As I looked around the room, I could not help but notice a number of very shady looking people in what looked to be business meetings of some sort. I certainly was not going to ask what kind of business was being discussed, I was just going to keep my nose out and just do what I came here to do. A short well dressed Chinese guy to my left who was on the button elected to play a form of poker that no one around the table had even heard of much to Miks annoyance, “hope we are not going to spend half the ******* night explaining rules” shouted Mik. On this point, I had to agree with him.
I do not like being monetarily dominated in cash games be it live or online, but I was not sure how this evening was going to turn out. A lot of people would say that if I was not sure about the integrity of the game then why in heavens name was I playing in it…..good question. I was spending more time looking for anything odd than I was studying the players and their patterns. I recall thinking “Andy better be right about how good this game is”.
I had noticed Mik staring at me on many occasions and I sort of got the feeling that he was looking for a confrontation. For some reason known only to him, he had targeted me from the moment he saw me enter the room. I had been playing about 30 minutes and Mik had raised probably half of the total pots played. I was down about a hundred when a very interesting hand came up. The player on the button had called “Hold’em” as his game of choice. Mik who was four seats to my right open raised the pot making it £70 to go. This came as no surprise as he was doing this constantly and the players to his left had been folding a lot which must have given him even more confidence to do it.
Everyone folded to me and I was in the big blind, I looked down at my hand and saw Aces. I knew that Mik would attempt to move me off this hand, it would be just a matter of when. He had barely seen me play a hand in 30 minutes, this was a situation where I could let him bet his money off and rake a sizable pot or it could cost me a fair percentage of my money. I quite quickly called the extra £50 without thinking through the complications, it felt the right thing to do. The pot stood at £150 and the flop came A-8-7 rainbow.
A lot of players had been betting weakly and Mik had been calling and then taking the pot away from them later in the hand, I felt that this is what he would do to me. A bet of £70 should let him think that I am trying to take this pot without risking too much on a hand that I am not overly confident about. Mik called very quickly and now the pot stood at £290. The turn brought an off suit non-connecting low card and I quickly bet £150. Mik instantly tossed £700 into the pot simply uttering “raise you all in”. It was £550 to me and I was holding the nuts at that stage, I gave Andy a look and he knew what this meant.
If I lost this pot to an outdraw, I would curse myself for playing it this way especially as I only had one buy-in left. I called quickly which seemed to shock Mik visibly. I showed my aces quickly, Mik literally threw his cards at the dealer one of which hit “Danny” in the face. “I don’t believe this ******* shit”. Andy was right about this guy being a bad loser, “Danny retrieved Miks cards from the floor and attempted to deal the river card. “What the **** are you doing, give limit boy the ******* money”. Danny looked confused and shaken, he flipped “Miks” cards to reveal K-7 infuriating Mik even further. Now the entire table could see what Mik was raising and betting with. I had nearly doubled my stack but I was far from comfortable with this situation especially as the entire room seemed to be watching this game now thanks to Miks outbursts.
This guy Mik had one of the most scariest faces I had ever seen on a human being and I am certainly far from being a timid guy. You sort of got the impression that there was nothing that he was not capable of and that he wasn’t entirely mentally stable either which sort of made him even scarier. It was at this time that I recall thinking that if I can get out of here unharmed, then it would be a result. It was certainly turning into a big mistake coming here.
We were about a couple of hours into the game, Mik had been looking for a confrontation with me constantly and I had skilfully avoided it. I certainly was not playing optimal poker anymore, this was a far cry to the online $20-$40 that I was used to. I was spending more time plotting my way out of this game without risking infuriating Mik than I was concentrating on my poker.
Mik was down about two thousand as far as I could tell, his brother had just been sentenced to 18 months in prison only hours earlier and this had only added to his fury. The guy was seriously tilting and was fortunate that he was not up against a skilled big stack. Despite this I still refused to put anymore money into this game, the atmosphere in this game was something that I cannot easily explain to others who were not present.
