The Intersection of Underground Poker Clubs and Online Poker Rooms
After a particularly good summer (I really do plan to write about it, but underground poker is much more fun than live and online tournaments) I decided to go to a game I’d been hearing a LOT about. The game – 10/25 no limit, which is a little (or maybe a lot…) bigger than I normally play. The cast though… the cast was something else. It even included one of the Dominican guys I started playing with almost two years ago at 1-2NL in the back room of a backroom. This guy is something else. As the story goes, he had a t-shirt stand or two and somehow just started accumulating stands. Then one year, after never having made more than $30,00-40,000 in a year he cleared $1 million. Talk about a juicy game…
Now, besides the cast, this was a game unlike any I had ever been to before. First of all, the apartment is unlike any I had ever played in. An all-glass, luxury building over on the west side, with views looking out over the water, this game was actually IN the apartment, not the janitor’s closet like all the other luxury games I’d played in.
The biggest difference though was the money. Not just that this game was big, bigger than I’d played before, but that the game does not take cash or even allow cash in the building (yes, they get VERY pissed if you show up with more than a few bucks for a cab). The guys who run it (a) don’t want to worry about the game being robbed, and these fish/whales WILL be showing up with $25,000 or more and (b) do not want to worry about the game being busted by the vice squad like some of the games I’ve been in. They solve the problem by making everyone coming to the game escrow the amount they want to have available in an online poker account (note to any cops reading this – just because a game does not have any money at it, it does not mean it is one of these games. Some people like to just play for fun! A lot of these guys actually do not play any online poker (oddly enough, since I think it is a great way to (a) hone your game and (b) play when you can’t find another worthwhile game), so the only reason they would have money in an account is for an underground game like this, which means there are often side deals going on before the game to get money online and after the game to get money out of the poker sites (most of these deals involve a transfer between online poker accounts, a coffee shop a 5-10% vig and a sack of money…).
I have to say, I was pretty nervous about this game. I have now played in a LOT of games around the city and at casinos around the world, but I have never been in a situation like this. The logistics alone scared the crap out of me. I was torn between putting on my internet grinder/ Mike McDermott (Rounders… for those of you who don’t get the reference) best and putting on a full tux – hoping I was walking into some sort of Bond scenario (minus the super villain of course). I knew I wasn’t going to be the fish at this game, but I was worried the amount of money at stake might effect my play…
I will get to the actual game in my next post…
