How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?

We all know these are desperate times, but it was really brought home to me the other night at the Vic when I found myself in a rather moribund 5-10 PLO game.

Six of us were playing (alright, only two were playing, the rest of us were passing until we flopped top set, nut flush draw and the wrap all at once - hey it’s live poker and the Vic, you know how it is, right?) when the dealer asked for the half-hourly table charge.

At this point Dave Winston got up and said he was off; something about the game being not much cop and so on. A fairly common scenario in the card room at the Vic and one that happens often.

At this point, Lutvi said, “Don’t leave, you’ll break the game up. I’ll give you £100 if you stay”. He was serious by the way, this wasn’t an example of the famous witty banter one often hears about at the Vic.

It was somewhat similar to that episode of High Stakes Poker where the whole table chipped in $1,000 each to Mike Matusow to get him to stay in the game. I recall Matusow took up the “generous” offer and ended up doing his cobblers.

The thing is though, Dave Winston is a tight, solid winning player and Lutvi is more of an action player, shall we say. That’s how hard times are these days, a loosey-goosey was so worried that the game would break up he was willing to pay a granite player, whom he had very little chance of winning any chips off, to stay in the game! I guess I’ve seen everything now.