The Almost Legendary ASQ - “You Need To Pay Attention"

[Rick Nebiolo]

Anyone who has read “Play Poker, Quit Work, and Sleep Until Noon” by John Fox has read about the exploits of the “Almost Legendary ASQ”. The “Almost Legendary ASQ” is Art Sathmary, and I have the pleasure of working with him at the Bicycle Casino where he is a prop. While waiting between hands in holdem today, Art told me an incident he witnessed from the heyday of Gardena. I’ll call the story “Sometimes You Need To Pay Attention.”

The game is 10/20 jacks of better draw poker. After the draw, player A was first to act and tosses a single $20 chip into the pot to bet against his lone opponent Player B, and then he looks back at his cards. The chip accidentally rolls across the table and comes to rest near Player B’s stack. Player B picks the chip up and politely tosses it back towards Player A. Player A looks up, sees the chip coming from Player B’s direction, and says: “You got me” and folds.

I guess Player A got his bluff called with his own bet ;-).

Regards,

Rick

[scalf]

/forums/images/icons/cool.gif wow rick, you really gave me a high; we need more stories of the old pros...the draw players, before calif allowed stud and flop games, and what they are doing..etc...gl.... /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

[PokerBabe(aka)]

[Phat Mack]

Good story. I think we had a thread a while back about the true identity of some of John Fox's characters. Now we know who the almost legendary ASQ was.

Is John Fox still around? I wondered whether he was able to make the transition to hold 'em.

[Rick Nebiolo]

Actually, the story was a lot better the way Art told it. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

I'll ask Art on Thursday regarding John Fox but last time I heard John, whom I never met, was not playing poker and in poor health. BTW, Art maintains most of the stories about him in the book were not true.

Regards,

Rick

Why would he fold ? The 20.00 tossed back would be a call not a raise.

[Rick Nebiolo]

He folded because he mistakenly thought his bluff had been snapped off so he tossed his hand into the muck rather than show his hand.

Regards,

Rick

[andyfox]

Art has always been quite a gentleman and was a helluva player. But I remember we played 10-20 draw with $5 chips.

Good story though. The Bike has too class acts in you and Art.

Regards,
Andy

[Rick Nebiolo]

Andy,

Thanks Andy. Art is a real neat guy, a good player, and a gentlemen who never seems to get upset at the table. I need about five more like him right now.

While I was writing the story the chip denominations didn't make sense. But I assume the player had a spare big chip or something. I'll ask Art on Thursday.

Regards,

Rick

[andyfox]

No, don't ask Art, I'm sure you're correct, he happened to have a bigger denomination chip.

A guy who folded to his own bet. That sure is a good story. I once bet after the draw, as a joke, without any cards and the two active players both folded. My 5 friends at the table thought is was very funny, the 2 players, who were strangers, failed to see the humor.

Fortunately, one of them admitted he didn't have openers beat and the pot was awarded to the opener. Ross (now at Commerce) was the floorman and he called me over allegedly to lecture me, and when I got there he whispered that it was the funniest thing he ever saw, look like I'm telling you not to do it again.

[Mason Malmuth]

I remember brown $20 chips in Gardena in the early 1980s. So I'm sure that Art got it right.

By the way, if you see him (and his pal Edmund), tell them I said hello.

Mason

[Tommy Angelo]

"we need more stories of the old pros...the draw players, before calif allowed stud and flop games, and what they are doing..etc...gl.... "

Here's one:
---------------------------------

Mark Sherman’s Famous Card-Ripping Hand, A True Story

by Tommy Angelo

With $50,000 on the line, Mark Sherman ripped his cards in half before the betting was finished, and still won the pot. It happened in 1958, when a movie cost fifty cents, freeways were a new invention, and I was but a fetus. Artichoke Joe’s had Hell’s Angels at the bar, paper cards at the tables, and no-limit draw-poker was the only game in town.

