Ten Days in the Desert : Day 8
Cambodian Slick
preparing to leave for the airport. I crashed hard, and woke up once
again as Rob was leaving to catch his plane later that morning. That
leaves me all alone in the room, and I took advantage of the peace and
quiet and slept until about 2 or 3 pm with the blinds wide open and
the sun blazing in, just the way I like it.
Those of us who were left in Vegas took a cab out to the In N Out
burger for some "real food." Brandon was blown away when I told him
about the "secret menu." So blown away, in fact, that he had to ask
the cashier if I was telling the truth. She told him that yes, there
was a secret menu. He asked what was on it, and she of course said,
"well, it's a secret."
Back at the Horseshoe Peter and I watched them play down to two
tables. We watched "Dutch" Boyd play some big pots and win. And we
watched his creepy mongoloid hangers-on on the rail, slack-jawed and
wide-eyed, watching him carefully lest they don't see him glance in
their direction and miss an opportunity to give him a big thumbs up or
an air high-five. The worst was that every time "Dutch" won a pot, he
would do this goofy hippy dance with his arms, and all the geeks in
his pack on the rail would start doing it, too.
I played a little pot-limit and no-limit poker with "Dutch" before the
start of the big one, and he wasn't all that friendly to me or to the
other players. That was before I knew that "Dutch" was actually the
infamous Russ Boyd that I had heard so much about on RGP. You know,
the accused swindler and crook. The self-professed child genius with
a law degree at the age of 18. I don't even care if "Dutch" really
intended to rip all those people off. Alls I know is that I don't
like his way, and I'm rooting for him to go out. It doesn't seem
likely at 6pm, though. He is right there in the lead and nobody at
his table wants to play a big pot with him.
Peter and I leave Brandon at the Horseshoe and go to meet up with
everyone else at the Rio to see Penn & Teller. One thing you should
understand, Josh and I were both budding young magicians in our youth,
and we idolized Penn & Teller. I was such a big fan, I had an
autographed picture of them hanging on my wall in my room all through
middle school and junior high. I eventually phased out of magic, once
I realized that if I kept the hobby up, I was more than likely never
getting laid. But I always remained a fan of magic and especially
Penn & Teller. This would be my first time to ever see them live.
The show was fantastic. The show was funny yet elegant, simple yet
dramatic. It incorporated guns, live ammunition, fire, knives,
straightjackets, blood, suicide, and a bunny rabbit and a woodchipper.
A great show for the whole family. They are definetly no Sigfried
and Roy.
After the show I told Teller that I was a longtime fan and that Josh
and I really idolized them when we were younger. I also told him that
when I was in 6th grade I sent them $6 for a subscription to their
newsletter, but all I ever got was an autographed picture. I told him
I figured he owed me $6, so he wrote on my program "I.O.U. $6." Then
he said "You know, really I only owe you $3 and Penn owes you the
other $3." So I went over to Penn and told him the same story. He
gave me a CD, a deck of cards, and a copy of the program and said
"See, you made $14 out of the deal!" I said "I'd really rather just
score some tickets." He laughed and shoved me out of the way.
After the show we grabbed dinner, and Josh showed us his Phil Ivey
impersonation, which was dead-on hilarious, so we taped it and will
have to put it up on the website for sure.
Back at the Horseshoe, they were down to about 14. I watched as they
busted out in rapid succession. What was really amazing was that
"Dutch" had pissed away his chip lead and seemed to be biding his time
waiting for people to drop. He was just folding away, fold fold fold.
And each time someone got busted, he would stand and look over at his
creepy fuck friends and do the hippy arm dance, and they would all
respond in kind. It seems just as I was thinking to myself that it
was high time "Dutch" took a walk to the rail, he had all his chips in
the middle. And before I could finish my prayer to the Poker Gods
that he get called, somebody was beating him into the pot. Seems
"Dutch" put them all in the middle with QJ on a queen-high flop and
found someone with aces. "Dutch" hit the rail with 80 dimes, not
quite enough to settle up with everyone from Pokerspot.com, but plenty
‘nuff for plane fare to Costa Rica.
When they put the final 10 together to play down to 9, it looked like
it wasn't going to take long at all. Grey went all-in against
Harrington and lost (I don't remember the hand) and it seemed like he
only had enough chips to run on fumes for a little bit to me. So I
went downstairs to get on the list for pot-limit.
While I waited on the list, I sat in a 10-20 game that was off the
charts wild. One player was inebriated as shit and raising every pot,
most of the time without looking at his hand. And when he did go to
look at his hand, the guy to my left made sure to say "Hey, you can't
do that! You're trying to look." And sure as shit, the guy would
agree and not look. As you could probably guess, this guy had all the
chips in front of him.
