Poker Games at the 'Wolf's Den'

Back in my poker-playing days in Madison, Wisconsin, there were regular $5-$10 limit poker games Tuesdays and Thursdays at Wayne Wolf's place. Wayne Wolf originally ran the Sportsmen's Club in Madison, and he took his members on a bus trip to hunt in Northern Wisconsin twice a year. In the beginning it was all about the Sportsmen's Club, but over time it became all about running a poker game. At first, Wayne kept up the Sportsmen's Club image with stuffed animal heads decorating the walls, but eventually they were permanently removed and an old green felt poker table was put in the room. When he started in the business, Wayne made his money from the dues paid by the Sportsmen's Club members, but as poker became his future, his primary source of income became the rake from our regular games. The Wolf's Den, an old, green, rundown three-bedroom house, was open 24 hours a day, and Wayne began to run his poker games five days a week.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, we had another regular game at a local bar. If at "bar time" we players wanted to continue to play poker, we went over to the Wolf's Den and continued our poker game at 1 a.m. If a player ran into some hard times, he actually lived with Wayne Wolf at the Wolf's Den. Sometimes the Wolf's Den had two or three people other than Wayne living there. The poker game was never shorthanded with so many poker players living there.

I have fond memories of playing poker at the Wolf's Den. I always liked Wayne, and he was always nice to me. While the other games had strict rules designed to pull me away from my family at dinnertime, Wayne didn't care when you showed up to play in his game. One game had a rule that you had to show up at 7 p.m. in order to have a seat. I wound up missing that game quite a bit. On the other hand, Wayne's poker games started at 2 p.m., but I usually showed up at 10 p.m. after putting my wife and kids to bed. Of course, I usually woke up at 1 p.m., so I was pretty fresh for the late-night poker game. Believe me, being fresh didn't hurt my overall results in the late-night Wolf's Den poker games.

With a group of more than 40 players rotating in and out of the game, there was always action in Madison. In fact, our annual Super Bowl poker tournament, which we held on Super Bowl Sunday, always drew at least 35 players. Players like Tuli Haromy, Gary Miller, "Big Al" Emerson, Dewey Weum, Wayne "Tilly" Tyler, Tommy Hun, Chad "I had" Blackburn, Tommy Sperel, Denny Ruff, Morgan Machina, Matt Cooney, Laura Betty "Boop," and Jerry frequently were involved in the poker games.

Sometimes the games at the Wolf's Den were low-stakes and sometimes they were high-stakes. One memorable occasion for me was the night we were playing pot-limit hold'em with $5-$5 blinds and I set the record loss for any poker game ever held in Madison – more than $20,000! "Big Al" Emerson, Matt Cooney, and I were playing that night at the Wolf's Den. I remember that I was ahead about $2,500, Matt was winning about the same, and until Matt started loaning Big Al more money ($1,000 more, but $500 at a time), Big Al was out of money and credit. In fact, we were about to quit when Matt offered Big Al $500 more of credit. Then, things began to change, and as I hit the "break even" mark for the night, I began a classic Phil Hellmuth meltdown. Break even felt like a $2,500 loser to me, and I started to tilt because we had almost quit and I was all the way back down to even. Later, "even" looked pretty darn good to me, that's for sure! A couple of hours after Matt had extended Big Al $500 more in credit, Matt was out of money and out of credit from both Al and me. To be sure, Big Al had given Matt a lot more credit than Matt had given Big Al, but enough was enough. When Matt dropped out of the game, I was more than a $7,000 loser! Imagine Big Al almost quitting broke, and three hours later he had more than $12,000 in chips in front of him, and a stack of markers, as well! Unfortunately for me, Big Al was willing to give me as much credit as I wanted! I remember that I deserved to lose what I lost that night (more than $20,000). I also remember trying to bluff Big Al off his four of a kind, not a very good time to try to bluff a guy! And I remember being very depressed after I quit and drove home. Oh well, stuff happens. Despite this bad night that is still fresh in my mind after all of this time, I still have fond memories of the Wolf's Den and all of the players from Madison, Wisconsin.

I hope you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.

Editor's note: Phil Hellmuth can often be found giving poker demonstrations at www.ultimatebet.com. To learn more about Phil, go to www.philhellmuth.com.