The Big Game with Andy Beal:

On the Andy side of play. He was playing Minh tonight when I came in to work. I stopped for a moment, sat down beside him in a spare chair, asked how he was doing and his reply went like this. He said he had won both Saturday and Sunday and that he was up right now. They started at $1,000-$2,000 and then moved up to $6,000-$12,000 and now were playing $10,000-$20,000. He also said that he felt he was playing a ‘2nd tier’ player and maybe that’s why he was doing so well. I left him for work and the game ran about another hour and a half. I didn’t deal it.

On the thought that he was playing a ‘2nd tier’ player, of course he meant someone not as skilled as the Corporation. I have no idea if the Corporation is involved with Minh or what the deal is there. A few days ago, I had a conversation with someone that knows ‘Someone’ in the Corporation. The ‘Someone’ had played Andy on this trip and on previous trips. ‘Someone’ felt that Andy really believes that he’s a better player than the members of the Corporation.

I don’t find that line of reasoning hard to believe. Obviously Andy feels he has a shot at besting them or he wouldn’t be there.

I do find it hard to believe that Andy would believe that he could just sit down at a poker table and instantly master the game. Anyone that’s played poker over a period of time, knows how difficult the game really is long term.

When I dealt Table 1, late in the night, the conversation went to Andy and his next opponent, David G. They felt David wouldn’t stand a chance heads up with Andy because David is too passive and not aggressive enough.

It’s interesting to hear the different opinions as I move from table to table. One night last week, when I moved into a $4-$8 Holdem game, they were talking about Andy. They said he was playing Doyle B. in a $100,000-$200,000 game. I laughed. I could see Doyle sitting in a $1,000-$2,000 Mixed Game with a full field and Andy playing Howard heads-up.

I didn’t even bother trying to explain it to them…they were damned excited about it as they speculated and visited, meanwhile arming themselves with buckets of chips that they dumped into the middle of the table. The Chip Wars were on.