Here’s in here somewhere, tucked away in a corner. Out of sight, and out of mind, for now at least. But he’s ready, ready for that moment when inspiration strikes, when a hand or the turn of a card flips the world upside down, when order becomes chaos, when civility becomes a bellowing scream, when the exterminator comes to life.
As play enters the last level of the day, and shoulders grow weary, Lucien Cohen sits coiled in his seat, his leg tucked beneath him, leaning forward over his chips. Perhaps there will be no more dramatics from the man who once brought a toy rat with him to the table. Perhaps there will be no playing to the home crowd, which proved so popular when he won in 2011. Perhaps there won’t be the temper that tolerates no detour from his plan at total attention.
Lucien Cohen (right) with Remi Castaignon
Right now he has a stack looking good for Day 2. He knows this, and has no second thoughts about leaving his seat to have a cigarette.
He sits alongside Remi Castaignon, who like Cohen is a former winner at EPT Deauville, and one of four French EPT champions in the field today, the others being Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Christophe Benzimra. None of those guys were all that histrionic when they won their titles, and neither was Jan Boubli, who played yesterday. Hell that makes Cohen one of a kind.
The good old days
At least that’s how we think of him, the screaming EPT champion who four years ago couldn’t quite believe that reality had conspired to bless him in the way it did. Neither did we, but it was heck of a thing to witness.
All is calm now, but he’ll be back tomorrow and in front of a home crowd. Then, all bets are off.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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