Friends of Bill C.

I met Debbie at the Oaks Club tonight because, on a rare free Wednesday evening so that we could play in the evening hold'em tournament. Something unusual was in the air.

"You're a friend of Bill's, right?" Dan Huseman asked me when I sat down in the 15-30 game before the tournament. Ummm, no, I've never even been to a meeting.

No, he wasn't talking about Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve Step movement. Instead, he was referring to Bill Chen, who Tuesday won the $3,000 Limit Hold'em event at the World Series of Poker.

Bill has been a long-time poster to rec.gambling.poker. I first met him when he came to the home game I hosted for a while. There was a period of time, before he moved to Philadelphia to work for a financial trading company, when Bill dominated the Oaks' Wednesday and Sunday tournaments.

But there's more: Oaks Club regulars pwned the $3K limit hold'em event – casino manager Larry Thomas made the final table also, eventually making 6th place.

Congratulations to Bill Chen on winning his first WSOP bracelet. I'm sure it won't be his last.

(But no joy for either me or Deb in tonight's tournament, alas.)