The time i played 1-5 stud with Phil Ivey

[Smoothcall]

It was in the mid 90's in a atlantic city casino. I was beginning my poker career and was the "hometown hero". So i was grinding my way to a solid win one weekend +100 sumthin and it looked like the game was about to die. Until this kid walked up who looked like he was 15 tops. I said well they let him in. Maybe he just has a baby face. Anyway he sits down and his girlfriend(not sure if his wife today but maybe) suts behind him. He proceeds to raise every single hand up to the max $6 and continue to fire to the river almost always. I said to myself this kid is nuts! He continued until he lost it all. Took few more bills out of pocket and cont inued til he lost all of it. I was amazed at his fearlessnes. He never slowed down. Btw he never said a word excpet to whisper to his girlfriend. The when it was all gone he politely got up nodded at the dealer like seeya tomorrow then left after an hour. I was running good against him and everyone and made a nice score that night. This is usual in most casinos and i have seen it before. But for some reason i rembered him and this session.

Ok then fastforward to vegas few years later. I moved to vegas couple years back. I decide to enter a night orleans open(you know there summer semi big tournies) event. We sit down and the first thing i notice is this kid. And i knew his face. I said i know him form AC and almnost instantly remebered the 1-5 session with him. How i remembered this i dont know. I have a good memeory for things like this. Anyway he was a bit older and taller but still had the baby face. I wanted to ask him if he was form AC to just verify it was him but i didnt know him so didnt say anything. So he proceeds to play EVERY HAND! I couldnt believe it. I said this kid in nuts! There was a difference this time though. He didnt lose all his chips playing every hand. HE DESTROYED US! It was only an hour or hour and half til first break and it seemed as he won almsot every hand. I never have seen such a rush and devastating pummeling he put on. I coulndt figure out how he wasnt going broke let alone destroying us. Same as last time never said a word. He had that crazy eye look you see sometimes on tv these days. The break came and he was late getting up from his chair and he was still stacking his chips from the last 4 hands in a row he won. So i said to him "wow nice job. You can relax and slow down now you got tons of chips". He then said "nope you can never have enough chips" smiled i smiled then we went on break. After the break they broke are table shortly thereafter. I went broke little while later. But came back later to check out the action and wondering if he won the tourney. He was no where to be found at the money tables. But i said to myslef this kid i will see again.

Then a little less or little more than a year later he won his first wsop bracelet and had never looked back since.

Hope this was mildy interesting. I was just thinking about it and wanted to share.