I'm all set

I’m buzzing. As soon as I woke I headed straight here, this internet café is already feeling like home. It’s 10:30am, day 2 of the Flicker brothers’ World Series assault. The only trouble is, the Flicker brothers have spent all of about two hours together since arriving, and of those 2 hours we’ve said nothing to each other for approx. 1 hour 58 minutes of them. Our conversation has amounted to Anthony asking me if I wanted the bed next to the window (yes) him asking me if I wanted to unpack now or later (later! What are you nuts? come on let’s go) and him asking me if I wanted a beer in a football or a margarita in a yard glass (I really just wanted the beads from the girl out front of the Mermaid Casino but I took the beer anyway).

That amounts to about 2 minutes right, stone cold silence the rest, I know he’s mad at me, but let it go, see the bigger picture, I nailed that Wednesday night game, he knows that and sure I made a mistake but my game has never been in better shape and I’m feeling so good about this trip. And if Anthony doesn’t stake me now, if he turns me into nothing more than a bankroll-less tourist, well to be honest I’d rather fly back home.

But we’ve been here before, it’s a cycle we often repeat. Very soon we’ll have clear the air talks and it’ll end up with him lending me the cash – but before he hands it over I’ll have to endure the endless re-telling of the “very good reasons why I should just fucking cut you off”. I’d like to think it’s an endearing trait of the Flicker brothers, that we go through this little routine, but last time it happened Anthony described it is a complete pain in the arse, I know he meant it, kind of left me nervous about the next time it was going to happen.

So, in a way, it’s great I have this little insurance policy, which brings me to tonight, because it was so cool I couldn’t have imagined it.

As we turned with our beers and beads away from the Mermaid girls the iconic white neon of Binion’s stopped us in our tracks. Our silence at this stage was perfect, and even though we weren’t talking, I know I’ll look back and be pleased I shared that moment with Anthony. I know what it means to him, it’s his theatre of dreams, me too up to a point, but for Anthony, well let’s just say that the night they announced that the World Series was moving to the Rio I saw a tear running down his face as he read the news online.

We walked by, our eyes fixed in to see if we could catch a glimpse of the poker room or the wall of champions or Johnny Moss or Benny himself (Yes, I know). It was all an exercise in building excitement - Check out our nearest internet connection, get phone cards, work out where we are and then we’ll go in to Binions and not before… that was the plan, and it could only have been a couple of sick poker masochists like us that stuck to it.

So we walked and found this internet café, it’s just passed the El Cortez, which is offering a $1/$2 no limit hold’em game with a bad beat jackpot that currently stands at $12,587. We pick up phone cards (Anthony says they’ll save us a fortune) and as the lady behind the till said “There you go boys you’re all set”. I think I like being here.

We enter Binions, me two steps behind Anthony, this is his moment. He knows exactly where he is going, years of reading about the place I guess, and he has us in the poker area almost immediately (which is probably a good thing because actually it’s a pretty grim place, wouldn’t want any illusions shattered this early). The card room is pretty busy. Anthony has found his home.

I’m not entirely sure what happened next, but it all happened pretty quickly. My brother, to the very best of his wisdom had put a 48 hour ban on poker – partly my fault, partly his concerns over jet lag, partly just plain mad – now if he doesn’t want to dive right in then fair enough, but I tell you it took me about 30 seconds of seeing those old boys playing cards to want to sit right down and start playing. Obviously it isn’t that easy for me… I have no bankroll as such and Anthony is certainly not going to be in any kind of rush to have that chat so that he can forgive me and get me back in the game…. I only have one-out and it involves a- losing Anthony and b - the twenty dollar bill that 3 chin Charlie threw my way as an insult. Anthony is engrossed in the hall of champions… leg it.

30 seconds later I’m outside Binions turning left and my feet are taking me to the El Cortez. They take me right inside and straight to the poker room (have they been here before?) and in less than 10 minutes, I swear that’s all it took, I was sitting down at the 1/2 dollar no limit hold’em game… and shit, I only have 20 dollars of one dollar chips… never mind, not right now, this could last one hand but it’s what I had to do, I could even make it back to Binion’s before Anthony realised I’d gone. And bang there it goes, first hand I get dealt pocket 8’s and I’m under the gun and make a four times raise knowing that this could be it. I get laughed at by the locals, they think I’m taking the piss, this is reminding me of the Wednesday night game, I’m feeling at home already. So I get called, called, re-raised, moved all-in… I decide I will not have a better spot… so I call, as do 2 others, and the whole thing gets checked down to the river (do I smell or something)… K-J, 3-3, 10-9 are my opponents and none of that rubbish can beat me. I scoop the pot and say “Looks like I’m all set”… I was just being cheery, but I quickly remind myself never to say that again.

The game is good… there are some real characters and as long as I keep comparing them to the guys in the Wednesday night game then I don’t stop to think about guns and knives and holes in the desert, I mean I’m winning and someone might get bumped. Nothing quite matched that opening hand for single profit, but when my eyes started to droop at the table and I knew my time was done, my chips counted out to 375 dollars. I stood up and went to cash out but not before one of the guys had said “safe trip home” in a semi-threatening way. It woke me up, probably a good thing and my legs carried me swiftly back towards Binions. Daylight was breaking over Fremont Street, I thought I should go and do something grand like have a big steak to celebrate and it occurred to me right there and then that I was in Las Vegas, and that I was playing poker, and that I had just won against what felt like a thousand years of experience… and that just down the road the greatest poker tournament in the world was taking place and that this year, this year I am going to be part of it.

I got back to the room and collapsed in a wired heap on my bed… it was 5am and there was no way I was going to sleep. I was so thankful Anthony wasn’t there, I didn’t want to have to have that conversation. Next thing I know and it’s 9am and guess what Anthony still isn’t there. I head to the internet café making one stop on the way… and sure enough, sat in Binion’s card room with a decent stack of chips in front of him is Anthony, living his dream. I decide not to bother him, maybe I’ll take him for breakfast when he’s done.