Bigger Deal

“If you start me up, I’ll never stop”

Ever wonder why Mick Jagger is still touring with Keith, Ronnie, and Charlie, dancing across stages around the world, and certainly stressing his 60+ year old bones? Remember, this guy is a legendary businessman – he probably has the money to buy W1 if he wanted to.

I thought about that as the fireworks glowed around the face of Glen Chorny, the new European Poker Tour  grand final champion. It was about 2:00 AM in Monte Carlo, and the last card of the tournament had been dealt just a scant few minutes prior. We’d gotten precious little sleep the night before and with the closing-up activities, the emotionally necessary gathering at the bar, and early morning flights awaiting, we stood to get less sleep that night than we’d gotten the night before.

I stood there and thought, “Man, I’m going to miss this.” More about that in a second.

You get tired of the airplane seats and realizing that you know the safety briefing as well as the flight attendant does. The border control officer can’t find an empty place to stamp your passport [1] and you long to wake up and be 100% sure, even groggy, what town you’re in.

But you never ever tire of walking into that hotel – maybe a hotel you’ve walked into last year and/or the year before – and having PokerStars Swedish blogger Lina Olofsson throw her arms around you in welcome. Or receive warm handshakes from Sunset+Vine cameramen Dave and Liam.

You get re-energized when you see the smiling faces of the players. Some old veterans and many – you can always spot them – first-timers. They know that they’ll start the tournament tomorrow with the same number of chips as Patrik Antonius and Daniel Negreanu. That if they get kings and Luca Pagano gets queens that they beat him 80% of the time. [2]

But what you most love is the thrill when the tournament director says, “Shuffle up and deal!” That moment when the cacophony of hundreds of nervous conversations is replaced with the rural night quiet of chip-cicadas riffling.

Yeah, I know why Mick does it. Because there’s nothing like putting on a great show for an appreciative audience. Like getting a high-five from Antonio Esfandiari or Marc “Randall” Flowers teaching me the patented (and extremely secret) “Rand-all-in handshake”. We put smiles on people’s faces, joy in their hearts, and adrenaline in their bloodstreams. We rock the European poker world, and I’m proud to be part of the band.

Well, “to have been part of the band.”

See, I’m stepping down, just like Bill Wyman did. It has nothing to do with the EPT, believe me. It’s just that it was time to go back to the United States. Lisa and I, we’ve got a new house in Asheville, North Carolina, in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She’s going to teach singing and I’m going to play bluegrass music and go fly fishing for trout.

Oh, and be the COO of Cardrunners.com. Come on over and check us out.

It’s time for us to be back in the States and I just couldn’t justify living in the U.S. and working in Europe. Which isn’t to say I didn’t try. But the Cardrunners opportunity came along and was too exciting to turn down. You can follow the twists and turns of my career over there.

First, though, I have to stop, put down the electric bass, and salute my bandmates:

From the PokerStars crew: Marta, Hilda, [3] Tori, Conrad, Jeanne, Andrew, Louise, Chris, Tricia the bag lady, Laura, and a million more who showed up off and on for various events.

The video and TV people: Nikki, Reshi, Francine, Marc, James, Chris, Lawrence, the SikTilt  guys, Kara “One shot” Scott, John, Vlatka, Dave, Liam, Matty, Dan, Dan, and more than I could possibly name.

The bloggers and photographers: Mad, [4] Stephen, Neil, Mickey, Lina, Howard, Klaus. They bring the buzz to the outside world and that brings the players, and that, as I constantly remind people, means that we don’t have to do real w*rk for a living. The bloggers are my heroes. [5]

The dealers and floor people: Neil, Steve, Allen, Peter, Charlie, Charley, Gabi, the names go on forever, but without them, we have no show. A tip of the hat and a fiver, with appreciation, from the wallet.

Of course, the Rolling Stones without Mick are just another band. And the EPT without John Duthie is, well, nothing. I can’t describe how much I’ve learned from watching this man work. He is a living, breathing eye of a hurricane. He can walk into a scene of total chaos and suddenly there is calm. “Ah, John is here,” people say. “Certainly, all will be well now,” is the unspoken follow-up. I have also been deeply privileged to hear many of his stories. They are delivered in understatement, with cigarette smoke and cappuccino steam side dishes, John’s grey eyes dancing with merriment at his own high jinx. The “Tale of Jennifer Bidgood”, recounted in the restaurant at the Monte Carlo Bay, had half a dozen of us breathless with laughter, eyes watering. John had effortlessly transported us to his adolescent world, played the fool without shame, and gave all of us a few moments of absolute joy and glee. It has been my great honor and privilege to work for him. And greater honor to call him my friend.

