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One player who is still around at the final four tables of play today is Jeff Charlebois. He’ll be recognizable to most players here at Deerfoot Inn & Casino thanks to his ubiquitous Ironman mask, which debuted during the COVID restrictions back in Jan 2022.
He’s already having a pretty decent run in the Main Event this year with almost $9k already locked in, but the truth is, no matter how deep he goes in this one, he’s running well in life at the moment as he’s just beaten cancer.
Charlebois has spent the last 6 months in chemotherapy for a grapefruit-sized tumour, but on the first Friday of the series he received good news from his doctor — the tumour is now nothing but scar tissue. He spent the day calling friends and family to relay the good news, then decided to get into his car and drive all night for some poker here at Deerfoot.
Obviously, beating cancer has given Charlebois a new lease on life, and while his first few days at the series were a bit rough with exhaustion, he’s found his second wind with three cashes so far. But more than that, he said the 6 months he spent in treatment were a real eye-opener for him as he was going through chemo with 41 other people, seeing them for six hours every three weeks during his treatments.
While Charlebois had a good chance at recovering as a result of the chemo sessions, many of the people he was sitting with weren’t so lucky, going through the grueling process with far less hope of recovery. He said he realized just how blessed he was after watching his fellow patients struggle.
Cancer is a bitch, and it’s not always possible to write a “feel-good” story about it. Charlebois is a great example that it can be beaten, at least in some cases, but he also wants to remind people that life is short and it can take sharp turns when we least expect it. Glad to see you back in action Jeff — the local community hopes to be seeing you at the tables for a long time coming.