Celebrity Sightings

This is part two of fulfilling my brother’s request to post some things I’ve told him about.  In this post, it’s the answer to the question:  Which famous poker players have I seen?

In earlier entries, I’ve already mentioned Phil Hellmuth at Rancho Mirage, a bunch of guys at Caesar’s Las Vegas and even more at Harrah’s Rincon WSOP circuit event in San Diego.  The only other players I can remember seeing in real life were all at the Bellagio – Jen Harman, Lane Flack, and David Williams.  (I have to say that it’s pretty cool to be just a few yards away from these guys and see them up close.)  There may be a handful of others that I’ve forgotten about, and more likely other big pros that I just didn’t recognize.

*I just remembered one other pro I’ve seen:  Richard Brodie, aka “Quiet Lion”.  We both were on the same flight once from Seattle to Las Vegas.  He is one of the original developers of Microsoft Word and still lives in the Seattle area.

There is, however, one other significant poker superstar that I believe I have seen, and in fact actually played at the same table with, but I’m just not sure.  The player is Jamie Gold, and the venue was the Peppermill in Reno.  This was a year or two before he won his bracelet.

The reason that I’m not sure is that the guy I’m thinking of looked and acted just a little different from Jamie, in two ways.  First, he wasn’t wearing a hat.  Whenever you see Jamie Gold on TV, he’s always wearing that goofy “Buzz Nation” hat (whatever that is).  But I’ve seen Gold without that hat a few times, and gosh if he doesn’t look just exactly like the guy I played against in Reno, right down to his wire-rim eyeglasses.

The second difference was in overall demeanor.  Jamie Gold babbles a lot at the poker table.  You can’t shut him up.  He’s arrogant; convinced he’s all that, and enjoys saying as much as frequently as practical.  But my opponent in Reno was really rather quiet and reserved.  He had a goofy grin on his face the whole time.  In fact, I kept calling him “Smiley”.

But frankly, the whole experience at the Peppermill is something I remember for an entirely different reason – a big hand that came down which totally educated me in a mighty way in what no-limit poker is all about.

The table was a $1/$2 no-limit with a $300 buy-in.  Smiley was in seat two; I was in seat seven; and in seat five was a table bully who had been running over the table like crazy.  Over the course of the six or seven hours I had been there, he’d steadily grown his stack to somewhere around $2000.  The only other player with a stack anywhere close to that size was Smiley.

When the following hand came up, Smiley was under-the-gun and I was in late position.  Smiley limped; another player limped; the bully limped; another limper; I looked down at Ace-Nine offsuit and limped also, and the blinds both limped.  So there were seven of us in the hand, and $14 in the pot.

The flop came Queen of Clubs, King of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds.  Smiley was first to act, and bet two dollars – the very minimum bet possible.  We all called.

The turn was the Six of Spades.  This time, Smiley bet three dollars, into a $28 pot.  Again, we all called.

The river was the Three of Spades.  Smiley again bet $3 (the pot was almost $50 now).  The next player folded.  The bully raised to around $75.  Everybody else (including me) folded back to Smiley.

At this point, Smiley raised all-in, a bet of around $1500.  It was such a ridiculous overbet that everybody at the table laughed.  The bully called instantly, and turned over a pair of Kings for the nut Full House.

Smiley turned over a pocket pair of Queens, and scooped the pot with his quads.

At this point, all hell pretty much broke loose.  The bully started yelling and screaming at how “bad” Smiley had played the hand (personally, I thought it was genius).  After he finished paying off Smiley, he had only around $200 left.  It was pretty much breathtaking.  Here this guy had been playing A+ poker for hour after hour, and he donked it all off in one hand.  He ended up leaving just a little bit later.

This gave me quite a lesson in the power and danger of no-limit poker.  And honestly, except for that Caesar’s Palace hand I’ve written about where my set of Jacks ran into a full house, I’ve never put myself in that kind of situation in a cash game.  Knock on wood!  I think that is my biggest fear though, donking away all my hard-earned chips off in one bad call.

If I ever get the chance to talk to Jamie Gold, I’ll ask him if he’s ever played the Peppermill in Reno.  I really think it was him.