Iggy, Maudie and Tuscaloosa Slick

Sitting here at the “cyber café” outside the tournament area in the Gold Strike while a group of men that includes Minh Nguyen (also known at the “other” M. Nguyen) is talking loudly in Vietnamese. Trying to overcome a slight hangover from Saturday night and the humility of losing to Iggy in Roshambo.

Dependence on the rock can kill your game, believe me.

I’ve been hanging out with Iggy, a.k.a. Tom, a.k.a. Ignatious J. Riley, a.k.a. Travis Tritt and Maudie (whose blog I have not read, a fact I am ashamed of) most of the weekend.

(Note: This “cyber spot” is in the smoker’s area and damn if David Pham and Andrew Black didn’t just walk up and pollute my space. Get your damn smoke away from me.)

Anyway, Tom and Maudie, what cool folks. Tom actually is not at all what I thought he would look or be like. Despite his online persona, I expected a guy not quite as extroverted and straighter laced in person. After all, you find that a lot of writers are introverted and use writing as a means to express themselves in a way they can’t in public.

I actually had to wake up early yesterday and drive to Oxford for a basketball game. (Got to pay the bills somehow when the cards aren’t running well.) I hooked up with those two when I came back and we hopped in a $65 satellite. Tom and I ended up heads up after I laid the hammer on a guy to steal his big blind (I had him dominated. He had 5-2) and then put him out a couple of hands later.

Tom put the moves on my blind a few times when I had nothing and then I started stealing with junk since I wasn’t getting anything and pulled even. We finally went all in with hands I don’t recall. I do remember I had an ace and paired it. He still got $200 from a save we did.

We joined Maudie in a 4-8 game and pretty much ran everyone off with out goofiness. Tom was playing hands in the dark (and beating me), while I was raising with 6-2, otherwise known as the “Tuscaloosa” Johnny slick. Tom managed to crack both my A-A and K-K and killed any chance of profit I had in the game.

Best out of context Iggy line of the night: “I’d put on a skirt and walk around.”

With the action spread between the Gold Strike and the Horseshoe, the tournaments don’t have the same feel this year. All of the action at the Gold Strike is NLHE and the tournaments are only drawing 200 or less each day. Most of the good cash games are over here and it is hard to get a seat as usual. Action at the Grand has slowed up considerably since the World Poker Open started at the Gold Strike.

(Aside: Smokers have it bad. They have to leave their table every few minutes to come out here and take a few drags and POLLUTE MY SPACE. Fuckers. I’ve smoked a few cigarettes myself, for shits and giggles. I don’t see what the big deal is.)

Still not a lot of big names around. I mentioned half of those here already in this post. I’ll try to chat with a few in the next couple of weeks – if they can stop smoking long enough.