Struggling to sleep, I began to ponder of a subject for a post on Blonde. With not having played much live poker these last couple of years, I decided to look to my past for material.
The first thing that comes to mind, is the first time I ever played with Daniel Negreanu. As I recall, it was around the time that Daniel won his first WSOP bracelet back in the late nineties (or was it early 2000‘s). Anyway, the event was a “special“ $300 buy-in at the Mirage that was held either each Sunday or last Sunday of the month. Special? A $300 buy-in was special? How thing have changed since then.
As I recall, I took to Daniel instantly. Not because of the bracelet that adorned his wrist that day, but because of the great banter we both enjoyed at the table. Also, being seated next to each other ensured the odd confrontation or two. Finally, down to the last two tables, we would tangle for the last time as all before us fold to my small blind. Looking at Daniel’s stack on the big blind, I decided the best course of action would be to limp with my
-8d. As expected, Daniel pushed all-in and I instant call.
Turning over his J-6 os, Daniel was quick to remark about my “great read” as he put it. Looking quizzically at him, I asked WTF he was talking about. Not realizing that I was setting him up for a rubdown, he went on to explain how the speed of my call was obviously down to my knowing he held a weak hand. Now for the rubdown….
Keeping a straight face, I explained to Daniel that my reading ability had nothing to do with the speed of the call. In fact, as I went on to explain - it was simply his WSOP bracelet that made me call so quickly. Now it was Daniel turn to look quizzically at me. “The bracelet?” he remarked!. Savoring the moment of what was about to come, I point to the bright lights overhead and tell him that the reflection of the lights from his bracelet was blinding me, and, that I had no other choice but to try and bust this kid!
Of course, Daniel knew instantly that this was all just a continuation of our banter, and proceeded to nod his head and applaud the rubdown.
About a year later, I was part of a poker site called Pokerfaces.com. One of the question we were all asked, was to name a player we felt would go a long way in poker - I chose Daniel. Good judge or what?
At this stage, I was going to write about the first time I played with Allen Cunningham and a couple of other big names that I predicted wiould do well. But it’s late now and time for sleep. Perhaps next time……
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