Celebrity Poker

I've had a couple of celebrity poker experiences in our time here.
First, I played with Godsmack lead singer Sully Erna early on in our visit. He is not very good at poker but was a nice guy.
The other night, four of us went to Bellagio, and while waiting for our seats we were walking through the high stakes area to check out the bigger games. Randomly, someone said, "You guys must be on the Harvard football team!" and then started laughing hysterically. I looked up, and Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce is pointing right at us. I hadn't even noticed him. I'm guessing the Harvard football thing was some kind of inside joke. I gave him a quizzical look and then knocked 12 people over running to the front desk to sign up for the $10-20 no-limit game he was at.
My buddy Jason asked to take a picture with the 2008 NBA Finals MVP, but Pierce said he only takes pictures during certain hours. My attempt to play poker with an athlete who makes millions of dollars and probably stinks at poker was also thwarted, as Pierce left before my name was called for the game.
The next night, I played for several hours at the Aria, the nicest and newest casino on the strip. Lots of poker's high rollers play there. I actually took the seat of 2003 World Series of Poker main event champion Chris Moneymaker, who had moved on to a bigger game. Moneymaker was reportedly about 12 drinks deep, according to the guy next to me who was matching him drink for drink. It was pretty comical watching my tablemate and Moneymaker walk toward each other for a farewell greeting a couple of hours later. Each of them was wobbling quite heavily. First I thought my tablemate was going to topple over, then I was sure Moneymaker was going down. But they finally made it to each other so the man-hug could hold them both semi-upright.
The rest of the guys were across the street at the MGM, which is a good place to make some easy money at the lower-limit games. They don't offer a game higher than $2-5, which means none of the high-rolling pros are there, which means the games are full of bad-playing tourists. I decided to walk from the Aria over there at about 11 p.m. to play for a couple hours before we went home.
At about 1 a.m., I was quite surprised to see 2006 World Series of Poker main event champion Jamie Gold take a seat at the table next to mine. I knocked over 12 people running to the front desk to get on the list for that game. I figured having a story to tell was worth more than staying at my game, no matter the result.
To show how poker exploded in popularity after 2003, Moneymaker won $2.5 million for winning the WSOP. Three years later, Gold won $12 million. But Gold hasn't had the smoothest ride since his big payday. He got sued for half of the $12 million and is basically considered to be broke.
I quickly got a seat at his table, and it was the most action-packed table I've been at in years. It was quite bizarre. Gold was known for his big bluffs during his WSOP win, and I guess everyone at the table wanted to impress him. People were bluffing right and left, and nobody wanted to get bluffed so they were calling all the bets with any pair. Meanwhile, Gold himself really wasn't playing any pots. Neither was I -- the cards weren't really cooperating and I sure didn't want to try to bluff this table of maniacs.
I was sitting directly to Gold's right, and he was a pretty nice guy. He's a huge Dodgers fan and when he heard that I was from Oklahoma we spent a few minutes talking about All-Star centerfielder Matt Kemp, who hails from Midwest City.
It did seem more than a little odd that Gold was playing a small-stakes poker game at 3 a.m. when he was supposed to be playing the main event of the World Series a few hours later. About 12 times he said, "I have to quit. I'm playing the main event tomorrow!" Then he kept saying, "I'm only playing three more hands, I promise." After about 50 more hands, he actually did quit, at about 4 a.m.
In this town more than any other in America, you really never know who you might run in to, even when you least expect it.