Day Four: $1000 O8, An Attitude Adjustment

On Thursday, the Omaha 8 event, Brian showed up late. He had supposedly stormed out of a meeting on Wednesday evening regarding his behavior. Although the source who told me this, Louis, was in the meeting, I have somehow come to doubt that this really was the case. If I were a poker room manager, and one of my employees stormed out of a meeting before I was finished with him, would he really be allowed to return to work the next day?

At any rate, according to Brian his blood pressure went through the roof overnight, and his nose started to bleed. He was unable to stop the bleeding and had to go to the ER. His blood pressure extremely dangerous, and he was told to go home, but he came to work anyway. This is all Brian's account of events.

Whatever happened, Brian had a slightly better attitude on Thursday. Maybe it is because we were all catering to him, running errands so that he wouldn't have to walk all over the casino, making sure he took his blood pressure medicine and drank tons of bottled water.

In an act completely unlike Brian, he allowed the players to choose what kind of payout they would like. Yes, I was stunned. Yes, so were the 38 players who showed up. I think even Max cut Brian a little slack after that generous move.

Players signed their names to whatever payout they wished, and then play moved on.

Some of the awesome players I got to meet during this event included Stan Schrier. I have met Stan before and played against him in other festivals, but I was touched at his attempt to play another WPPA event, after not seeming so thrilled at the way things went during the first one. Stan is a nice guy, well respected in the poker community, and not a shabby player, lol, taking home 3rd place in the main event of the WSOP in 2001.

If I remember correctly, this was Stan's last WPPA event. I think he maybe gave up the ghost after Thursday. I can't blame him there, he probably knew a lot more than I did at the time.

Some of the other players who impressed me were Gioi Luong, Steve Kaufman and Larry Eubanks. I have already kissed Pescatori and Shoten's butt's enough times for you to know how much I like those two :)

Gioi was mentored by Men, if you want to call it that. But Gioi seems to have a kind heart and a good soul. I tried not to judge him on his past "business deals," but as an individual, capable of being a good person. He was always very pleasant to me, and just seemed thrilled to be making the money so often. I was also impressed that in his first "real" O8 tourney, he didn't back down once he made the money, but played for first.

Steve is a guy I've seen around, but he is pretty quiet. He didn't seem to ever tilt or behave rudely, although there was a guy at his table who was so out of line that security was called on him due to his bad behavior. The floormen were afraid they were going to have a scene with him when he busted, but believe it or not, once the players were in the money, he not only did a complete 180, but he also took wads of money out of his pocket and started tipping people, apologizing for his behavior and trying to make up for it with some dough. But back to Steve...he was probably the only player at the table who absolutely refused to let this guy tilt him. Class act! Steve couldn't get anything going on once they hit the money, but lost with grace and dignity, always complimenting his fellow players, rapping the table, and wishing the participants good luck when leaving to collect his winnings.

Larry Eubanks is a guy I've played against before. He has always been extremely kind to me, treats me like a decent human being and even compliments my play even when I knock him out of events.

So the tourney went off well. People seemed pleased the Brian was in a better mood and actually treated them as human beings.

Charlie, Gioi and Larry chopped when they got three-handed and had virtually the same amount in chips each. Charlie, of course, was always happy and willing to deal. Gioi giggled a bit and showed his delight at every turn. It was a good ending to a decent day.