In the interests of balance, I feel obliged to give you two little stories from this week's immaculately run Fessie in Blackpool.
The blind structure is printed out in advance, & copies placed on every table before the event begins. It even includes the exact time at which each level is due to start, plus the times & duration of all the breaks. We were playing the £500 Freezeout, and someone asked me a question as to what the next few levels would be. This was the moment we sat down, post-break, to start Level Nine. I checked the flyer & it said Level Nine should begin at 02.45, & I instinctively checked what time it was - 02.46......! Obviously, I gave Yogi some stick - I mean, 9 levels & 3 breaks into a comp & he was a full minute behind. Only Amsterdam ever done it this well, and even they failed to do so this year. Can ANY cardroom, anywhere in the world, be as punctual & well-organised as this? And he had to cope with a new, Head-Office inspired rule this week. If someone bet out of turn, then for the rest of the hand - EVERY street - that player could ONLY call, check or pass - he could NOT bet. Obviously, this led to one or two requests for Rulings & explanations. So Yogi gets summoned, time after time, & explains the rule, carefully, precisely, and almost in a whisper. No shouting, no arguing - NOBODY argues with Yogi. Power & Authority are strange things. Those that shout, generally, just don't have it. Those that never raise their voice do have it. This is a psychological trick. The mere act of having to be quiet to lsten to the explanation gives the speaker the upper hand - he has the listeners in his hand, doing what HE wants - listening. Weird, but true.
But he ain't getting away with it THAT easy, here's another Blackpool story to prove that even the great Yogi (not forgetting his Team) are fallible.
I am going great guns in the £150, table chip leader by a mile, & I am making my chips work for me, bullying & stealing almost at will. (This was before I "fell asleep", when John Law arrived with 10 times the average stack & frightened the pants off me - end of bullying & stealing, & tikay climbed back into his modest shell after "living the dream" for a few hours).
I pick up
in mid position & put just under a full Raise in. BB - who is solid, tight, & only EVER got his chips in when he was ahead, just called. Uh-Oh, I don't like this. He has - for SURE - AA, KK, AK, AQ.
Board comes like this - forget the betting, it's not relevant.
Then the turn.....
Then the crucial River.
It's him to act, & he's in Seat One. He looks at the board. Then he looks at his cards. Then he looks at his cards again. Board again. Then he whispers something to the dealer. Dealer whispers something back to him. Then the player SHOWS his hand to the Dealer.
Now, I'm as tolerant as anyone at the table, & I rarely, if ever, argue or make complaints, unless I see cheating or collusion. "Hold up", I say, "what's going off, you two can't start having cosy chats mid-hand?".
Guy says "I'll tell you after the hand - but I'm gonna check - & I suggest you do as well".
What? WHAT? He's telling ME to check it down, & I've just hit my card? But something smells, so I check.
Matey Boy turns over.....
As
....................!
So we have TWO Queen of Spades in the pack. (Ariston immediately claims I've had a misread).
Yogi is summoned. Makes a ruling - the pot is split & we both get half back, & neither Matey Boy nor me have any argument about that, though you have to feel for Matey Boy, many in his position, holding the absolute nuts, woulda argued.
Rumour has it that the pack contained 59 cards, including 20 spades! We had seen Quads 3 times in an hour, it has to be said.....! But none of us had spotted the problem. The dealer DID "spread the deck" when he arrived too, so 10 of us all missed it.
But there were no arguments, & we all had a good laugh. But one poor guy, who'd lost almost his entire stack with AK v JJ earlier, was not at all happy. Understandable, but what's done is done, & you just have to move on. Yogi handled it beautifully, too - quick apology, quick Ruling, & we carried on. With a new deck. Which we counted!
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