Howard Lederer finished runner-up on Friday night in London to Jani Vilmunen in WSOP-E’s £5,000 PLO. I know how Howard has been burning to win another World Series bracelet. He’s beyond needing the money or even the recognition. Because I’ve watched him at close quarters for five years, I’ve concluded that there is only one person to whom he feels a need to prove something: himself. And he has set the bar high for self-satisfaction.
I get asked all the time to play in private tournaments on Full Tilt. I try to say yes as much as I can – as a worthy ambassador of the site and because I host private tournaments for charity (the next one is coming in November) – but I get asked so often that I have to say no more than I say yes.
But on this particular occasion, Dom from ThePotKings.com asked if I could play in his group’s 6-handed knock-out tournament and I agreed. I didn’t have plans to leave my office soon, I wasn’t in a lot of tournaments, and I had some plans to play later but not where I couldn’t juggle my other tournament obligations with this private tournament.
From my house in Scottsdale, Arizona – from my office on the north side of the house to be exact – it is 5,258 miles, 4,060 feet, and 4 inches to the south entrance of Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, London, England. (If you are reading this from outside the United States, that’s 8,463.168 kilometers. By the way, if you are from one of the 180 or so countries that relies on the metric system, leave a comment or email me at mrchaotic@aol.com. I am sitting here, 8,000 kilos from the action because Full Tilt doesn’t believe you exist in sufficient numbers.) Thanks to the internet and sites like Google Maps Distance Calculator, the world can seem like a small place. But right now, with the third World Series of Poker-Europe underway, the world seems as large as it was to peasants during the Middle Ages who thought if you traveled too far you would sail off the edge of the earth into The Abyss, or, worse, into the jaws of The Dragon.
I recently received an e-mail from a Full Tilt player named Greg telling me that he and his wife had been watching me play on Full Tilt for several days. They said they enjoyed it, but were disappointed that they never got to see my cards “when you call on the river.” He wanted to know if that was “standard for the pros, so we will not know what you called with.” He was hoping to learn from my playing.
I emailed him back to explain that was not the case and how seeing cards at showdown worked, live and online. Our exchange brought up some useful points that I thought would be worth describing here.
Steve Zolotow hosted a mini-FTOPS event several days ago. I monitored his Pro Chat and asked three questions early. I expected him to be smart, witty, and irreverent. I was not disappointed.
He answered questions for several hours, longer than I lasted in the tournament. What follows are my questions and Steve’s answers, along with a sampling of other subjects from the chat.
PART I.A. – WHO LIVES HERE?
As enclaves to people with money, Scottsdale and Las Vegas have much in common. The first refugees from the East to civilize both places built homes that would not look out of place on the Main Line or Greenwich or Lincoln Park. For trees, grass and topiary, they made only modest compromises with the desert. The emphasis was on Big, Tall, and Lush. Everything had to be very Green, and there were some big palm trees tossed into the mix. Later transplants to both towns embraced the desert instead of trying to keep it at bay. The homes still had to be big, but red bricks and peaked roofs gradually disappeared. Saguaro and other native desert cacti and plants gradually overtook grass, both architecturally and environmentally.
I would never want to say who has been my most valuable contact in poker. The book, articles, and blogs I’ve written, and the poker lessons I’ve learned, have come from my good fortune in making many wonderful friends inside poker. But the list of finalists would have to include Ted Forrest. His generous cooperation made SUICIDE KING a success. In the four years since, Ted has unselfishly shared numerous details of his private life (for your eventual entertainment).
Sorry my blog entries have been so sporadic over the last few weeks. It seems everybody, including me, has been on summer vacation. It appears that, though I will be covering the November Nine, I am not in Cyprus for the WPT event and I am probably not going to London. I will be discussing the status and future plans for the blog – that include a number of new and exciting changes – with Uncle Tilty, as soon as later this week.
In the meantime, this limbo has given me the unexpected luxury of free time at home with my family. Instead of the international flights and intrigue of the last two years, I got to enjoy a cigar with my son Barry in the backyard last night.
You MUST watch Lady GaGa’s live acoustic version on AOL of “Poker Face.” I rarely recommend things in this space – other than playing more poker on Full Tilt – so I have to be certain something is really great or really awful before I give it The Full Tilt Poker Blog Seal of Approval (TFTPBSoA).
But this is worth it.