The game was four card Omaha, Mik had been straddling a lot and effectively doubling the stakes of the game. I had noticed two very imposing Chinese guys who were immaculately dressed standing behind us intently watching the game. The Chinese guy seated to my left had been going head to head with Mik in numerous pots and I kind of got the impression that he was in the game without an invite from Mik.
I had flopped the nut straight but without any redraws which is never a good situation to be in in a multi-way Omaha hand. The action was very heavy by the time it had got back to me and I decided to fold my hand. This was turning into a major confrontation between Mik and his Chinese adversary (“Mr Tang”) and an Asian guy who had been playing solidly throughout. I cannot remember the board cards exactly but it is not important anyway. What was important was that a major disruption was about to occur that would present me with a possibility to get myself out of this game and back down the highway.
As it turned out, the well dressed chinaman to my left just happened to be one of the leading triads in the area and the two scary looking dudes who were watching him were his minders or “soldiers”.
These two individuals were extremely imposing while at no time ever opening their mouths to speak.
Mik had been drinking heavily during the game and was starting to get more and more abusive, the only good thing was that he was now starting to target anyone and everyone who was in his immediate zone and not just me.
This Omaha hand was starting to turn into the biggest pot of the night with around £5000 ($9000) in the middle. I cannot remember the exact sequence of the cards but “Mr Tang” outdrew Mik on the river in a situation that is entirely normal in Omaha. The situation however did not seem normal to Mik and he was now losing heavily and tilting very badly. The level of abuse was now directed at “Mr Tang” directly and I kind of got the impression that Mik did not know who this Chinese guy was or the purpose of the two dudes standing behind us. I was starting to get a very nasty feeling about this and myself and Andy were exchanging nervous glances every few seconds.
I looked around to see one of “Mr Tangs” minders with one hand in his inside pocket. I don’t think that you needed to be a mind reader to know what he was holding. I knew full well that Mik had many of his own guys in the building and this was shaping up to be very nasty. As I recall, the very next hand was Omaha again and I was dealt a very good hand which I folded immediately. It is difficult to explain but I sensed that a serious confrontation was imminent and I did not want to have a large amount of my stack stuck out there when it did.
Literally seconds later, Mik stood up and shouted at “Mr Tang” “do I look ******* stupid or something”. “Mr Tang” spoke very good English and asked him what he meant by his remark. “Mik” then went on to accuse the chinaman of cheating by getting his two accomplices to attempt to see his cards and then relate this to “Mr Tang”. You do not insult a member of the Chinese triads, not ever and Mik had broken the golden rule.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose “Mr Tang” was on his feet, the minders had drawn revolvers and there was so much shouting and screaming that it was difficult to tell what was being said and by whom. Luckily for me, all the money on the table was in cash and instinct told me to start bringing mine back off the table and into my pockets. Miks guys were running over to us from the other side of the room and I had a terrible feeling that I was not going to get out of this unscathed.
It was like a scene from a movie only this was a movie that I did not want to be in. People were pointing guns at each other in a crazy kind of stand off. All of my cash was now entirely in my pockets and I signalled to Andy that we should attempt to leave. Andy shook his head slightly in a way that was telling me that we couldn’t. I did not know what to do for the best and it was then that I noticed “Odd Job” running over from the main hallway. If this meant that no one was guarding the door then it also meant that there was no one to stop me from leaving.
I walked calmly away from the table in a scene that was reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in the movie “Firefox” when amid total chaos and confusion, he calmly made his way from the locker room and climbed inside the cockpit of the top secret Russian aircraft. Although I have to admit that Clint probably would not have left with such a wimper but then again, this sure wasn’t Hollywood baby.
I was outside and running through the night, my car was parked nearby and there was no going back for Andy at this stage. The little shit had dropped me in it anyway, if he had scouted this game properly in the first place like he was told to then none of this would have happened. This was my first experience of “backstreet” poker at its worst. I had finished about £600 ($1000) ahead and was out in one piece and after all that do you know what?, I think I actually loved it in a macabre kind of a way. Anyway, whoever said poker players were smart?
This article was written for Bluff Europe Poker magazine and has been reproduced here with their kind permission
