The Art Of The Wind Up

A few years back, I watched Frank Bruno fight Bonecrusher Smith. Bruno won every round, except the last. One punch settled that one. And the fight. A live poker game can be a bit like a boxing match. Scoring points is fine, but if you can’t take a big punch and get up off the floor, forget about it. A few years ago Jeff Duvall and I were playing in a big game in Paris every day. He told me there was an Irish guy in the smaller game in the corner. I looked over and guessed it might be the redhaired guy. I’m pretty smart like that. The next night, I was walking through the bar where the redhaired guy introduced himself. Said his name was Rory. He didn’t introduce his two friends but that was ok. I already knew what two bottles of Heineken looked like. A couple of hours later, the seat beside me in the big game became available. Rory appeared at great speed to claim it. He had a big tray of chips which were in danger of hitting the floor. On the plus side, he had a beer that looked to be in absolutely no danger of being spilt. Definitely Irish. He was pretty busy. What with playing nearly every pot and chirping away. And keeping the waiter on his toes. A big pot of London Lowball kicked off. Jeff had what looked like a pretty hand. Rory’s looked pretty ugly from start to finish but he was calling every bet with tremendous gusto. After the last card had been dealt Jeff bet the pot and Rory called without even looking at his hand. He won and dragged in the biggest pot of the week looking like a champion. Jeff took it well and just smiled at me. The game ended shortly afterwards. The next day Jeff told me Rory had approached him at the cash desk and politely asked him which French bank he should open an account in as he had a little extra cash he didn’t want to be carrying around! This would’ve been enough to tilt a lot of guys. Not Jeff. He’s got a tougher jaw than Bruno.

I was in Dublin for D4s ACOP. It was a bunch of fun. Maybe the pros have forgotten how much craic can be had playing the game but this lot haven’t. The bar wasn’t bad either. Barny Gribben was telling us he’d recently taking up shooting as a hobby and was taking lessons. He seemed to think the instructor was going on a bit telling him over and over again not to put his hand in front of the barrel of the gun. Then he noticed the guy was missing two fingers on one hand. I guess poker players would stop making the same mistakes again and again if the penalty was a bit more punitive. I would for sure!