Devilfish Gives A Hilo Lesson And A Fawlty Towers Moment

If you like your poker hardcore, you’d have loved the recent omaha high roller tournament in Dublin’s Regency Hotel. It was the day after France obligingly missed a last minute chip shot to hand the Rugby 6 Nations Championship to Ireland at England’s expense (God bless the French. They know their history) and the day before Paddy’s Day. Ouch!

The trip started quietly enough. I had lunch with Ken Doherty. He told me he had been commentating in England on the Snooker Masters event. On an evening off, he and fellow snooker legend John Virgo went to a fish and chip restaurant for dinner. No expense spared with these guys! During dinner, they noticed that a guy at a nearby table kept looking over at them. Eventually, the guy came over, apologised for interrupting them and told them he was a huge snooker fan and had followed both their careers over many years. The snooker guys could teach a lot of poker players how to be the best in the business at talking to fans so they were chatting away for quite a while before Ken asked the guy what he did for a living. He said he was a drummer in a band. Ken asked “What kind of band?”. “Iron Maiden” he replied!

In the hotel bar, a couple of guys asked me if I had any Devilfish stories. I told them about a late night dealers choice cash game in the Aviation Club. The Fish and I were sitting beside each other and both losing. I don’t like losing as a rule but on the plus side the Fish, like a lot of funny poker players, is at his entertaining best when he is behind. Frenchman Paul Testud was in the game. Devilfish kept calling him Fred because of his uncanny resemblance to serial killer Fred West. Paul just smiled at the Fish every now and again as A) he was winning B) he hadn’t a clue who Fred West was and C) he spoke even less English than the Fish. After a while, on Paul’s button he chose PLO HiLo as his weapon of choice. The Fish raised, Paul reraised, the Fish raised again and they got it all in preflop. I took a peek at Dave’s hand. He had KT84 (3 diamonds!). I couldn’t help myself, I burst out laughing. Paul scooped the pot. Devilfish kept a straight face as he looked at me and said “I didn’t know it was hilo”. Comic genius!

After a great couple of days of great craic, I went to check out of the hotel. While I was doing so, a German guy barged in front of me and started to shout at the very nice girl I was dealing with. Apparently, he was annoyed because he couldn’t check in until 3 pm as there were no rooms available yet. I politely told him that the girl was dealing with me and that he would have to wait in line if he wanted to shout at her. He pulled back a bit and I resumed my business. I told the girl that, as Id been showering that morning, the water had suddenly turned a dirty brown colour. She asked if I thought she should send a maintenance guy to investigate! Only in Ireland. I laughed and told her I didn’t really care what she did. That was a huge mistake. As I walked away and the German guy started shouting again I realised that I should have suggested she give him my room!