Heart Attack Can’t Stop WSOP hero

7 years ago
Heart Attack Can’t Stop Nithin George Eapen
08:13
29 Jul

(Photo: Pnimg.net)

There was one stat missing from my round-up report from the WSOP, and it is a very bizarre one! Number of players to have a heart attack and keep playing? One!

Nithin George Eapen holds that particular distinction, returning to the felt after suffering a serious non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, otherwise known as an NSTEMI heart attack.


Eapen fought his way to day 2 of the $1500 Monster Stack NLHE event, but the signs that all were not well had already appeared before the event resumed.

I bagged a healthy stack the night before," Eapen recalled. "But the next morning, I woke up early with chest pains and found myself reading about heart attacks online. The pain went away but soon returned at around 9:30 a.m.”

For most players, most people in fact, this would be time to call for medical help, but Nithin is made of sterner stuff!

I did not give it much thought though,” he explained, “as I wanted to play the tournament. My friend Tom suggested we visit the hospital as a precaution, but I told him that could wait. After all, I do not have any issues with blood pressure, blood sugar, or cholesterol, and I play squash most days.”

However, it wasn’t long before even he had to face the inevitable.

I began feeling pain and uneasiness at the table," Eapen told reporters afterwards. "Around 1 p.m., I started feeling nauseated, which was the next tick mark on the heart attack checklist. So I walked to the security person and asked them to please call an ambulance. The pain started getting worse by the time they arrived, so I was taken to Valley Medical."

The 40-year old recalled that at first doctors weren’t sure he had even had a heart attack, explaining:

My electrocardiogram (ECG) showed no variations… but the pain was too much to be anything else. Later in the day, they found troponin levels in my blood work, which is a protein that is usually released into the blood by dying heart muscles after they have been starved of oxygen and blood."

This led to Eapen having a stent inserted which aids the blood flow through affected arteries, and a quick return to his Connecticut home which he shares with his childhood sweetheart wife and four children – but his 2016 WSOP wasn’t to end there!



I asked them to do the angiogram through my arm," Eapen told PokerNews, “because recovery is faster that way. I flew back home on Tuesday the 28th June, and from there I had to convince my wife that the doctor had not put any restrictions on me except mountain climbing, bench pressing over 300 pounds, and gardening. The only question I asked the cardiologists was, 'Can I travel?' The doctor said yes, but my wife did not believe me and personally had to hear the doctor say so."

The reason for Eapen’s huge desire to get back to Vegas? The Main Event and his love of the game.

Q:I really love the game," Eapen said. "I am a hardcore libertarian and poker is the true egalitarian game, where a CEO and the person cleaning his office can enter the same tournament and become equals. In tournaments, there is no discrimination based on whether you are black or white, Chinese or Indian, male or female. When you meet people from different parts of the world, you hear their stories and share their experiences. I usually come to Vegas four times during the summer with my friend Tom Thomas," Eapen explained. "Once during the first week, then one trip each for the Millionaire Maker, the Monster Stack, and during mega satellite season for the Main Event. That's my tournament budget for the WSOP. I come and play three satellites every year. The last two years I did not win a satellite, hence I did not play the Main Event. Despite the temptation of buying in directly, I decided not to, because if I cannot even win a satellite, I should not be playing the real thing. This year, I managed to satellite into the PCA Main Event, along with the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Main Event.";

So nothing as minor as a heart attack and surgery were going to prevent Nithin George Eapen from taking his seat at the year’s biggest event.

One week after the angiogram I told my wife I want to go back to Rio for the Main Event," said Eapen. "She asked me to think, 'Is this worth making her go through this kind of tension?' My question was, 'Are you worried I will die?' Because I can die just as easily in Stamford at home if it is really my time to go. I can just fall or have a car accident, who knows?"



The decision to go proved the correct one – Eapen bagging 2 entries to the Main Event via $1100 Mega-satellites, as well as some other cashes.

Eapen’s succinct description of his 4 day Main Event adventure is one the best I have read:

This tournament is like a seven-day trek through a dense forest, with each day lasting 13 grueling hours. And along the walk, there will be tigers, lions, elephants, swamps, killer bees, and all those things. People will fall off and die along the way. It's like a difficult pilgrimage, as only a few will ever find bliss at the end of the journey."

Somewhat cruelly, Nithin’s Main Event adventure ended in the typically nasty way poker has of raising your hopes, then crushing them in almost the same breath.

Getting his short-stack all-in with king-queen against his opponent’s pocket jacks, the heart-attack survivor found a king on the flop, but the turn had other ideas – a jack falling and sinking Eapen’s dreams. He’s far from sad about things though.

It is an experience to either cherish, or be bitter about," Eapen explained. "That totally depends on the person you are. I have cherished every moment to date in my life
when I have won, and when I have lost.";

With that kind of attitude, we can safely say that Nithin George Eapen is a winner in life and poker!


Articles 2284

Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

Comments

You need to be logged in to post a new comment

No Comments found.