Padraig Parkinson: You Can Still Have a Laugh...

… if you’re not wearing headphones!

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Now and again, a bit of fun breaks out in the middle of the serious business that is the WSOP and reminds people of how great a game it can be if you let it. One of the best stories so far this year involved Sam Grizzle, which isn’t the biggest surprise of all time.

Sam called the floorman during the razz event and complained that another player had used the F word. The player defended himself by saying that his only crime had been to ask Sam “who the fuck had given him 2500 bucks to play Razz”! The floorman ruled that this was quite a reasonable question and in no way abusive. Everyone laughed and got on with the game. A blast from the past.

Now, Sam isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. He’s rarely pc but I’ve got to admit he makes me laugh. He’s liable to ask some guy he’s just won a pot from if he’s just arrived off the sucker shuttle or pull in a big pot with no showdown and tell the dealer he’d love to tip him but he didn’t give him the best hand. Great craic if you’re not the victim!

We were telling Sam stories one night in the Rio. Mike Sexton’s entry won the competition. He told us about a game years ago in which Sam was being staked by a guy who was also playing in the game. This is a very bad situation for a stakehorse as the usual fairytales have to be kept for another day but Sam has his own way of conducting business. He lost all his stack on a bluff. His backer wasn’t too pleased. These days guys would start going on about ranges and fold equity and shit like that but Sam just said “You play your money whatever way you like and I’ll play your money whatever way I like.”

I was playing with Carlos Mortensen and Gavin Smith the other day. They were both splashing about as usual. After one pot, Gavin shook his head and said “You’re just like me, Carlos. You might often go to bed broke, but you never go to bed curious!” Typical from another guy who just makes me laugh.

An Irishman, an Englishman and a Scotsman were playing PLO on Saturday night. Sounds like the start of a Devilfish joke but it’s not. The English guy says to Scott Gray, “I suppose you’ll be rooting for Italy tomorrow.” “Certainly not”, said Scott. “We always root for England. We love teams that never win anything.” The Scotsman nearly choked.