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#246 – London Journal #12 – Watch This
Late, late, late in the Shadow Bar last week, when Jennifer Harman and Thomas Bihl were heads-up, I found myself standing with Gary Thompson and a charming woman named Stacie. She was obviously connected with the tournament somehow, or she was some awesome kind of poker junkie because she was hanging around the tournament on a Sunday at 3:15 AM. She was, however, debating whether to stay to the end.
As Jennifer and Thomas came back from break, I suggested she stick around, confidently predicting the tournament would be over in 16 hands. Jennifer had a chip lead and I expected her to carve Bihl up in the next two games, Hold ‘Em and Omaha. They actually played those rounds as I expected, but Bihl won most of the pots and they played on almost another hour before Bihl won.
I saw her next to Gary again in the Shadow Bar tonight when they were down to 12 players, about an hour before the dinner break. “This time I’m going to get it right,” I told her. “I’m going to figure out what time they’ll finish and I’ll be right on the money.”
As we discussed the factors influencing the time play would end, I asked her for her connection to the event, so not to explain things she already knew. Gary introduced her fully. “This is Stacie Orloff. She’s the President of Corum USA.”
Corum now makes the World Series bracelets and is one of the world’s leading designers of mechanical timepieces. The bracelets have traditionally looked like little WWF Championship belts. I think there’s something appropriate about a World Series bracelet being gaudy, but I’ve seen Annie Duke’s 2004 bracelet in a cabinet and it looks like a license plate. The new bracelets are much more refined and stylish. There are a variety of opinions about them but I’ve yet to hear anyone put less than the highest possible priority on getting one, and that includes me.
If I hadn’t made an ass out of myself last week for getting Stacie to stick around for “16 hands” – which ended up being more like a hundred – I did now. I own two Corum Bubble watches, including the rare Zodiac. And it was the Corum gold-coin watch (which I’ve never gotten around to acquiring) that convinced me to collect watches to begin with. In fact, even though I own at least 20 mechanical watches, Stacie Orloff is, by far, the best contact I’ve ever had in the watch-manufacturing business.
All of which I told her, of course, in my very reserved fashion. I probably said “oh my god” and “coolest thing in the world” no more than two times (each expression).
She may not have realized how dopey I was behaving because at least I wasn’t talking about poker. We talked about the Bubble watches, the Admiral’s Cup watches, the classic gold coin watches (which they still make, so that goes back on the list), and she promised to help me find a better watchband for my Zodiac, which I rarely wear because it hangs off my girlie-wrist.
She told me to e-mail her about the watchband, which I will do after returning to the States. “Now I feel bad,” I told her, “because the only thing you know about me is that I can’t estimate time, and that’s not how I want to be remembered by a watch manufacturer.”
“Don’t worry Michael. I won’t hold it against you.”
I hope she means that, because I subscribe to the Claire Luce Booth adage, “No good deed goes unpunished.” I already have a very nice looking Corum pen, which I didn’t even have to steal because Clonie Gowen was nice enough to give it to me. I know I’m going to have to EARN one of those cool Corum WSOP bracelets but otherwise, we’ll see what I can get.
