My Favorite Casino Gambling Memory
HERE’S A QUESTION:
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY:
AN UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION:
Today, here’s an intersection of three different writing series I’ve been doing here on Facebook. Hopefully, you’ll join in and make the discussion even more interesting.
QUESTION: WHAT’S YOU FAVORITE CASINO/GAMBLING MEMORY?
Simple question for many of my friends, who have spent lots of time in casinos and gambling, right?
This “favorite memory” shouldn’t be tied to your biggest win. It can be. But if your happiness is derived purely from money, or a gambling win, then I think you’re missing the point.
I’ve had lots of casino and gambling encounters both as a player and as someone who worked inside casinos for many years. However, my favorite memory of all is as follows:
My Favorite Casino/Gambling Memory:
Playing for 72 hours straight inside Binion’s Horseshoe Poker Room in the summer of 2000 stands out for many reasons. I missed not just *one* but *two* nights of sleep. Why would I do such a thing? Easy answer: Because the Omaha High $4-8 game with a half-kill was just too great to leave….consistently loaded with players on tilt who made the game play much bigger than it was….great conversations….arguments….laughter….fights….getting propositioned….scarfing down 4 brisket on rye sandwiches from the nearby deli (they were delicious!)….busting that mean prick Sam Angel (the notorious Las Vegas pawnbroker) who threatened to kill me….drinking St. Pauli Girl Darks non-stop…..racking up $2,600 all in dirty white $1 chips from a giant obnoxious pyramid…..and THEN promptly at 11 am on the third day on no sleep entering the BARGE Main Event tournament with 200 entries which for me lasted for another 9 grueling hours and coming in 12th….and then playing another 8 hours until about 3 am in cash games with chairs laid out so I could lay down and close my eyes between hands. It was truly the Wild West, back then. That three-day poker binge and horror of degeneracy pushed me to my physical and emotional limit, and I later had to be woken up in the shower mumbling incoherently out of some Twilight Zone episode, but it was worth very second of the pain. Easily, the funnest three days of my life that I certainly wouldn’t be able to do ever again. A Poker Woodstock.
Now, it’s your turn. THIS SHOULD BE FUN.
This photo was taken during that 2000 BARGE tournament. Another reason it’s a favorite memory is that Marieta (sitting behind and looking at my hole cards on each hand) played the entire tournament with me. So, sharing the experience with her made it exceptionally memorable. That’s also the infamous tournament when Marieta — after watching me bluff of half my stack on two bad moves as we got close to the prize money — yelled at me during a break in the action, “stop bluffing-don’t fuck with Patti (Beadles)!”
True story.
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My favorite gambling story is about a bet that Jan Fisher, Mike Sexton and I had on who would win the WSOP main event in 1998. The bet was for $5,000. Eric Seidel set the conditions. He got to pick who he believed were the 10 best players in the world, and if of one of them won, the bet would be a push. We got the next 60 picks and he got the field. The 3 of us met every day and went over our lists, and there were lots and lots of changes. Mike was our main handicapper. We turned in our list on the morning of the big event and were quite dismayed to see so many entries that year.
There were only 5 final at the final table that year since Scotty Nguyen had eliminated 2 people in the same hand to set up the final table. TJ Cloutier was there, But he was one of the 10 that Eric had eliminated, so if he won, it would be a push. We had Dewey Weum, Lee Salem, and Scotty. Our only spoiler would be Kevin McBride. Our handicapping was magnificent. Nobody would have picked Scotty in 1998 because this was before he had a reputation as a fantastic player. No one have ever heard of Kevin Mcbride.
One by one, players were eliminated. Mike, Jan, and I were watching the final event on a 6 inch screen behind a curtain in the production area. When Scotty said “Call this baby and it’s all over” the 3 of us started high fiving each other and jumping for joy because we knew he had the goods.
Winning $5000 was huge and so exciting for us. This is definitely my favorite poker bet story.
NOLAN REPLIES:
Thanks for sharing this, Linda. Great story!
— ND
Obviously hard to follow those two stories but here goes.
In the mid 1990’s, I lived and worked in Pensacola. When the casinos opened in Mississippi, my wife and I enjoyed going over with friends but I just could not handle betting against the house knowing it was a losing proposition. So I found poker.
I found a group called RPG on line where, as I later learned, the best minds in poker spent many hours talking poker strategy. I just read along never attempting to join in.
I then found a site that offered an online opportunity to play poker. As I understand, a person in North Carolina developed the program and provided the server. Players played by typing in DOS commands. Just play money which was replenished when you lost.
Then the boom in online poker occurred with many with sites available. All sites offered the opportunity to play for free and win real money. I would hop around these sites and managed to win small amounts of money on several including Poker Stars and Party Poker.
A new site called Poker Blue opened and I was playing there when they offered a freeroll to win a $10,000 entry into to a WPT or WSOP event plus $2500 expenses. There were 193 entries and I somehow won first place. At the time my only experience with live poker were a few sessions of 1-5 seven card stud. My wife and I decided we would love to go to Connecticut so I chose a WPT event at Foxwoods.
We drove up to Foxwoods where a person who I understood was from the Bicycle Casino bought my entry and left the ticket, a Poker Blue shirt and cap at the front desk of the hotel. The expense money was put in my online account where I lost some and the rest disappeared when the site closed.
A long intro to a short but memorable poker experience. I played about 5 hours of anxiety driven poker against players who actually knew how to play the game. I do remember that I lost half my stack when my AQ two pair lost to AK higher two pair and lost the other half when my flopped open ended straight flush did not hit.
My wife and I had a great week in Connecticut eating great food, visiting many places and watching players who I knew by reputation play great poker. We watched the final table where a kid from Long Island won. He has since become fairly well known to the poker world.
NOLAN REPLIES:
Great story, Tom. Thanks for sharing!
— ND