The guy on my right's name was Zach I think, and he asked me if I was
the guy who writes the stuff on the internet. I said I was, and he
told me I was a good writer. Then the guy on my left asked "what, you
write a column or something?" I said "sorta." He asked what it was
about, and I said "adventures."
The wild raiser maniac player had just won a monster pot against the
kid on his left, and as he was scooping the pot and hootin' and
hollerin', he says to the guy on his left "Get out your phone and call
your old lady, I want to tell her what I did!" Then he pulls his cell
phone out of his pocket and pretends to be talking to the kids
girlfriend. What was hilarious to me was that the pretend
conversation went on for a long time, and at one point I actually
thought the guy might really think he's talking to someone. Zach
leans over to me and says "you don't see a lot of games like this
one." Not in my town, that's for sure.
I finally got in the pot limit game and boy did I beat it for about
$1500. I was really hitting cards and getting my cards. And even
though I lost a bundle on a hand where I misplayed AK terribly, I
still came out a big winner.
As we are playing I can hear the tournament upstairs on the
loudspeaker. Matt Savage is calling out the hands. They've been
playing for quite a while. I guess Grey doubled up or something, or
maybe I just didn't really get just how many chips he had left after
that hand. But I hear on the loudspeaker Matt's voice is getting much
louder and excited. It sounds like Phil Ivey, after calling a bet of
$80,000 on the flop of QQ6, has just gone all-in on the turn (a 9) and
is being beaten into the pot by Moneymaker. Matt Savage shouts when
the cards are flipped over: "Chris Moneymaker has AQ for three queens,
and Phil Ivey has two 9s for 9s full!!!" I can hear the crowd roar
upstairs. I imagine the dealer pounding his fist on the felt two
times, then burning and turning the river card. Matt Savage's voice,
as if it could be, got even louder as he yelled "AN ACE! THE RIVER IS
AN ACE! PHIL IVEY IS OUR TENTH PLACE FINISHER!!"
The miracle river card. Its been saving so many people's asses this
week. Its like David's little sling killing giants like Phil Hellmuth
and Humberto Brenes. The river is always the card that the sucker
needs, not the pro. The Phil Ivey's don't put their money in the
middle without much the best of it. They don't look to suck out, and
usually don't. The real superstars play a three card game, and those
of us amateurs out there looking to sneak into their dance, we play
for that fourth and fifth card. We need luck and we need a lot of it
and we need it fast.
I watched Phil Ivey come down the stairs alone. Paul Darden and some
of Phil's other hangers-on walking a few feet behind him. He turns
and shoots them a look, and Darden stops the others and tells them to
hold back. Phil turns and keeps walking. I follow him, and watch him
as he walks out the front of the Shoe and out into Freemont street,
alone.
I can't even imagine how bad it must feel. Tonight Josh is in his room
in the Mirage, beating the walls he is so pissed that he ended up
losers for the trip after getting off to such a big start. He's awful
hard on himself and it freaks out all his card playing buddies that he
takes it so hard. But when I think about Phil walking out that door,
and try to put myself in his shoes…. I mean he was just sitting there
at basically the final table, surely the crowd favorite if not the
odds-on and he was just waiting for someone to bust out. And not even
ten minutes ago he was sitting there with the full house against a 6
outer and I'm sure he was counting the chips he would soon have at his
disposal.
For most of us, it isn't about money. Money, as Josh once told me, is
simply the way in this game you keep score. For most of us, it's
about winning. It's about being good. It's about figuring out the
game and beating it. And sometimes when you know you're good and you
should be hitting the deck and hitting it hard, it isn't enough to
just tell yourself "That guy got lucky on me" because that guy has all
your money and lives to fight another day, and you walk out the door
in tenth, or up to your room at the Mirage, and someone else is going
home feeling not like the luckiest guy in the world, but as the guy
with all the chips that's hitting the deck and killing the game and is
going to wake up tomorrow and show the world just what he can do with
all of your chips.
In the end, there is no excuse for being down in a game you should
beat, nor is there one for being under the canopy on Freemont with
your hands in your pockets and your head down when fifteen minutes ago
you were, for all practical purposes, the next World Champion. There
is no excuse. Any one of us would have put all our money in the
middle with that full house. And any one of us, given Josh's seat and
Josh's cards, would have lost the same amount of money. But we'd be
just as bad off. Because poker, like it or not, is not just skill.
