Dead Money, Dead Players, and a Lucky Guess

The unemployment figures over here look pretty depressing but I think they may be way worse than even the experts think. During the first break of the $2,500 hold’em/Omaha tournament, I mentioned to Neil Channing that I strongly suspected that none of the players at my table had a job. Channing told me that he’d be amazed if any one at his table had worked a day in their lives.

There may be a little light at the end of the tunnel and I would strongly suggest that Ben Grundy should be put in charge. He got into town and immediately lost a 100,000 online as he was waiting around to play the tournament. Despite having a stack that was five times the average by the first break, he still considered himself dead money and really didn’t want to be there. He was wrong and showed what a good player he is by finishing third in the event, and got all his money back less a few hundred dollars. There is hope for the world.

A couple of days later, I bumped into legendary tournament director Jack McClelland in the Rio. I’m very wary when I’m talking to Jack because he nailed me beautifully at the first Poker Million in the Isle of Man. I was one of the chip leaders and said to Jack that I’d like to compliment him on how well the tournament was run. He thanked me, but I told him that that was unnecessary as I only said that I’d like to compliment him.

Twenty-four hours later, after I’d busted out, Jack told me that he’d like to congratulate me on making the money, but as I hadn’t, he couldn’t. Jack made it through to day 2 of the $1,500 seven stud this year and said this was his favourite WSOP event because the average age of the players was “deceased”! He didn’t win anyway, so maybe I should get the “I’d like to congratulate you” thing going again. It’s never too late to get even.

I was talking to Scof the other day. Scof was part of the furniture in the days when the WSOP was in Binion’s. His preferred item of furniture was the bar stool, though he did work the floor every now and again. On one famous occasion, he was called over to a short-handed game that was well into its second day. The dealer had the deck in his hand but was refusing to deal and told Scof that one of the players had called him an asshole. Scof took a look around the table and from experience knew that the players concerned had no history of dealer abuse, so he said to the dealer, “You have to understand that these guys have been playing for more than 24 hours and are probably quite tired by now, so if one of them called you an asshole, it was probably just a lucky guess.”