Well, not really poker greatness, but the father of a well-known poker player who I happen to put near the top of my favorite poker players list.
Back in November I went to Vegas for 6 days and played a lot of poker at the Luxor. The Luxor has a unique cash game in that there is a $50 min/max buy-in with $1/$1/$2 blinds. Although not an ideal structure, it was a good game nontheless.
2 people stuck out in my mind during my 6 or 7 sessions at the Luxor. The first was the guy who wore a viking helmut. He played solid and had a striking resemblence to one of the cast members of the Real World Austin.
The second was an older gentleman who wore shades and looked familiar to me. He played very solid, never said a word, but did take several bad beats prompting him to rebuy probably 5 or 6 times during the session. The real reason I noticed him was because I noticed that he had sweat coming from his ears. I didn’t really give it a second thought until the asshole cocky kid sat down on my left and began to talk to Real World Austin guy about this person’s ears. Anyway, he had
a memorable face and the sweat thing kinda stuck in my mind.
Several weeks later I was watching Poker Superstars on one of the ESPN’s or Fox Sports (whatever channel that horrible show is on) and it turns out that the guy I played with was Antonio Esfandiari’s father. On the show they mentioned that Esfandiari’s dad was in the studio watching the tournament and sure enough it was the same guy from the Luxor with the ear sweat problem.
Ya, I know it’s kind of a stupid story and by no means did I actually play poker with a well known pro but I just thought it was worth noting and if I never make it in poker I can at least say that I played against a poker pro’s dad.back to main page
