A Sense of Humour
I played a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event at this year’s World Series of Poker for nearly two days. Just not quite long enough. The first four hours seemed like about a week. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life. It was 3 hours and 50 minutes before anybody said anything, and that only happened because a guy needed change for $100 dollar bill to pay for his massage.
I don’t know what this is all about, but it has got nothing to do with the game I fell in love with. If it were up to me I’d take all the headphones, shades, and hoodies and put them in a giant incinerator and force these guys to play poker the way it is supposed to be played. We are supposed to be some of the most privileged players in the world, being in a position to play the World Series, and these guys made it look as much fun as a trip to the dentist.
Things picked up a bit later on when Phil Hellmuth came to the table.
At least we had a laugh for the last couple of hours. In contrast, the guys at the next table were having a great time, Marty Smyth, Michael Keiner, Robert Williamson III, and David Benyamine were all drawn together so when I got bored, I could at least go over there and have a chat.
So I owed Marty Smyth $200 and went over to pay him. At the time he was all in on the river, betting into Michael Keiner. I threw the $200 down in front of Marty just as Keiner passed. The dealer asked Marty what was going on, and quick as a flash he replied that I bet him $200 that he wouldn’t bluff Keiner. Luckily, Michael has a sense of humour.
I had dinner with Marty and he told me one of the worst bad beat stories I have ever heard. He was sharing a room over here with his friend a couple of years ago, who could snore for Ireland. Marty had some credits built up from some action he had been giving the casino, so they gave him a free room for the last two nights. He was thrilled and looking forward to getting a bit of sleep for a change. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out because the room they gave him was right next door to his original room. So nothing really changed.
Back in Action
It was great to rejoin the game after looking at the walls of a hotel room for the best part of two weeks while in bed sick… even if it didn’t quite go according to plan.
I played the seniors tournament, which is probably the best value in the world. The Camel once famously said that you can’t eat equity. But I could smell it!
I never had chips and finally lost my dough with 4-3 after a misread. I told you it was value! An American guy was telling us about the few years he spent working for a big American company in Clonmel in Ireland. He said Thursday was payday so practically the whole workforce hit the pub and then went clubbing, so Friday wasn’t very productive at the plant. An executive suggested they change payday to Friday but this guy claimed that the Irish considered having their hangover on company time a perk of the job. The company is no longer based in Clonmel.
I played again the next day but got wheeled out by a four-outer early on. I finally got a run going and held a decent chip lead for hours in Sunday’s Bellagio tournament until the poker gods sorted me out. I was sitting beside a Canadian guy who started telling Irish jokes. The pick of them was a story about a guy whose dog died. He asked the parish priest to say a special mass in memory of his beloved pet. When the priest said this wasn’t on, the guy said that that was a pity as he’d intended donating €100,000 to the church. The priest immediately said he should have told him the dog was a Catholic as that changed everything. 
Padraig Parkinson is well-known on the European poker scene, both for his poker prowess and sense of humour. He was one bluff away from winning the 1999 World Series of Poker, but unfortunately got called. Visit my.888poker.com to read about Padraig Parkinson’s adventures in blog and on twitter during this year’s World Series of Poker.