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View Full Version : A Hurricane with Chips


JimRivett
02-07-2004, 01:21 PM
This past Monday I had to go to Compton, and afterwards I decided to visit the Bike. I wander in and see an open spot in an 8/16 game. The open seat is seat 6, ASQ is in the 7 spot, Steve is in 8 and Rick Nebiolo is in seat 9. Rick and ASQ you may be familiar with, but Steve, well he is an entertaining fellow. I don't think that there is a starting hard that he doesn't like nor is there one that he doesn't like to raise with. You can usually find him most lunch times at the Bike where he puts food in his mouth and chips in the pot.

I sit down as the big blind is due and Art looks at me and asks if I want to take the big blind. I look at a short stacked Steve and decide I'll wait for my chips to arrive before engaging. Art posts and gives me that "so you're gonna let him raise my big blind" look. True to form Steve raises and goes all in on the turn, at which point he decides to look at his cards. Due to the fact that even maniacs get good hands sometimes Steve drags the pot after turning 2 pair, his hole cards were AK.

Well to make a long story short Steve goes on the mother of all rushes, in his remaining 30 minutes he racks up over 5 racks, that's over $1000.00. He is raising incessently and showing some really aweful starting hands, but they all seem to catch the board. I know he wants to stay but his pager and cell phone keep sounding and he departs back to work.

Fast forward to yesterday, Friday, and I'm in the Bike again and again it's lunch time and I'm waiting for an 8/16 game to start. And you'll never guess who I see snifing around the tables looking for an open seat, first he takes a look at the 6/12 omaha, then he surveys the no limit game, not trying to size up the players but just looking for an empty chair. The main difference being that it is casual Friday and Steve is without a tie. After a few minutes an 8/16 games starts and I take the 2 spot, Steve is in the 5 seat. I smile and nod in his direction and he smiles back. I comment on his rush from Monday and he just laughs and says "Yeah, but it's all gone now". Unfortunately for Steve, his good fortune from Monday had disappeared and he experienced a $400.00 lunch. He did however leave with the same smiling face he always wears just as he always does.

Rick Nebiolo
02-07-2004, 03:42 PM
Jim,

Thanks for your story and I will verify at least half of it is true (the $1000 rush, part of which came off my stack /images/graemlins/tongue.gif ).

In past posts both here and on RGP I've expressed my strongly held belief that that some players/customers drive more "customers hours" * away than they give you in actual play. Steve is the opposite extreme. Even if Steve was a rock solid player, he'd be fun to play with and someone you'd want in your game. Combine his great attitude with his "action style", and you have a someone that is worth several normal customers and someone who is infinitely more valuable than the customer discussed in this RGP exchange (http://tinyurl.com/343aw) mostly between Barbara Gallamore, Diane From Green Bay, Steve Nissman and myself deep within this entertaining and informative thread originally started by Speed Racer, a.k.a. Kenneth Ng. BTW, this was the thread I asked if you read a day or so ago.

In yesterdays 8/16 game the "EB" discussed in the RGP thread slow-rolled three players (he tried to slow-roll me, but he overlooked the fact I had the winning hand!), got in a big argument with an adjoining player, and otherwise caused his usual unpleasantness. Several players then got up and the game broke at a time when it shouldn't have.

Unfortunately, EB gives us about 60 hours of play a week (and I would guess roughly drives away about 300 customer hours), ending up with a net loss of about six full time customers.

OTOH, Steve probably plays only about 20 hours or so a week. I'd estimate Steve's 20 hours is worth about 120 customer hours (or three full time customers), simply because many people come to the Bike to play with people like Steve (and we have many other good customers, including a similar one also named Steve!).

Anyway, thanks again for your story.

Regards,

Rick

* Regarding driving away “customer hours”, rarely does one unpleasant customer who plays for example 30 hours drive away a single customer who would otherwise play 30 hours. Usually, each unpleasant customer is a small part of the reason many customers not play at the Bike or other card clubs. Add up the bits and pieces and it comes up to 30 hours in my example. Of course, some customers are enjoyable to play with in some people’s opinion while disliked by many others and visa versa. Even EB discussed above is liked by a few and Steve probably disliked by the type of player who doesn’t like “too much action”.

JimRivett
02-07-2004, 08:49 PM
Hello Rick,

If "EB" is an older gentleman who is, how can I say it, almost as round as he is tall, then I know him as Abraham. I've played with him at the Commerce over the years and only in the past 6-9 months have seen him at the Bike. I've noticed him in that 10/20 game and felt he may be reason enough to take a seat. The first time I played with him was in a 20/40 game at the Commerce prior to the "new" top section and before the hotel was built. All the games were in the same area, anyway he's in the game and obviously doesn't belong there for a number of reasons. Well next time I'm there I wander over to the deli, which is where they used to spread the 1/2 and 2/4 games, and here's Abraham playing 2/4 and in a debate with the dealer and about three other players, with the floorman coming to the rescue. I've never really been botherd by his act, although I've seen him irritate others at the table.

Regards,
Jim