Saturday night during Stampede. Players were coming and going so fast that it seemed like every time I looked up there was a new face at the table. At one point Bob the Hippy sat down. I had played Bob before; he hardly ever says a word (I call him Bob after Silent Bob) but plays very well. He looks like an organic zucchini farmer in his floppy hat, jeans and sandals. He sports a full beard and has calm icy blue eyes. Not the type you'd suspect was a poker shark, which probably has helped win him a lot of pots. Sitting down at around the same time as Bob is a guy who is dressed like Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier; some kind of blingy designer t-shirt, Sophia Loren aviator shades and Guy Fieri hair.
A few hands in, Bob opens the betting with $20 and gets called by ElkY-Guy. The flop is Ah 7d 4c. Bob shoots out a another $20, ElkY-Guy re-raises to $60 and Bob calls. the turn is Qh. Bob bets $100 and ElkY just calls. The river brings 9h and Bob puts his last $120 in, and ElkY-Guy calls. Bob flips over Ad Ac for a set of aces. ElkY-Guy turns over 10h 7h and wins with the flush. The table is stunned that ElkY-Guy has played so bad...and won. But nobody says anything until, of all people, Bob speaks in a mild voice; "Nice hand." Bob calmly takes three crisp $100 bills out of his pocket and re-buys.
Un. Real.
That night I was using a Professor Chaos action figure as my card protector. As ElkY-Guy is raking in his chips he tells me that it is the coolest card protector he has ever seen. I say something like it was a gift from a friend.
"How much do you want for it?" he asks me.
"I can't sell it," I reply. "It was a gift."
"I'll give you $50 for it." he says.
"Naw. I can't."
He just shrugs and we get back to the next hand.
And I suddenly realize he is not the biggest idiot at the table after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment