Just think, in a few short hours, I’ll be tucked in my little, snuggly bed, crashed and isolated from the rest of the world in a blanket of dreams, but at Wynn, the poker game of the century will resume. Andy Beal came back to continue playing with the best of the best, for stakes that are truly, almost obscene. A few years ago, at Bellagio, I can remember hearing Mike Matusow state, “If he (meaning Andy) breaks them, there’ll be some great $200-400 games going on.”

I spend a little bit of time searching through threads and posts and try to keep up with what is going on in the poker world today, and truthfully, I find most of the statements made about the game to be very loose and inaccurate. Of course everyone has an opinion. Of course everyone’s interested in the game. It’s history. It’s huge. It’s awesome that Andy would take on the best players in the world. I think many people try to put their stamp on why Andy plays. I have my own idea on why Andy plays and I don’t believe it’s the reason most of you think it is. I’ll leave that alone and move on.

I went to Wynn today for two reasons. One is that I planned to start playing in different poker rooms around town, trying to pick up a few pictures here and there, and post about my experiences. Second is that I knew Andy would be playing and I wanted to say hello. I like Andy. I like his genuine smile and hearty hello, and the fact that he always acknowledges me. There’s no poker game between us and I’m not a dealer and he’s not a player…we’re just people. I really like the fact that he is quite human and gets truly, ecstatically happy and excited when he wins and is devastated when he has had a horrible day at the tables. And continues to work at improving his game.

This was my original post on meeting Andy:

*Begin Post*

2/01 – I looked up to see a new face playing in the high limit area last week. There were 2 other players at the table and judging by the limits they play, my guess would be the game was $500-$1000 or something of that nature.

I dealt to the stranger the following night. A friendly little game of $1,000-$2,000 hold’em. It was 4 handed. The stranger looked up at me and asked me about the area I’m from – our name tags list a city and state. We did a little bit of small talk off and on while I was dealing that set. He was friendly, clean cut, enjoying the game…the fact that he was winning may have had something to do with it.

The Stranger mentioned that he used to play Blackjack and now found out he liked poker. Uhmmmmmm! One of the players told him that if they kept the game going, other players would come in. The stranger said he would only play another hour because his time schedule was 3 hours ahead of ours. The other 3 players were unified as in – hey no problem, that’s cool, etc., etc., etc.

The following night I played on shift. No silly, not that limit. I saw the Stranger in the game with the same 3 players and suddenly hawks swooped down out of thin air, heard 1 of them literally flew in from CA when they got wind of the Stranger learning poker.

The game was full in a heartbeat…with a waiting list. The limit $3,000-$6,000. Wonder if the Stranger will ever be back.

*End Post*

Since that time, Andy has never failed to speak with me, remember my name, ask about my family, and – from time to time – share some of his thoughts and emotions about the game and his play/his opponent’s play.

This is how I met Craig, Andy’s sweater:

*Begin Post*

May 1, 03. My first game of the night was table 7. Andy and Doyle. Todd, Doyle’s son, was sitting behind Doyle. Andy’s had a sweater sitting with him every night. When I walked up to the table, his sweater said, “Yes, he does remember you. I read your site and really enjoy it.”

I was waiting for Marcia to finish the hand so I took a moment and asked his name, said ‘hello’ and shook his hand. Craig is Andy’s sweater. Andy said ‘hi’ and we visited a moment as I spread the deck and got ready to deal.

This is the biggest limit game I ever dealt. I had one blank moment, about 10 minutes into my down, when I looked at the $25,000 and $5,000 chip constituting the Big Blind. It just struck me as strange. I was wrong in the earlier post, I said ‘6 chips, 12 chips’. It was three $5,000 chips for the Small Blind and a $25,000 and $5,000 chip for the Big Blind.

Andy brought up the subject of tipping…it’s all put together in a ‘pool’ at the end of the entire play, just like a tournament. I thought it was great that he would even think of me/us in that respect. We visited a bit about Montana, camping in N. Idaho, and a few off and on conversation spurts. Craig prodded him to stop talking and focus. Andy said that’s why he’s wearing the earplugs and headphones, to keep his concentration when he plays.

I noticed one thing in particular that he does each hand. After he looks at his cards, he places his hands on the table rail for a few seconds, complete standstill, and then designates a raise or a check/call. He’s giving nothing up that way. He had the barricade racks of $1 chips and moved chips from stack to stack during the play of the hands.

*End Post*

I view Andy and Craig as my friends. I was invited to sit in on the game, at Wynn, last week. I did. Hey…you little ‘live blogger’ from Bluff Magazine, you forgot to blog about that but you blogged about ‘lunch being served’. I was right there when it was served.

Both Andy and Craig were gracious enough to grant picture taking and allowing me to post it here. The Banker, The Sweater, and The Blogger. Love you guys.

