Paddy's Corner

Two Suite Stories

A prominent Irish player took a suite in the Ritz during the Barcelona tournament of the European Poker Tour. He was watching the final of the EPT and got very unlucky, because he'd had a few drinks and then Tall Ed from Amsterdam won a huge pot in the Omaha cash game and very generously started sending around free drinks for everybody who was watching the tournament. And then Tall Ed very generously did it again; and again; and again. So, the Irish player finally made his way back to the Ritz and made it to his suite, but woke up the next morning about a yard away from the king-size bed, hung over and cold on the floor, and about to face a large bill for the privilege of sleeping in the room, to boot. Well, he's been claiming it was a bad beat, because had he taken a regular room, he would have made it to the bed, as the bed in a standard room is ever so much closer to the door.

That leads straight into another suite story, and this one happened during the EPT event in Dublin. Kevin O'Connell uncharacteristically took a huge suite at the Conrad Hotel, and lots of people were very impressed because he had a grand piano in the middle of his suite. So, we were having a few pints in the cellar bar of the Merrion Hotel and it was mentioned to Kevin that this might be a little extravagant, because neither he nor his suitemate could play the piano. But Kevin replied that he couldn't play Omaha, either, and that had never stopped him from sitting down in an Omaha game.

Bet on Betson
There have been lots of requests for more Alan Betson ­stories, and not necessarily all of them were from Alan Betson. One time, Alan was playing the pot-limit Omaha game at Binion's Horseshoe, and he is well-known for being at his funniest when things are at their worst. He had been playing all night and having a few drinks, and just couldn't get a break. There was an American at the table who didn't seem to be a good Omaha player, but did seem to be a lucky fellow, because he was winning all the chips. The more the American won, the more he talked. It seemed like the fellow didn't even want to play, but just wanted to talk, and it just got worse.

Alan was concentrating on trying to get his money back and staying awake, all at the same, time so he was studiously ignoring the American. But not even that could go right for Alan, as the guy came up with the amusing gambit that he'd never before seen the type of cigarette Alan was smoking. Alan grunted, signifying that this was the point where the discussion should terminate, but there was no chance of that. The American asked Alan where the cigarettes were from, and Alan decided to be as polite as possible under the circumstances and told the guy that they were made in Ireland. But this wasn't enough for the guy, he still wouldn't shut up. His next move was to say that he didn't know the Irish made anything. So, Alan just gave him a disdainful look and said, "We made enough Americans, didn't we?"

World Poker Steam?
Jac Arama appeared in Paris for what I think was the first outing of the World Poker Team. Jac Arama's abilities are amazingly less talented in cash games than they are in tournaments, and upon elimination from the Paris main event, he decided to get his money back by running all over the 200 game. Nobody has ever tried to run over the 200 game in Paris and gotten away with it, and this time, despite Jac's best efforts, it wasn't any different. But in true Jac Arama style, he didn't go down alone; he took two or three guys with him. One of the local players, Eti, was doing his best to play well. But Eti kept having to put a lot of money into pots, courtesy of Jac Arama, and wasn't having the luckiest of days. Finally, Eti looked at Jac's "World Poker Team" embossed shirt and politely pointed out that there was a spelling inaccuracy. They had left the "S" off the front of the word "Team."

Editor's note: Padraig Parkinson is well-known on the European poker scene, both for his poker prowess and sense of humour. He was but one bluff away from winning the 1999 World Series of Poker, but unfortunately got called. Padraig co-authored the manual The Secrets of Online Power Poker, available at www.winonpoker.com.