Crazy People
Sunday, June 21, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
You spend enough time in Las Vegas, enough time at the World Series of Poker, and eventually you’ll say, “Now I’ve seen everything.” Well, now it’s my turn. Because, now, I’ve seen everything. Because I’ve seen Phil Hellmuth sitting in stunned silence at the poker table.
OK, maybe Phil isn’t stunned–bemused might be more the word. He’s sitting across from a motormouth who tells everyone to call him Crazy Mike. If you don’t know who Crazy Mike is and want to know, educate yourself. He’s in his early twenties, talks non-stop, and after giving him the once-over I remembered him from last year’s $10,000 Limit World Championship, where he would stand up occasionally and ululate at the top of his lungs “YAYAYAYAYAYAYA!!” Which isn’t especially pleasant when you’re hunched over a laptop writing up a hand.
Alexander Kravchenko had just been eliminated and Phil had just taken down a pot when a new player sat down and Crazy Mike started interrogating him. Where are you from, where do you live, etc etc etc. He also said that he’d challenged Matt Hawrilenko and Terrance Chan to heads-up limit hold-em matches, apparently because he’s not impressed with players who use “math and algorithms” when they play poker. Challenging players like Hawrilenko and Chan to heads-up matches is a bit like snapping a wet towel at a tiger’s private parts, but bravado is apparently something Crazy Mike has in excess. Discretion, not so much.
“I’m an attention whore!” he shouted at one point, and tournament supervisor Bill Bruce walked by and said, “Do you have to use that word?” Crazy Mike changed it up a bit and said, “I’m an attention getter,” and through it all Phil sat there, silent, that somewhat bemused smile on his face. Most of the other players at the table seemed to take Crazy Mike the same way, more inclined to laugh than throttle him.
I didn’t take any pictures of Crazy Mike because I don’t take pictures of attention whores. I did take a few of Phil…and…well, I took some pictures of Phil and let’s just leave it at that, shall we??!!
Related posts:
- Not For the Faint of Heart With all the tournaments going on today I somehow forgot...
- Wandering ‘Round the Room I’ve been remiss in not mentioning the other UltimateBet pros...
- Don’t Look Back, Someone Might Be Gaining on You I spent about 90 minutes watching the final table of...
- The Marathon, the Sprint For many poker players sitting down in a WSOP event...
- The Quiet Hour The Amazon Room, at 10AM: The room still isn’t completely...
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, crazy mike, Phil Hellmuth, ub, ultimatebet, world series of poker, WSOP
June 21st, 2009 at 5:08 am
May I have the code to the UBblog tournament??
June 21st, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Hey There Emiel
Here’s the code UBBLOG4n2598960
Thanks!