My association with them has been long term and I treasure the fact that they both treat me as they do, always welcome, always friends, and they both play poker! Woo Hoo! That’s a Double A+ in my book.

When I arrived at Wynn, I put my name on the $4-8 H list. I like the fact that you can see your name on the list on various screens around the room. That’s a huge factor to me. As I cruised to the Poker Office, looking for Deborah Giardina, I spotted Felicia Lee…or she spotted me. We exchanged hello’s and shortly after that, I found Glenn in a $4-8 H game.

I was on the list – Deborah was busy with someone in the office – sitting at an empty table in front of the Cashier surveying the room (Andy was playing Jennifer, Doyle was sweating her, Michael Craig was at the table and this was not the time for me to say hello), and Felicia came over to visit. We had a great chat. Sometimes it’s difficult to even run into someone you enjoy, let alone find the time to really sit and visit. Nice!

Other people that I know from other rooms and games in Vegas were in the room and we said hello. Poker is such a small world. My seat opened. The game I was in sucked but it was a game and I came to basically visit the room, check out the action, see if I could win a $ or two, and get in my ‘hellos’ all at the same time. I had already registered at the ‘player’s club’ and received my card so I was clocked in when I took a seat. Truthfully I have no idea what the Player’s Card entitles me to but I will.

While I was in the game, I looked up to see my buds, Gary and Marie on the rail. I told them I spread their picture all over the Internet. They did a, “WHAT???” kind of thing which left me laughing. Marie has promised to come in to Bellagio tomorrow night – I did tell her I was going in to work. I am! Right? Notice uncertainty in this slacker’s thoughts?

And Lisa Wheeler stopped on the rail also. She’s writing for Card Player right now and covering the Big Game as best she can. We had an enjoyable visit…kind of a four way…even though it was a three way with me, Marie, and Gary, and a two way with Lisa and me…which might make a four way, right?

Not long after they left, Minh Ly appeared on the rail. Minh took first place in the Festa al Lago IV Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship, No Limit Hold’em, $10,000 + $200 Buy-in event held at Bellagio in October, 2005. I get a huge kick out of Minh. I’ve posted about him before and he’s a regular player in Bobby’s Room at Bellagio.

The poker room had a nice little buzz to it. The one thing I hated is that the table I was seated at was right on the rail and the cigarette smoke was horrible when someone was standing outside the room smoking. I liked the overall decor and arrangement of the room though.

This isn’t a great shot of the room but I’d already had security have a tiz fit with me over another picture…that telling is coming up:

I was up and down – chips and physically – throughout my session of play. At one point, I went to Felicia and asked her if Glenn would take our picture together. She gave me the rip about breaking my camera…honestly girl, you be pretty damned good looking so knock it off. Glenn suggested we step outside the room, Felicia and I stand with our backs to the room and he’d snap the shot. Except he didn’t want to mess with the focus so he suggested I set up the zoom and everything first using them as the model. I did, and while I was doing that, I snapped their picture.

Woops! Enter the Picture Taking Police in the form of a security guard. He pounced on me, informing me I couldn’t take pictures facing the room. Any picture taking of gaming tables was strictly against gaming code. I told him that just wasn’t true. He semi slowed down when I threw that at him. But he countered by telling me I had to erase the picture. I told him I didn’t know how. LIE! But the hell with it, there was no way in hell I was erasing the picture and what was he going to do, throw me to the floor and try to steal my memory stick?

I showed him the ‘review’ of the picture, explaining that nothing could be seen other than the target of the picture. Get this…he pointed over Felicia’s right shoulder at the dark images of people in the background and said he could see someone there. Right, Buddy! What was that guy smoking? We jumped around the issue when Glenn interjected and said we’d take pictures facing the opposite way, with the wall behind us. So be it!

The Picture Police went to hassle someone else and we went back to our games. I played another hour, up/down, the game got good then went to crappo again. I went to the office, visited with Deb – hey we have a hiking date in the offing. And back to the game.

I was ready to give up somewhere around 7ish. I went to ‘mill’ and the big game was down. Andy and Michael Craig and Deborah, along with security were the only ones left at the table. I went up and said hello. Andy was so damned excited. He was winner for both trips so far. I got to visit with him briefly and asked his permission to use the picture from last week. Michael Craig was, as always, a warm window of friendship. I left the kids and headed back to rack up my big $10 win and hit the road for home.

Before I left, I walked around through the casino and found this lovely to add the picture portfolio of Wynn. The hanging balls are fresh flowers. Beautiful!

The one thing I really notice when I play is the quality of dealers. I wish I could say that I was impressed with the dealers at Wynn but as of this writing, the only one I saw that I really thought was excellent was Andrea, and she was dealing to Andy and Ted the day I got to sit in on the Big Game. Oh…and how was it? Sitting in on the Big Game? It was great! I’ve dealt to both, but watching them play was right up there with the stars and Sister Moon!