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This image is time-stamped in my notes at 12:57 AM. The communal cards in the center are 7s-Js-Td. Howard Lederer, with a chip stack of more than 600,000, leans forward in his chair, his face impassive. Ivo Donev has only a small stack of blue chips remaining and he jingles them in one hand.
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The players have vacated the table. Only their stacks - both their armor and their ammunition - mark their places.
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Howard Lederer, elegantly collecting his cards in Razz, flips them face down, and slides them, as one, to the dealer. There’s a certain look on his face - tired, resigned. Not disgusted or discouraged, but like he’s communicating, “I’ve got nothing … again,” as if that’s been the case thousands of times. And it has.
My notes of the final taqble, 58 pages covering 4 3/4 hours and 144 hands of short-handed poker, are mostly useless gibberish to me now. But among the wreckage are several jarring images - like photographs that look innocuous, until you learn the context.
It was a serpentine road that led me to this final table, even as an observer. as you know, I had played this event, and busted late on Monday night. I thought my effort was a valiant one, and unrewarded until I saw the coverage on Pokernews.com.
Wednesday night, in which they played the final table of the HORSE, was a proud night for Full Tilt, even if it didn’t have a happy ending. The first thing I noticed was the women. as we waited for the HORSE final four players to return from the dinner break (and for the PLO event to restart), the three hottest women in the Empire were former Pokerwire.com girls, all connected with Full Tilt in one or more ways.
My friend Melissa, the photographer whose boyfriend is Allen Cunningham, asked me to help her get together with Al Alvarez, famous English author, poet, and critic, and legendary in poker for writing THE BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN, the best book ever written about poker. I met Al last year through our mutual good friend Tony Holden (himself a famous English author, opera critic, and poker legend for penning BIG DEAL and, in 2007, BIGGER DEAL). I heard his health had declined but it was magical meeting him then. At 5′6″ and slightly stooped, I thought him a giant.
I thought I was done with WSOP-E but I decided to consider playing the Main Event, which starts on Saturday. Apparently, Full Tilt will buy me in if I reimburse them. Since I’m hoping they loan me the start-up money for the PayLamb thing, I figure I can just pay them back immediately from that loan (unless I finish in the money in the Main Event).
This was written Wednesday, September 24, in the late-morning, as I’m about to meet Melissa, Al Alvarez, and Tony Holden. I didn’t get a chance to post about my encounter with Swiss banking on Tuesday, so, as fast as I can summarize it, here is what happened:
After getting eliminated from the HORSE on Monday night, I decided to go to Switzerland on Tuesday to see if PayLamb and I needed some help from the legendary Swiss banking business. I wasn’t sure whether to go to Zurich or Geneva but the airfare to Geneva was slightly cheaper and it was more likely to rain Tuesday in Zurich.
I’m writing this in the Geneva airport. I’m on the way back to London from a day-trip to Switzerland to immerse myself in the culture of Swiss banking. I busted out of the HORSE event at WSOP-E just before midnight on Monday. What an experience that was!
