Patrick decided to play tournaments entirely with his own money. It was a huge transition, as he had to adjust to stricter bankroll management and carefully choose which tournaments and cash games he wanted to play.

After the LAPC, Chan remained in L.A. because he was enjoying the weather, lifestyle and cash games. He stayed at my house for the next eight weeks until the end of April. During that time there were two tournament series in LA, but instead of playing the tournament circuit, he became a cash game regular.

Those eight weeks were key to Patrick’s recent success.

With the WSOP in sight, Patrick put in tons of hours during that time, focusing on building his bankroll. At first, it was often a struggle filled with frustration about losing or not capitalizing enough in good cash games. We'd discuss hands and situations in the early morning hours after returning home and attempted to learn and fix the holes in our games. During the last few weeks, Patrick made those adjustments and found some success before returning to the east coast.

After a stint on the East, Patrick spent the entire summer at the WSOP and he employed the same strategy as he did at LAPC: carefully choosing which tournaments to play and have no intention to grind the entire schedule.

With that mindset, he played just four tournaments the entire Series. The first of those tournaments was the Colossus, in which he finished 226^th of 22,374 entrants. He failed to cash in the next two, but finally came the $10,000 tournament he was waiting for. The only $10,000 he'd consider buying into on his own.

Each night, no matter where I was, I followed the blog on WSOP.com and read the live updates. Whenever the blog said they were on break, I would text Patrick for updates. Every break, it would get more and more exciting.

Once Day 5 came, I really believed he was going to make it. I knew that Patrick had prepared for this for so long, and he was going to seize the opportunity. He’s the ultimate grinder.

On Day 6, I remember reading the blog and seeing the update where Patrick tripled up against Josh Beckley. It was an epic hand where he shoved top set with pocket sixes in a three-way pot and got called twice, and the worst card in the deck came on the turn to give Beckley a flush (and a straight for good measure). After Beckley shoved, Patrick saw his hand and knew he needed the board to pair to stay alive in the tournament.

The board paired on the river and Patrick tripled up. On the blog, they showed a picture where he stood up and celebrated after winning the hand. It was really cool to see a friend celebrate like that in such an important moment in his career. When he’s at the table, he’s often very stoic and doesn’t show much emotion. So seeing him release all of that emotion in such an amazing spot made me really happy. And I wished that I was there to celebrate the triple up with him.

As Day 6 came to an end, I seriously considered booking a last-minute flight from Philadelphia to Vegas to be there for Day 7 because I knew in my heart at that point that he was going to make the November Nine. I really wanted to be there to celebrate with him in person, but I had family obligations, so I resigned myself to watch the updates from my computer.

On Day 7, I was glued to the blog. The more updates that didn’t involve Patrick the better, because I knew that meant he was just grinding his way through the pay jumps. With 13 players left, there was a post with a picture of Patrick celebrating as his Ah-Qh topped Pierre Neuville's J-J. I felt as happy as I’ve ever been for a friend to see him celebrate that moment. I literally was almost in tears. I knew with that double-up that it was a virtual lock that he was going to make it to the November Nine.

Sure enough, just after 4 a.m. ET, Patrick was a member of the November Nine. I had never been more excited for something that a friend had accomplished and I knew I was going to be there in November in the front row on his rail.

We spent the next two months celebrating, talking about the ride, playing some more poker and preparing for November. Over those two months, Patrick hadn’t changed one bit. He was still the same humble, fun-loving person who didn’t fully realize what he had just accomplished. He hit the jackpot of a poker lifetime and was set up well for the future. What I witnessed was a huge sense of relief by Patrick that he was finally where he wanted to be, and that his hard work had finally paid off.

As we returned to Commerce to play some cash games, people would congratulate him for his accomplishment. He was dumbfounded by how many people knew about it. Even weeks later, he was amazed that random people were congratulating him in the poker room.

“How do they all know?” he asked me one time. I told him it was simply because they all read the internet. He countered with, “The internet? Who goes there?” This is one of his famous Patrick-isms.

Over those two months, he hadn’t changed much poker-wise either. Despite his recent financial success, he still was happy grinding the same $5/$10 no-limit cash games he played before the summer. He still was able to grind for hours and wait for big hands. It was relieving to see that he was remaining level-headed and wasn’t going to let money change him. In fact, he played better than ever during those two months, consistently winning while making a remarkably low amount of mistakes.

As great a poker player he is, his best asset may be his bankroll management. I was really impressed by how smart he was with his money after he left Vegas. He knew where he was at previously and where he is now, and he knows he doesn’t ever want to go back to where he had been in years past. Because of this, and how wise he is knowing the difficulties of grinding poker tournaments full-time, I strongly believe he will be well-off and successful for a long time.

We flew to Florida for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open and once we got down there, he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to play all three tournaments that weekend. After skipping the first one, he played the $5,000 main event, but he even felt uneasy about that. After registering he said, “I can’t believe I’m own-diming a $5,000.” Again, despite his recent financial success, his mindset hadn’t changed.

Perhaps the best part of the Seminole series was seeing so many friends and acquaintances we knew through poker. We got to hang out all night with two other members of the November Nine -- Joe McKeehen and Beckley -- who are both from the same general area Patrick and I are from.

It was a great experience, as we all got to mingle and have some beverages together while we discussed what they had all accomplished and what might happen in November. Joe, the overwhelming chip leader, was his normal confident self, telling Patrick “I already know you’re going to finish ninth.” Knowing Joe fairly well and following his daily antics on Twitter, I wasn’t the least bit surprised by his level of confidence and trash-talk. We'll see what happens in November, Joe.

As he prepares in the final weeks leading up the final table, we (his friends) are doing our own preparing by putting together a list of supporters who plan on attending, getting custom shirts made, and organizing our travel plans. I’ve never been this excited about something that I’m not involved in or don’t have any financial interest in. On November 8, it will be one of the most memorable experiences ever, not just for Patrick, but for all of us.