You need the luck to win. Its still gamblin', and that's really at
the end of the day why so many of us love the game so much. There
are plenty of games like chess that require no luck and very little
psychology at all. But we play poker. We play cards. And anyone who
has ever played cards in their life will tell you that poker is a game
of chance. Get used to the low points, boys. This is gambling, and
it always will be.
As Titanic Thompson grew older, he could usually be found at the
Stardust 3-6 holdem game, chip clacking away his final minutes in our
world. One day another low limit ringer, after being told who Ti was,
asked him "How could a guy who made such a fortune and gambled for
millions and millions of dollars be sitting here with us nits playing
3-6?"
Ti replied "Hey, its action, ain't it?"
Astarte
You should publish something.
/Christer
"Cambodian Slick" <sp...@ureach.com> wrote in message
news:72056a57.0305...@posting.google.com...
> and try to put myself in his shoes.. I mean he was just sitting there
Donald-John MacQuarrie
that there is a similar anecdote about Jimmy the Greek ending his days
playing low limit poker and says the same line when asked what he is doing
in a small game. I am moving so just packed up all my poker books but I
believe it is in Krieger's Poker for Dummies. Innyhoo, a great series of
accounts, you should be proud. DJ
"Astarte" <ast...@chello.se> wrote in message
news:G6qza.8208$KF1.134428@amstwist00...
Donald-John MacQuarrie
Peter Alson
Good stuff. You can write, pal.
_________________________________________________________________
Posted using RecPoker.com - http://www.recpoker.com
Howard Treesong
> As Titanic Thompson grew older, he could usually be found at the
> Stardust 3-6 holdem game, chip clacking away his final minutes in our
> world. One day another low limit ringer, after being told who Ti was,
> asked him "How could a guy who made such a fortune and gambled for
> millions and millions of dollars be sitting here with us nits playing
> 3-6?"
>
> Ti replied "Hey, its action, ain't it?"
Slick -- as usual, superior post. But I think you may have sourced
this quote wrong. I certainly don't have any firsthand knowledge of
it, but I do believe it's usually attributed to Nick ("The Greek")
Dandalos, who is reputed to have played out his last days in small
games in Gardena. He, of course, is the man who torched through East
coast games and won millions, then played Johnny Moss at the Shoe for
an extended time, winning a giant 5-stud pot by spiking a jack on the
river for JJ against Moss's 99. I recommend reading "The Biggest Game
In Town," by Al Alvarez. I suspect from your style that you'll like
it.
-Howard
Chris Bigler
sp...@ureach.com says...
> As I came home last night/early this morning, Chonko was packing and
snip another great article
> Ti replied "Hey, its action, ain't it?"
I really like your articles, in case you run into me Friday at the
Shoe, please indroduce yourself to me. Thanks
Chris Bigler
T. Pascal
> As we are playing I can hear the tournament upstairs on the
> loudspeaker. Matt Savage is calling out the hands. They've been
> playing for quite a while. I guess Grey doubled up or something, or
> maybe I just didn't really get just how many chips he had left after
> that hand. But I hear on the loudspeaker Matt's voice is getting much
> louder and excited. It sounds like Phil Ivey, after calling a bet of
> $80,000 on the flop of QQ6, has just gone all-in on the turn (a 9) and
> is being beaten into the pot by Moneymaker. Matt Savage shouts when
> the cards are flipped over: "Chris Moneymaker has AQ for three queens,
> and Phil Ivey has two 9s for 9s full!!!" I can hear the crowd roar
> upstairs. I imagine the dealer pounding his fist on the felt two
> times, then burning and turning the river card. Matt Savage's voice,
> as if it could be, got even louder as he yelled "AN ACE! THE RIVER IS
> AN ACE! PHIL IVEY IS OUR TENTH PLACE FINISHER!!"
>
> The miracle river card. Its been saving so many people's asses this
> week. Its like David's little sling killing giants like Phil Hellmuth
> and Humberto Brenes. The river is always the card that the sucker
> needs, not the pro. The Phil Ivey's don't put their money in the
> middle without much the best of it. They don't look to suck out, and
> usually don't. The real superstars play a three card game, and those
> of us amateurs out there looking to sneak into their dance, we play
> for that fourth and fifth card. We need luck and we need a lot of it
> and we need it fast.
>
course that his two pair was being crushed by trips)? And didn't he
need his luck to get it on the turn, my brother? So he's not as good
as the "three card" players, but he's better than the five card
players? Can I hear AMEN?!
Sounds like a standard issue suck-resuck to me.
> I watched Phil Ivey come down the stairs alone. Paul Darden and some
> of Phil's other hangers-on walking a few feet behind him. He turns
> and shoots them a look, and Darden stops the others and tells them to
> hold back. Phil turns and keeps walking. I follow him, and watch him
> as he walks out the front of the Shoe and out into Freemont street,
> alone.
