Big Shot Bob

At halftime tonight, Robert "Big Shot Bob" Horry had zero points. But no one will remember that, because Big Shot Bob came through in the clutch, as he always does. When it really mattered, when the game, series and Finals, with the world championship on the line, Horry was the best player on the court.

You could see it in his eyes. When he got the ball and drove the lane for that monster dunk/foul it didn't matter that the World's Best Defender was lurking there, waiting. I saw the replay and I watched Horry's eyes. He just had this look, a resolution that he was not going to be stopped. Somehow he was going to will the ball into the basket, jump fifteen feet into the air if that's what it would take to get over Wallace.

Michael Campbell had the same look. I was watching the US Open Saturday and I saw him play one hole and I immediately thought that guy is going to win the tournament.

The look is most obvious with Tiger Woods. Sometimes he gets that look in his eyes, that power in his stride, and there is just no doubt. Just as there was no doubt whatsoever that Horry was going to drill that 3 at the end of OT tonight.

In December I watched some of the WPT event at Bellagio. On Day 3 of the 5 day tournament I saw Daniel Negreanu and he had that look. As soon as I saw him I was certain he was going to win the tournament. It was like it had already been decided.

After day one of that tournament, with around 200 players still left, Negreanu wrote "It’s going to happen. Call it over confident, call it cocky, call it what you will… I’m going to get the job done." I write everything he reads and that's the only time he's ever made a bold prediction like that. He just knew from the beginning he was going to win the tournament, and he did, just like Michael Campbell knew he was going to win the US Open and Horry knew he was going to make all those shots at the end.

I was watching the final table of the 2004 WSOP tonight. In Josh Arieh's final hand he had nines against Greg Raymer's AQ, a 59% favorite. But when the hands were turned over Arieh had the look of a loser, as if he already knew two queens were coming and he was headed home in third place.

The past couple of weeks Arieh's diary (josharieh.com, the best poker player website there is) has been nothing but positivity. Despite a bad start to the WSOP his attitude was always positive. I wasn't at all surprised when he won a bracelet a few days ago.

Zack, Paul, and I have talked a lot about the importance of positive thinking in poker. I'm not very superstitious but there are times when I have a winning hand or session and I know it's not because I got lucky or played well, but because I knew I was going to win. Or more likely, me knowing that I am going to win actually causes me to get lucky and play well.

I now know that I had no shot of winning anything in the first six tournaments I played at the WSOP because I had the Tim Duncan/Retief Goosen attitude going. Horry's not as good as Duncan and Campbell's no Goosen, but today they knew they were going to win and they did.