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The Real Deal: It's the luck of the Irish
Published: 2006-04-23
 RETURNING from the Paddy Power-sponsored Irish Poker Open this week, it dawned on me that poker tournaments do not necessarily have to be cut-throat affairs where participants stare menacingly at each other for days on end.
More than 340 hopefuls, from professional and semi-pro players, to guys simply intent on having a good weekend, took their wives and families, girlfriends and excuses to Dublin to play extraordinarily high quality poker.
However, in a land renowned for having a flutter, few had correctly predicted one, never mind all six, of the finalists.
In fact, after the first day, my money was on one of poker's 'big beasts' such as Roy 'The Boy' Brindley or Per Hildebrand, both of whom sat near the top of the leader board.
However, in an extraordinary turnaround, it was to be the relatively unknown Irishman Vincent Mellin who, after ending the second day as chip leader, took the £250,000 first prize.
Indeed, within an hour of the final starting, it was apparent that Mellin would eventually face a showdown with Ian Woodley, the only one of the six finalists with any known form.
Both men accumulated chips slowly as they could afford not to make the type of outrageous moves forced upon the short-stacked Paul Daley.
Nor did either man suffer the incredible bad beat which resulted in Jonathan Wong leaving the table early.
Wong's departure was a surprise to many. The gap-year student had already defied his youthful years by winning nearly £7,000 in one of the tournament's many side events and had started the final as a well-backed 13/2 shot.
Prior to a card being dealt at the final table, however, there was a feeling that due to the relative inexperience of each finalist, there was every chance the game would finish early, but such sentiment proved entirely misplaced.
At times, the final was akin to watching the Inter Milan side of the 60s take on today's Chelsea - few mistakes, quickly rectified, made for occasional periods of tedious play, but such caution was understandable given the amount of money at stake.
It became increasingly tense as Mellin and Woodley went heads-up and when Woodley went 'all-in' with Ad, Js against Mellin's pair of sevens, it was evident the end was nigh. A flop of 6h, 10s, 2d did neither man any favours and the turn (10d) meant Woodley needed an ace or a jack on the river. A 4h sealed his fate and the audience erupted.
My overwhelming memory of this event will be the manner in which it was enjoyed by everyone present and the frequency with which it was possible to strike up conversation with an array of established players from the talkative Scot, Tony Chessa, to Ollie Boyce, poker's world speed champion who drinks Guinness as though it's going out of fashion.
Roy Brindley told me that dozens of people had stopped by to remind him about the time they had beaten him. "If I'd lost that often, I'd be skint!" he exclaimed.
There were probably a few poker players leaving Dublin on Tuesday who were skint, but the sponsors are onto something by making this into more than just a poker tournament in order that people enjoy a good time.
I for one cannot wait for next year.
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'Prop' is the real deal
Published: 2006-04-21
By Rob Thomas
With Texas Hold 'Em poker being all the rage these days, the time seems ripe for somebody to pump out a quickie poker-related mystery novel. Pete Hautman is not that writer, and "The Prop" is not that novel.
First off, Hautman has written thrillers about poker ("The Mortal Nuts," "No Limit") in the past, well before people would stay home and watch Ben Affleck play it on television. So he's no Johnny-come-lately to the game.
But Hautman is also one heck of a good writer, a National Book Award winner who has generations-crossing appeal writing for both young adults and grown-ups. And "The Prop" is a terrific read. Although it knows poker like the rest of us know Old Maid, it doesn't rely on any passing trend for its appeal, but on its strong characterizations and engrossing noir plot.
In particular, he's got a great protagonist in Patty "Peeky" Kane, who works at a casino outside Tucson, Ariz., as what's known as a "prop." She basically plays poker for a living, sitting in at tables that aren't getting much traffic, giving the customers someone to play (and lose) against.
Kane is 44, a police officer's widow and the mother of a grown daughter, Jaymie, who has a raging drug problem. She's an expert poker player who's more at home at the poker table than she is in her own apartment, never more comfortable than when she's riding the rhythms of a game. But when she looks in the mirror in the casino restroom, she sees an older, sadder version of herself staring back at her.
Hautman excels at sketching out the colorful characters who populate the casinos, from the unreadable dealers to the steel-eyed security chief who watches over them, to the players who come in night after night. "Yassir the Greek is hunched over his modest stack of chips, looking angry," he writes. "That's normal for Yassir, who is actually Syrian. Mutter Blodget, looking 10 years older than he is, which is old, seems to be on a heater - he's got six towers of green $25 chips, about $1,500 per stack."
Some of the most entertaining scenes in the book describe some high-stakes poker rounds, and they're entertaining because Hautman understands that poker isn't about the cards, it's about the players, and the way people play speaks volumes about how they live.
Peeky gets wind that some of the dealers and professional players have been fixing games to shuttle some big jackpots to themselves and accidentally finds one of those big payoffs landing in her lap. She decides to keep the money and keep quiet, a decision that puts her on edge for the rest of the novel.
The fixed games are forgotten when the casino is robbed by a quartet of clown-faced thieves and three employees are killed. Peeky, who makes a living reading other people's body language, thinks she recognizes one of the robbers as a casino employee and suspects her current lover may be one of the others. Peeky is fearful. She's the classic noir heroine, someone whose slight guilt can be exploited by the truly guilty.
How Peeky negotiates her way out of trouble, with the help of the powerful but mysterious owner of the casino, makes for a fast, engrossing read. Peeky is no brilliant investigator, and she's certainly not a physical threat to her antagonists. What she is is a vulnerable, three-dimensional woman who has a gift for sizing up everyone around her and figuring out who's really dangerous and who's bluffing. It proves to be a valuable skill both inside and outside the casino.
Hautman has never been a series writer, but Peeky would be a great character to build a series around. And, in reading "The Prop," you can't help but see it as a really juicy part for some 40-something movie actress to sink into. Rene Russo, call your agent.
E-mail: rthomas@madison.com
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