>
> I can't even imagine how bad it must feel. Tonight Josh is in his room
> in the Mirage, beating the walls he is so pissed that he ended up
> losers for the trip after getting off to such a big start. He's awful
> hard on himself and it freaks out all his card playing buddies that he
> takes it so hard. But when I think about Phil walking out that door,
> and try to put myself in his shoes?. I mean he was just sitting there
> at basically the final table, surely the crowd favorite if not the
> odds-on and he was just waiting for someone to bust out. And not even
> ten minutes ago he was sitting there with the full house against a 6
> outer and I'm sure he was counting the chips he would soon have at his
> disposal.
>
Although the style and content are quite good, it's become what we
authors call "maudlin". I saw the same situation on TV where Huck
Seed won (I think it was Huck Seed, forgive me) and they filmed a
long-shot of him walking out onto Freemont street alone and dejected.
And he WON!!
By the way... Good posts. Thanks.
7stud
_________________________________________________________________
James L. Hankins
> Whoah, there. Didn't Phil Ivey check-call the flop (not knowning, of
> course that his two pair was being crushed by trips)? And didn't he
> need his luck to get it on the turn, my brother? So he's not as good
> as the "three card" players, but he's better than the five card
> players? Can I hear AMEN?!
>
> Sounds like a standard issue suck-resuck to me.
No AMEN for you! You're not considering when the fake tournament MONEY went
in. Ivey pushed all his money in when he hit and Moneymaker was sucking
wind. But he sucked in a lot of wind.
Easy E
(Cambodian Slick) wrote in message news:<72056a57.0305...@posting.google.com>...
> A great show for the whole family. They are definetly no Sigfried
> and Roy.
I liked the S&R show when i saw it. I also like P&T
> the guy who writes the stuff on the internet. I said I was, and he
> told me I was a good writer. Then the guy on my left asked "what, you
> write a column or something?" I said "sorta." He asked what it was
> about, and I said "adventures."
Yeah, adventures of the psyche....
> The miracle river card. Its been saving so many people's asses this
> week. Its like David's little sling killing giants like Phil Hellmuth
> and Humberto Brenes. The river is always the card that the sucker
> needs, not the pro. The Phil Ivey's don't put their money in the
> middle without much the best of it. They don't look to suck out, and
> usually don't. The real superstars play a three card game, and those
> of us amateurs out there looking to sneak into their dance, we play
> for that fourth and fifth card. We need luck and we need a lot of it
> and we need it fast.
Umm, wasn't Phil playing a 4-card game here also? he caught HIS
miracle 2-outer on the turn, moving way uphill against the queens....
So, though I know it was a tough loss. as your "casual observer"
description so clearly portrayed), I would call this neither a bad
beat nor a miracle river card (in effect. Of course, it was a tough
card to watch fall....)
Too bad, though. From what I've seen of him (other than his scary
"rapid eye" thing) I like his demeanor and play.
>
> I watched Phil Ivey come down the stairs alone. Paul Darden and some
> of Phil's other hangers-on walking a few feet behind him.
Paul Darden is a Phil hanger-on?
>
> For most of us, it isn't about money. Money, as Josh once told me, is
> simply the way in this game you keep score. For most of us, it's
> about winning. It's about being good. It's about figuring out the
> game and beating it.
well, it's about all of that AND the money..... if it were JUST
about the above, we could all play at home on Masque's WSOP software.
> In the end, there is no excuse for being down in a game you should
> beat, nor is there one for being under the canopy on Freemont with
> your hands in your pockets and your head down when fifteen minutes ago
> you were, for all practical purposes, the next World Champion. There
> is no excuse.
No excuse? As if you can will short-term luck/results to change?
Interesting concept.....
Any one of us would have put all our money in the
> middle with that full house. And any one of us, given Josh's seat and
> Josh's cards, would have lost the same amount of money. But we'd be
> just as bad off. Because poker, like it or not, is not just skill.
> You need the luck to win. Its still gamblin', and that's really at
> the end of the day why so many of us love the game so much. There
> are plenty of games like chess that require no luck and very little
> psychology at all. But we play poker. We play cards. And anyone who
> has ever played cards in their life will tell you that poker is a game
> of chance. Get used to the low points, boys. This is gambling, and
> it always will be.
THANK YOU! I'm going to grab this section and use it as a reply the
NEXT time someone says that poker isn't gambling.
An entertaining series of posts so far. I look forward (and yet I
don't) to the last two.
Maybe you should get hired as a writer for "Lucky" and get that
show straighten out!