Tom McDonald
It took me a day or so to actually believe that Tom McDonald, one of our most beloved League Alumni, as well as a dear friend to us personally, really passed away early Saturday morning.
Steve Trizis texted us the news, Steve knows everyone and everything but I thought maybe the message was mixed up.
Tom had just texted the night before asking if we were going to Derby the next day for one of their bigger tournaments.
The only negative thing I ever heard about Tom was about his choice of favorite hands, that would be A6 of course. He won many a hand with that. Frankly, if there was a 6 on the board I learned to stay away from Tom.
For those who scoffed at his unconventional play – he was doing something right as evidenced by his Hendon Mob record – way higher than most area amateurs. He was pretty proud of his record and knew that those giving him a hard time about his choice of hands had no idea who they were dealing with. We used to joke about “Showing them what time it is” when they underestimated us. He recently won a WSOP $10k Main Event seat this past Fall in the League with teammate Dan Johnson. We were talking about railing him at the Final Table with A6 T-shirts.
Tom was super supportive of his friends, including us.
Mark, Tom & I flew to Vegas together, we occasionally met for dinner nearby since we lived fairly close together, he invited us to pre-tournament breakfasts with Jim (I wish we took him up on that more often but we’re slow starters), we spent more time together over the last year and grew closer. He and Jim Meyer spent Christmas with us. He was with us at my birthday dinner last Wednesday.
We had a group text that went way back- Tom, Mark & I – where we’d share jokes, make fun of people, tell bad beat stories & be supportive of one another. We used to tease Tom about being in his seat way before the tournament started.
I know Tom’s spirit will live on.
We’ll keep everyone posted with updates on celebrating his life.
He was such a great friend, so funny, so caring. I thought I’d share some of his humor.
I’ll close with these.
We’ll all miss him. ❤️
Well documented and said. In all the years I knew Tom I never heard of him involved in drama or anything negative. An originally good guy. He will be missed.
Nicest guy in poker and on my FB Page. Will be missed