FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#118 – Fool in Paradise, Part VII – Charity Case, or Jamie Gold is Courting Disaster

Posted by Editor | Filed under Good causes, Jaime Gold, Jennifer Harman, Marissa, Matt Savage, Me in live tourneys, Robert Williamson III, Ted Forrest, Todd Brunson

The charity poker tournament itself started at 12:35 PM. We had 1,000 in chips and 20 minute levels. The tournament was designed to move fast because of the rebuy structure and the – oh, hell, it was for charity and we were playing for next to nothing. I was initially assigned to one of the cheap seats (a/k/a the main poker room) but got moved to table 60, seat 2 in the tournament room before the first hand.

To my right was Marissa, an accountant for several poker pros and a friend of Andy Bloch, Richard Brodie, Phil Gordon, and several other of my poker friends. She was very nice and, by the time I left Las Vegas, had promises for pre-production copies of the Full Tilt book from at least two people. With that resourcefulness, I’m sure she’s an excellent accountant.

Sitting to my left was a very attractive woman named Ashley. Ashley, who was every bit as nice as she was beautiful, is Jamie Gold’s girlfriend.

P.A. announcement: “Shawn Shiekhan is rebuying for the third time.”

I asked Ashley if she was going to play the Main Event this year. She clearly knew her way about the poker table – she said she met Jamie when he was getting serious about poker and she was playing herself – but she considered herself just a casual player.

“No, Jamie probably doesn’t want to waste the money. I’ll play the girl’s event.”

Not going to play? I don’t think Jamie Gold realizes what he’s messing with. Ashley is gorgeous and super nice, friendly, and smart. Winning the Main Event in 2006 and not buying your girlfriend in for 2007 is like buying her a toilet-scrubbing brush for a birthday gift.

It was even worse when Ashley mentioned that Jamie was going to buy his mom in.

Now I’m a big fan of motherhood. Of the five women I love most in the world, three are moms. But you must have enough money for both a mother and a girlfriend to play in the Main Event. If anyone knows the cost of not heading off a problem by putting someone in the Main Event, it ought to be Jamie Gold.

Jamie, please, I’m trying to help you on this. I have always told people they were being hasty in making you The Bad Guy. I’ve written that you got a raw deal in the way you were portrayed in the coverage over that lawsuit. But you don’t want to short Ashley on this one. If there was only one entry to the Main Event available and you had to choose between your mom and your girlfriend, I’d join you in telling Ashley, “Wait in the car, I’ll be just a sec Hon.” But if this relationship continues, and you someday have to explain to your WIFE how of course she’s more important than your mom, you don’t want this dangling out there was Exhibit A in her arsenal, more convenient (and more dangerous) than a frying pan to hit you over the head with.

Between (and sometimes during) hands, I tried to explain to Ashley the importance of calling Jamie out on this. “You HAVE to play. It is SO exciting. You have no idea how exciting the Main Event can be.”

I made a vow to Ashley and I’m a man of my word. I’m going to trash Jamie Gold without remorse until he buys Ashley into the Main Event.

P.A.: “Shawn Sheikhan has busted and is not rebuying. Chau Giang has given Shawn $200 to rebuy.”

“Can I shame him into it?” I asked. “How about if I gather a consortium to buy a piece of your action?”

“Maybe,” she said, probably wondering what sort of lunatic she had drawn to her table when all she thought she was doing was giving some money to charity.

Luckily for Ashley, she didn’t have to suffer for too long. I busted, rebought, and rebusted for good at 1:25 PM. I took some draws too far and couldn’t get people to lay down middle-strength hands. I was gone for good when my flush and straight draws failed to come in.

After I busted from the tournament, I stuck around for the live auction, which Robert Williamson III conducted as the tournament continued. The first item was a cowboy hat autographed by Doyle Brunson. I put in one of the early bids, while I was standing behind Ted Forrest, who was still in the tournament.

“How high are you willing to go Michael?”

“It was an impulse bid,” I told him. “How much have you got?”

“I don’t have very much on me.”

“Then I’m done bidding.”

Susie Lederer bought the hat for $1,600. Matt Savage, the tournament director, came by and jokingly said, “You’re hassling the players.” At least I think he was joking.

“That’s my job Matt. If I’m not hassling players, why am I even here?”

I saw Todd Brunson bust out and look disoriented. I thought maybe it was because he didn’t know there even was a “two in the afternoon.” We exchanged hellos. “I really screwed up,” he told me. “I wanted to bust out but I’m someone else’s ride and they’re still playing so now I have to wait around.”

They got a lot of items donated for the auction: snowboards signed by members of the U.S. Olympic Snowboarding Team, a guitar signed by Vince Neal of Motley Crue, a chance to shoot free throws with NBA legends Spud Webb and Rick Barry (Huck Seed should have been here to bid on that, some “charity juice” on the prop betting action alone would have exceeded the winning bid), and original art work from Frank Frisina and an another artist who would create an original portrait of your pet. (I wonder if she knew what she was getting into with poker players. As her services went up for bid, it morphed from one portrait with two animals to three and then four animals, and then two portraits, and finally three portraits. I didn’t catch her name but she was a great sport and raised $4,500.)

One of the last items up for bid was a pair of Robert Williamson III’s lucky socks. He started the bidding at $25. Alan Boston immediately bid $500. Robert, who took eons to close the bidding on most items, was dumbfounded. He briefly offered to take off his tie if someone would bid $1,000 – I told Boston that he should offer $1,000 if Robert would promise NOT to remove any more clothes – before Alan found himself the owner of a set of garish used footwear.

Karen Williamson, Robert’s sister and manager, and one of the nicest, sweetest people I have ever met – and, along with Robert’s wife Cate, the secret of his success – cornered the business angle: “Vince Neal’s guitar went for $1,300 and Robert’s socks went for $500. That’s all you need to know.”

So I learned several things from Jennifer’s tournament:

(1) Robert Williamson III’s socks are worth a fair chunk of change.

(2) Jennifer Harman pulls some serious weight in the poker world. I’m not even talking about raising more than $100,000 But getting 200 poker players to show up at 11 AM takes the kind of gravitas I would have previously assumed only Doyle Brunson possessed.
(3) Artists are suckers for animals, charities, and charities benefiting animals.

(4) Jamie Gold goes up in my estimation because of his wisdom in choosing Ashley as his girlfriend, but he goes down in my estimation because of his foolishness in not buying her into the Main Event.

(5) If I can impart any wisdom on playing in one of these events, it’s that you can’t bluff charity.

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