Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

, By SCOOI'ERMANIA SCOTT ROUSSEAU There's No Tilting Reed k anyone who plays the game of poker, and they'll tell you that it is a game of emotion - show any whatsover, and you're clocked. Good opponents can read you like a book. You might as well be wearing your hole cards on your forehead like you're playing Blindman's Bluff. If the THQ AMA Supercross were a poker game, then defending Champion Chad Reed's chips are dwindling fast. Even five rounds - call 'em hands - into the series, and the Australian has yet to win one, while nemesis Ricky Carmichael is making a comeback on the order of Doyle Brunson, cashing at every turn. Still, Reed remains stone-faced in his resolve and refuses to fold like someone holding 7-2 off-suited in the big blind after A that you've got it and that you can do it, whether that means coming from five points, 10 points or 26 points. In reality, deep down, you know that you've got what it takes to do it. That's what keeps me focused." True enough, being short-stacked five to one is no big deal to a top poker pro. In a world where calculated aggression is rewarded, wild play is disastrous - and there's an anorexic line between the two, Reed is playing his hands, biding his time. And he's not ignorant, either. "It's a frustrating time for us, but that's what we've been dealt," he says. There, that small bit of honesty that is the measure of a top poker pro. Knowing when you've gotten bad draws and how to deal with them is what separates the men from the boys. No whining, just an a raise and a reraise. honest assessment of one's situation and "I feel good, and I feel happy," Reed says. "I feel good, and that's the main thing. I know what I need to work on, and we have been working on it. I feel that we have made it better, and we're just going to put our best foot forward. That's all you can do." And yet Reed has not won a pot up to now, something that supercross oddsmakers would tell you is probably about as remote as catching that straight-flush card on the river. Five races into the series, and no wins. You'd expect Reed to get pissed off just to hear one more person remind him of that fact. Instead, he laughs. "What it comes down to is knowing that you can win," Reed says. "Knowing the ability to shrug it off - maybe even be a little philosophical about it. "Watching from the past years and in all of sports, it seems like the second one [championship] is always the toughest one to win," Reed says. ':<\nd I think that we have been dealt some tough things before, but that's done with." Like a World Poker Tour contender recalling a bad hand from years before, Reed recounts one. "I feel like in 2004, when I won the title, I was having the best year of my life," he says. "I was on the podium every weekend. Then we get to the second-tolast race. I've got my parents there, and I feel like it is going to be the best weekend of my life, and then I hear that AMA is taking 25 points away from me." That 'time, Reed kept his composure, and he cashed big. Of course, he was ahead at the time, but to him the current situation is no different, and that's the difference. "I know racing, and I know how things that are out of your hands can make a difference in this sport," Reed says. "We're not giving up yet. We're still in the race. We still have 12 races [now I I] to go. There's a lot of stuff that can go down. These tracks can come up and bite you anytime." Like a 7-7-2 when your opponent is holding those off-suit rags while you are sitting on pocket aces. Patience is the key. A good player knows when to slow play and when to go all-in. Reed's still content to play the waiting game. "It [the series] goes fast now, but it starts to get slower," he warns. "People get burned out, get tired, shift their focus to outdoors... I've been here long enough to know. I'm still confident, and I'm still going to bring my 'f!4. game every week. I'm going to keep the pressure on. It's never over until it's over. Anything can happen." There's just no tilting Chad Reed, which is precisely why if anyone can come back from this far down in the game, it will probably be him. eN CYCLE NEWS • fEBRUARY 16, 2005 71

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