My Favorite Moments in the Lounge

The Full Tilt lounge is poker’s equivalent of a football locker room. It’s where the Full Tilt players go to relax during breaks in play. Some recharge their iPods. Others flop themselves upon one of the long couches and close their eyes, if only to block out the noisy chaotic casino environment for a second or two. While hanging out in the lounge, I have observed some priceless moments. Here are my favorites:

Before the start of the second day of the $50,000 HORSE event Gavin Smith and Layne Flack passed the time playing Chinese poker. While Gavin likes to pretend that he’s a bit out of it, in reality he always knows exactly what’s going on at all times. On this occasion he was reciting the size of the average chip stack and how many big blinds that equated to. T.J. Cloutier entered the room and said, “It’s going to be a long day. I bet it goes until six in the morning.”
Gavin’s ears perked up like a wolf sensing prey. “I’ll take the under on that.”
T.J. passed on taking the bet.
“What,” said Gavin. “You’ll throw money on the bones, but you won’t bet on something you know about?”

During another break a reporter from Bluff Magazine asked Erick Lindgren to play a word association game. Erick was supposed to say the first word that same to his mind each time the reporter mentioned a person, place, or thing.
“Stuey Ungar,” the reporter said.
“Drugs,” responded Erick.
“Downtown Las Vegas.”
“Drugs.”
“Harrah’s.”
“Drugs.”

During a break the other day Gavin Smith bet John Juanda he couldn’t throw an empty Airborne container into a trash can from fifteen feet away at 3-1 odds. Juanda lined it up and practiced his forward arm motion. He looked about the way he does when he’s thinking about reraising someone all in. When he tossed the container into the air, you could tell it was good the moment it left his hand. He turned to Gavin. “Nothing but….” He wanted to say “net,” but substituted “trash” at the last second.
“Man, I just lost $1,200,” Gavin said. “I got to go make some money.” And he returned to the tournament room.