question when I would come home from school with a bad beat story. I
can’t remember any specific beats that were put on me, maybe a
teacher thought she saw me smoking and I got suspended or maybe I
got an F in a class when I was sure I deserved to get a good solid D.
My mom always started with the same statement, “your dad’s going to
kill you.” I knew she was exaggerating. My dad always stopped short
of killing me. Mom’s follow up was always a question. It was also
always the same. She would ask me if I had learned anything from the
experience. Usually my answer was yeah, I learned you get a bad
grade if the teacher doesn’t like you, or the teacher uses this curve
method of grading which everyone knows is unfair.
My mom, and her often asked question, came to mind the other day as I
was eliminated from the Inaugural Tournament of Champions event. I
could almost hear her ask “well did you learn anything from this
experience?” I thought about it for awhile and finally almost like I was a
kid again I started recounting to myself what I Had learned from the
Orleans and the T.O.C.
The first thing I learned, or actually just confirmed what I have always
suspected, was that with some glitz and showmanship, poker
tournaments can be fun. Congratulations to Mike and Tom Sexton and
Chuck Humphrey they added a lot of new wrinkles and put some real
showmanship into their tournament. They uplifted the image of poker
through there exhibits chroniclizing the careers of several top players
plus they had many other articles of poker memorabilia . They actually
succeeded in glamorizing tournament poker. I got a good feeling going
through their museum. There were pictures of all the top players that
have played over the years and as I walked through I felt proud to be a
part of it. Great job, gentlemen. You made the T.O.C. the type of event
that people enjoyed and I’m sure they will look forward to coming to in
future years. Others who promote poker tournaments hopefully will
learn something and realize that they must add some glitz, gimmicks or
whatever it takes. To borrow from and old movie “Dress it up, make it
fun and they will come.”
The second thing I learned was that you can play nine handed Seven
Card Stud in a tournament without using community cards. The
tournament was a day and a half old when I was eliminated and to best
of my knowledge there was not one instance of that feared problem of
having to use cards that had been in someone's hand.
The third thing I learned was that if you sit next to Cowboy Wolford in a
tournament and you can get him to telling about the old days in Vegas
with Benny Binion and his other old pals you are in store for a treat. If I
were a writer, a real writer, I’d corner Mr Wolford and he and I would
write a Rodeo/poker/life book that would entertain a big cross section of
people. The Cardplayer just finished a three-part interview with
Cowboy, but that didn’t even scratch the surface.
I also learned that if you have a cocktail party for poker players and their
wife’s put it in a nice setting, throw in free cocktails, add some nice
music to dance to, only eleven poker players out of 400 will get out and
dance.
The last thing I learned, and maybe the best, was in Las Vegas in the
summer if you don’t eat all your pizza and put part of it in a box, then
forget it and leave it in your car. Two days later it will still be warm and
won’t taste all that bad.
For what it's worth ...
