While I was in Vegas, I played against several big-name professional players. I saw Seidel, Negreanu, Brunson, Raymer and Ho numerous times, though I didn"t recognise Negreanu the first time with his new dark hair colour. There were a few that I had closer dealings with:
Barry Greenstein
Two to my right in the Stud tournament, with an empty seat between us until Steve Sung arrived. He didn"t say much. Spent most of the game watching basketball and golf on the telly and discussing his bets on them with the guy beside him, while playing poker on his tablet. I got into one particular hand with him and he spoke to me afterwards "We both had what we said we had". Oh mercy, I"ll never wash that hand again.
Steve Sung
An Asian guy arrived late and sat in the seat to my right. "Hi Barry. You were on my first final table. Maybe it"s an omen". Oh crikey, that doesn"t sound good. So this guy has had multiple final tables? He turned out to be Steve Sung, who has already reached fourteen final tables and won two bracelets. He turned out to be the luckiest player I have ever played against. For some reason, I kept getting big starting hands and whenever he completed on 3rd street, I reraised. This happened about ten times in succession - whenever he opened, I reraised. If I was him, I"d have been sick of it, but he never showed any indication of annoyance. I won several pots, not just against him, and got up to 10k from an starting stack of 4.5k. Then it started to go wrong and he had a succession of hands where he backed into straights, when he shouldn"t have been in the hand. I remember him filling one on 7th against me for a big pot, when he should have folded earlier and then, the very next hand, he completed and I reraised, holding (AK)A. He was holding (T8)Q, but completed and then called the reraise. I caught another K on 4th, while he got a 9, called another bet and hit a J on 5th for a totally disguised straight, with three rounds of betting to go. I lost loads in that hand, but I was WTF internally when I saw his cards. He was chip-leader at the end of the day and finished an undeserved 9th imo. He did make another final table later in a 2500-runner event though, so maybe he gets the benefit of the doubt.
Sam Farha
We were already well in the money in the Seniors when I got moved. I had just lost most of my chips, so probably looked like a nitty hanger-on. I was in seat 9, Simon Trumper was facing me in 6, Farha in 7, both with lots of chips. Trumper recognised me, as we had recently played an extraordinary hand at the GUKPT in London, where he raised my BB, but mixed up the chips due to being colour-blind, and raised to 9,000 when he meant to raise to 450, which resulted in him losing his whole stack (not to me). Anyway, I wasn"t there long, though both of them followed me out soon after.
Phil Hellmuth
I didn"t play against him, but I saw plenty of him. He was on the table next to me at one point. Later, I watched him in the late stages of another tournament. If you know the Amazon Room, there is an area with four tables where the penultimate stages are played and where you can sit on raised seats right over the players. Anyway, there were fourteen left in this tournament and a guy moved all-in against Hellmuth on the River and then produced a large plastic space-gun and offered it down the table for Hellmuth to zap him. Hellmuth - "I was going to call but you"ve convinced me. I fold." Good decision, I expect. Hellmuth was butting heads with the guy next to him, who was giving it back just as much. This got Hellmuth into full flow. "Are you out of your mind?", "Look Sonny,............." - all his usual phrases. His antagoniser promised to take all his chips. I wandered off and came back half an hour later. Hellmuth was still there, but there was no sign of the other guy. Whether that was as a result of their spat, I don"t know. However, I do know that they were in a dark corner with no cameras around, yet Hellmuth was giving him the full treatment, so it ain"t done just for the cameras.
Erika Moutinho
I got into a big hand against Erika quite early in my other Holdem tournament. I had QQ and raised pre-Flop. Flop was 4xx and she called a bet. The Turn was another 4 and she bet. Hmmm, I don"t like this so much but the bet isn"t that big; I have to call. River Q - Kerrching! She led out and I asked to see her stack (she was at the other end). "It"s a bit early, but I"ll call if you go all in" she told me. Oh really? Okay, all in. She called. I felted a pro!
Mukul Pahuja
On my table late on Day 1 of the same tournament - see above. Been tearing up the WPT and went on to finish 101st in the Main Event this year. Didn"t say much.
Ken Aldridge
What, you"ve never heard of him? He"s not a pro, but he did win a bracelet in 2009. He was on my table towards the end of Day 1 in the Seniors event and he was wearing the bracelet, which was very shiny. He had the sleeves of his hoodie pushed up a bit to show it and told us that he has worn it every day since he won it. Along with the bracelet, he also has another quirk. Don"t know if you can spot it:
