I watched Phil Hellmuth do his tirade and extreme Phil act while catching pieces of the firstDirector’s Cutof Poker After Dark on NBC Sports.

During the bits and pieces of Phil leaving the scene and the show going on, the subject of David Grey and Sam Grizzle getting in to a fight was on the discussion board. Annie said she was playing in an $800-1600 game when it happened and winning a lot. When they started fighting (yes physically) that she leaned over to protect her chips because she didn’t normally play that high and she didn’t want her chips knocked over or off the table. She said it happened in California.

I’m positive it happened at the Mirage almost 10 years ago.* It was the event that sent Sam Grizzle out the door and he wasn’t allowed back in. Of course there were other things that led up to it but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I wasn’t working the night it happened but I remember the talk about it and Sam could no longer play at the Mirage. It also kept him out of Bellagio for the first two years Bellagio was open. Sam wanted to come in and play but management didn’t want him in the room. Finally, through some amount of promising good behavior and other players vouching for him, he was allowed back in. Having dealt to him in early Mirage days and dealing to him at Bellagio, I can vouch for the fact that he’s not as bad as he used to be.

And a few days agoSam was in the $5-10 NLH game at Bellagio. Perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Another person that wasn’t allowed in Bellagio’s poker room for the first six months to a year was J.C.P. Mr. BadKarma himself was not allowed to play there because his attitude was so bad towards dealers and other players that they didn’t allow him in the room. I often wonder why people are allowed back in, especially when they don’t change. I can remember an old saying my mom used to throw at me now and then, back in my highly impressionable days when I was so impressed with someone I just met. “A new broom sweeps clean.” It took me a long time to understand the full depth of that statement.

This brings me to the subject of a book. I’ve had more than one person prod me over the years about writing a book. I’ve even started several times and then drifted away from it because of time and other things that were more important right then. As of late I’ve started to think of how I would actually put it together and I know that when I do, and when it’s published, I will never deal again. You figure out the reasons.

Now I know how to start putting down all of the information I want to put in the book. *light goes on* I will take a few hours each week and start with names of people, in all phases of my poker life, and write what I know and remember abouteach person. Of course when one memory is recorded, others flood into place, and by having everything written by name, it’s much easier to go back and make sure I’ve captured my experiences with them rather than trying to wade through chapters of a manuscript. And when I have all that I can remember recorded, I will put it together and look for a publisher.

Will you be in my book? Time will tell. If you are, will you like my memories? Perhaps. Some years ago when one of my young friends was prodding me about writing a book, he said that people would have to buy it to see what I wrote about them. *laughing* And he informed me that if I ‘got sued’, it would be even better because more people would buy it then. He’s also the person that I give credit for this statement at a poker table, “My strategy is to have no strategy.” Tim, where are you now?

Here’s a question, what do you think should be the title of my book? Leave a comment please.

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*I even asked one of my supervisors that works at Bellagio now, and worked with me at the Mirage then,if that particular incident happened at the Mirage, the answer was yes.