Finally, a concert is really about the audience. And an EPT event is really about the players. It is you folks who create these events and give them their positive vibe. You give the game your energy, your concentration, and your determination. You suffer hideous mind-numbing bad beats and yet, with few exceptions, smile through the tears and shake hands with the person who busted you. And, bless your hearts, you always had a smile and a good word for me when we’d cross paths at the venue, on the street of an EPT host city, or in an airport concourse. All of you are, indeed, the core of the EPT family, and I hope that I’ll be welcome at family reunions in the future.

I do need to single out one group from the players for specific mention:

There is a (rapidly growing) group of North American players who are coming over to play in EPT events. Some of them are here because the United States government, in its wisdom, judges it appropriate for 18-year-olds to dodge IEDs in Baghdad but not play at a game of skill and chance for money. [6] Many of them, even past the age of 21, have discovered the ineffable joy that the EPT has – a camaraderie and spirit completely alien to any WPT or WSOP event. But for whatever reason, they endure trans-Atlantic flights, show up completely jet-lagged, but still hold their own against Europe’s best. [7] So Brandon, charder, timex, ch0ppy, daut44, tnetter, randallin, weaktight, RickyF, Dave Robinson, KenH, Martine23, TommyC, shaundeeb, BillE, JoeS: this one is for you. Thank you for the smiles, the handshakes, and the American accents that remind me of home.

Finally, as part of all this, I am also leaving Bigger Deal. I will be doing my blogging with Cardrunners and I’m delighted to say that I go with Tony Holden’s good wishes and blessings. I pretty much can’t believe that my name was in the masthead alongside names such as Holden, Alvarez, and Alson. They are real Writers, and I’m just a pretender to that title. But I was wildly proud to be in that group nonetheless.

I leave you with one image that sums it up: on the penultimate day of the Monte Carlo event, I walked through the media area. There sat Annette Obrestad and Tim Vance, the fellow from St. Louis who won the Copenhagen event. Annette was teaching Tim to play Chinese poker. But not for money (yet, anyway). It could have been a vignette from any family reunion. “This,” I mused, “is what makes the EPT what it is.”

So, as Mick would say at the end of the show, good night, Monte Carlo. It’s been an amazing tour. I won’t be on the tour next year, but I do plan to return to be in the “audience”, at least once.

[1] This is an exaggeration – if you don’t have any empty places in your passport to stamp, they won’t let you in. But I did have to go to the American embassy to get extra visa stamp pages put in. Back

[2] Well, not necessarily. Luca hasn’t set the record for EPT cashes by routinely getting all-in with queens preflop when the money is deep. Back

[3] You have absolutely no concept of the work it takes to pull off an event the size of any EPT tournament, and Monte Carlo is three times more complex than any of them. Marta Salvado and Hilda Bramley don’t let a single detail fall through the cracks. They are up early and to bed late. And they still look fabulous at breakfast every morning. If John Duthie is the heart of the EPT, then Marta and Hilda are the brains, and I am in awe of both of them. Back

[4] I could write a paragraph about Mad Harper, but the European poker world has already got it figured out what a gem she is. Suffice it to say that nobody – nobody – works harder for the EPT and getting its message out. Madeleine, I will miss you awfully. Back 

[5] You didn’t think I was going to forget Brad “Otis” Willis, did you? Brad gets his own paragraph. Look, he not only invented the PokerStars blog, but he has set a standard for its quality – its literacy, if you will – that’s matched by no other poker blog of which I’m aware. Brad’s writing goes far beyond chip counts and showdowns, transporting the reader to the venue; you can hear the chip riffles. Brad has endured obscene hours, month-long stints in Las Vegas away from his family, hungover bus rides through Italy, and even unappreciative bosses in his determination to bring his stories of the poker tournament world to your laptop screen. I was responsible for getting Brad hired to do the first PokerStars blog at the PCA four years ago. One of the best things I ever did. Otis, the next eight or ten times we get together, the cold beer is on me. Back

[6] I shudder to think what this says about the values of the current U.S. administration. Back

[7] It is with more than a little pride that I note that the EPT Championship trophy has headed back west across the Atlantic the past three straight years. Back