Most every poker player in the Bay Area knows Mark Sherman. He holds the ever-growing record for most deck-change requests. He can come off as a sourpuss, as he did when we met three years ago. But I soon found that under his crusty exterior lies a good heart. Along with his chiseled frown and harsh tone come a quick smile and a booming laugh. Yeah, this guy is all right.

I recently met with Mark to get the whole story about a legendary lowball hand. His enthusiastic delivery painted a vivid picture of a time and place forever gone.

“Back in the late fifties,” he reminisced, Artichoke Joe’s was a sawdust joint, a western bar, with all sorts of real western stuff all over the place, right from the trails, like a museum. There were only seven poker tables. Two tables had jail bars around them that Joe bought when they closed the old Hall of Justice.

“Most everyone was packing a piece. There was even a lookout tower outside where an armed employee watched and protected patrons going to their cars at 2:00 AM, closing time.

“Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday the place was packed! Couldn’t move in there. Loud, crazy, and colorful. It was really something else. It was really something else.

“The blinds were $5-$5-$10,” Mark recalled, “but that was immaterial that night because Nick Sahati was killing it for $400 on every hand, making it $800 minimum to open.
Nick had over $50,000 in chips on the table. I was the only player close to him. I had about $25,000.

“Tackhammer opened for $1,100. Nick made it $4,500. Four of us stayed in. I was under the gun, drawing one card to a bicycle. They call it a ‘wheel’ these days. It’s the best possible hand at lowball: 5-4-3-2-ace. Nick was in the catbird seat, last to act. All four of us drew one card.

“After the draw, I looked real fast at the card I drew. I caught a deuce, giving me a bicycle. In Northern California back then, you could still check-raise with anything because the ‘seven or better rule’ had not yet made its way north from the Los Angeles area.

“I was in my mid-thirties, and real emotional, even more than now if you can imagine that. So I put on a little act. I got this pained look on my face and I bent my cards around in my hands. I was cussing like crazy, and then I ripped my cards clean in half while I screamed, ‘Check!’

“The other two guys checked, and now it was Nick’s turn. He got all puffed up and said, ‘Now we’ll separate the men from the boys.’ Then he moved all-in. I shoved in all of my $25,000 to call. The other guys folded.

“Nick almost fell out of his chair when I called. He spread his hand: 8-5-4-2-ace. I said, “I’ve got a bicycle.” Then I turned over my five-card hand, which happened to be in ten pieces.

“All hell broke lose. It was crazy. Artichoke came over to the table . . .”

“Artichoke?” I asked.

Mark’s voice cracked to a higher pitch, “Artichoke Joe! He ran the joint up to the early nineties. Don’t you know anything?”

“Well, I know you’ve got to be mighty strong to rip a bicycle in half. Is Artichoke still around?”

Mark laughed. “Yeah, he’s still kicking. He just had a party on his 85th birthday. So anyway, Artichoke came over and asked me if I had all ten pieces. I said sure. Then Artichoke said to wait a minute, and he went to the phone.

“Artichoke called Cliff over at the Oaks Club for a second opinion. Meanwhile, old Nick Sahati was going nuts.

“Cliff asked Artichoke if all the pieces of the cards matched up. Joe said yes, they did. Cliff said that he agreed with Artichoke, my hand was still live.

“Joe came back to the table and made his ruling. My hand plays, and I win the pot, fair and square.”

I asked, “When you ripped your cards, weren’t you worried that your hand might be ruled dead?”

“That never even occurred to me,” Mark said. “I had the nuts, right there for all to see.” Then he laughed and added, “But this was a one-time-only situation. The next day Artichoke Joe made a brand new rule about mutilating cards.”

People like Mark Sherman are time machines. All we have to do is listen. Thanks, Mark, for this journey.

[Ray Zee]

tommy when you see mark sherman next time tell him he owes me a dinner for his bad recommendations on where to eat. he will know what you mean, and probably yak some more to you. good luck.