As far as time goes in the blog world this story is old. But I can’t
help myself. The story dates back to the weekend of August 25th,
2007. (Two weeks ago - The weekend before Harrington won the 1.6
million at the Bike). On a plane ride from LA to SD I heard a funny
story and I wanted to retell it here.
Michael Kelly hosted a charity poker event at The Ivy, his hotel in
San Diego. He spared no expense and the event was a blast.
Random side note…the reason I missed the Legends turny was because of
a home game that started on the 25th and then went way longer than
expected. Probably wouldn’t have missed my flight back ‘cept that
Nelly (the rapper) drifted in at about 6 am that Sunday morning and
the game just turned into too much fun. Having fun is important. And
subsequently I ended up bailing on the LA turny. Brandon Adams walked
into the game right before our flight to LA and how he passed up that
game was beyond me. Scheduled flight or not, I couldn’t figure it
out.
But that is not the story… the story is this.
Chau Giang, Johnny Chan, myself, my buddy David, Eddie Cibrian , his
wife Brandi, and Bruce Parker all hop on the plane (from LA). It is
about as short a flight as they come, but I had no idea how much I
would be entertained. (Thank you Michael Kelly for having your
private jet get us all down there by the way!)
It turns out Chau Giang had not slept yet. (What’s new?) The guy is
one of the true legends when it comes to enduro sessions. He had put
in another all nighter at the commerce. Anyway, he is half asleep
when he starts telling some random story to David, Johnny and I.
I was so taken aback by the story I had him repeat it as I wanted to
make sure that I got it right. Sadly, I may have some of the exact
numbers wrong but here it is in its near perfect state.
Chau was playing at the Commerce the night before. He started playing
some form of limit poker (can’t remember which) with a guy heads up.
(Either 100/200 or 200/400) He beats the guy for about 9,000 dollars.
His opponent then makes some sort of comment about how he is broke
and how it sucks and all.
“Are you really broke?” Chau asks. “Yup” his opponent answered. And
with that Chau tells the fellow that he can’t takes the last of his
last money. Chau tosses the stranger a thousand dollar chip, and
tells him it is a gift and that they should quit.
At this point a new player points out that the guy was broke before
they started to play! He continues to explain that the guy is getting
backed and points to the backer. Chau asks the fellow if this is
true. The fellow confirms.
Chau then says… well then, let’s keep playing. Give me the 1000
dollars back and let’s go. So the guy tosses the chip back and they
continue to play. Of course, you know where this story goes.
Chau keeps winning and eventually the backer guy quits. The total
damage was 17,000 if I remember correctly. This time Chau abstains
from the 1000 dollar chip toss at the end. (His opponent started
broke versus Chau getting him broke.) Instead, there was a “thank you
for the game sir” sort of ending and both gamblers went their merry
way. Chau up 17k, the opponent still broke, and the backer stuck 17k!
Maybe you just had to be there. We all got a good laugh out of that
story. Chau really is one of a kind. That’s for sure.