fundoopoker.com

I looked at the Tournament Lobby on Fulltilt Poker on the registered player’s list.

The shortest name looked the longest ‘durrrr’.  

The feeling was overwhelming, it felt like Sachin Tendulkar came and played cricket with us & that too…..on our terrace………and on a under-arm cricket match.

Okay, so here how it happened, a week ago I was sitting on my desk at work, a typical dull day in office. Whoever came up with that saying ‘ An idle mind is a devil’s workshop’ must be a person who is the marketing manager of the Devil’s, and desperately trying to promote the Devil’s company. 

As for me, As my idle mind was the main factor for the tournament to come into existence...as my ‘idle’ began to wander…it drifted to the poker world, the always ever-green place where I am the upcoming star of the world, where I was Stu Ungar and Chip Reese reincarnated, where I am eating Idly-sambar with Phil Ivey on the sets of Poker After dark, making huge prop bets such as ‘Vegetarian Bet’ for a whole year for 1 million $, Poor Philley Boy does’nt know India’s population is almost 50% vegetarian. And the best Veg foods are here, Sucker!!!

Riinnnnng Riinnnnggg (office phone rings) 

‘Hello, Oh yes, that file will be ready soon, Give me like an hour’.

 Ho boy! If you keep disturbing poker players while they day-dream at work, how will they ever dream? Are’nt dreams the main ingredients for success?? 

Then suddenly I had a brainwave, Why don’t I try to make a part of my dreams into reality? For my brother’s birthday next week, why don’t I ask Big pros to come and play with us on online poker? Sounds good! Hmmm…..yea, tweet them, post messages on their walls, request them on the rail…Anything.

Riiiinnnnggg Rinnnnnng

Oops, Thinking about the mentioned items in above paragraphs took me an hour already? Wow! I’ll do so well in Multi-tabling online!

So later that evening, I started railing poker pros online (on fulltilt) . The usual conversation went like this:

‘Hi Beth Shak’

‘Hi’

’Would you like to play in my brother’s birthday tournament on fulltilt?’

‘mayb latr tks’

’please register now, it would mean a lot to me & especially my brother’

..

..

..

‘ummm…Beth shak, u there??’

..

..

..

..

‘Hi Beth Shak, You are so beautiful, pls register, we are waiting ☺

..

..

..

..

(Silence on the Chatbox.)

..

..

Observer: ‘go away, Tiger, go bother someone else’

..

..

At 1st, you don’t succeed, try try again…Asked almost every red-pros who were online that time. The usual response was ‘maybe later’. Yea, maybe later indeed! It never happened. Things were’nt looking good. And then I hit a silver mine (can’t call it gold in poker world level), I finally got a seat in Mr. Marlon Shirley’s cash game table, I requested him to register for my brother’s game, He agreed immediately and registered. YAAY! (for those who do not know him, He’s a paralympic Champion athlete who is also a fulltilt pro).

So Next time I asked a pro, it went like this:

‘Hi Frank’ (Frank Thompson, WSOP bracelet winner)

‘Hi’

‘Would you mind playing in a tournament? Even Marlon Shirley, champion athelete is playing’

‘ok’

’….and its for my brother’s birthday too, oh! You’ve already registered, Thanks!!’

So, this way, Martin got around requesting Pros to register for his game. He even tweeted Legends like Mr. Doyle Brunson but his eyesight must have been weak and missed my 6-7 tweets trying to get his attention.

God knows, how many pros I tweeted on twitters, Then 3 days before the tournament I receive a reply from non other than Tom Dwan, however the reply seemed pretty misguided and vague ‘whr’. 

I did’nt know whether he knew what I was asking, or he was under the impression that I was one of those rich businessman from Macau inviting him to those sick high stakes games. Nevertheless, I braced up myself, pulled up my pajamas, and replied in the most charming way possible 

‘ Yo Durrrr Bro, Its on fulltilt, Jst for some small dough to keep my Bro’s birthday Happening, Respect,!! Peace out’

Actually I wished I wrote that, instead I replied ‘ Dear Mr.Dwan, Thank you very much for your response, The tourney is on fulltilt, It would mean the world to us if you would register’, I even almost thought of writing my brother was in hospital and all those emotional pressure.

So back to present, here we are waiting eagerly for the tournament to start, remember it’s a $1 tournament Hold’em & Omaha Mix game with 14 players registered. Mr. Alan Boston was also playing. (if you don’t know who he is, you have to watch him on youtube, he’s one of a kind)

Around an hour to go, one of my dear friend Avi unregistered!! Whhhaaa???

’why…what…..why?’

‘ I don’t know how to play Omaha, I’ll save this $1’

“OMG! It’s jst a dollar!! I don’t know whether you will be able to play with Tom Dwan in your life’

She was already in 1-2 cents table. This was something I considered more stranger than the Bermuda triangle or Loch ness monster, more stranger than Jamie gold winning WSOP ME. Till This day, I never figured out why she unregistered. Recently, I heard that she has become a big manager in a corporate firm and occasionally stares out the window and cries after lunch break everyday.

(Yea, I totally made up the last part)

The tournament started, and we were all pretty much excited, and then the Chatbox was filled with request for password for the tourney( private tourneys have passwords). I warned all my friends not to give the password out cause then the game would be filled out in seconds and it would hardly be special.

The Chatbox was literally jammed with comments, you could hardly see the dealer’s chat & game information.

Some of the best comments on the rail I saw were these:

‘Who’s Joe? It’s his birthday tournament?’

’Yes, he’s on the next table’ I replied.

(Quickly goes to my brother’s table) 

’Hi Joe, Happy Birthday!’

‘Ty’

’Password please’

Boy! This guy’s technique is so good, he must be getting lots of dates with girls with his skills

Another chat:

’Hi, can anyone give the PW, I want to play with Durrrr too’

‘Is that him really’

‘Looks like it, it can’t be Phil Hellmuth, right?’ such a warm response from My good friend Ramit who was playing in the other computer.

‘Password’

‘No’

My brother never received so many birthday wishes within 2 minutes as he has received in his whole life. He was busy replying ‘Ty’ ‘ty’ ‘sorry, can’t give password’

After the longest 2 mins (late registration time) finally, the registration was closed! I kinda felt bad for the players who really wanted to play, it was a golden opportunity. But like they say in Poker ‘Aim to win pots not hearts’

(yes! I totally made that one up again).

The game was very exciting, Mr. Alan Boston was chatting on the box with everyone more than playing. My friend Pankyb was trying to figure out why he was dealt 4 cards instead of 2. Kenen was pretty much trying to figure where the ‘call’ and ‘fold’ button were. Leon, the Nutbustr was feeling very comfortable in his bear avatar.

As the game progressed, players got eliminated in quick succession, actually mainly for the fact that for a non-omaha player, 4 cards were just too attractive and too difficult to fold! Lol!

After a short while, there was the Final Table:

Seat 1: Whitelilyk9, My sweet friend Susana whose anger is more stronger than her 3-barrel bluffs on poker table. 

Seat2: Mr. Alan Boston, he claims Megan fox once asked him out on a date which he politely refused.

Seat 3: Panda Leon, He believes 1st to act is a better position because you can go all-in before anyone else.

Seat 4: Tiger Martin (me), There has been claims that he is the Phil ivey of Play chips!

Seat 5: Durrrrr, Some online player

Seat 6: Utamausi, My Online friend from Germany.

Mr. Alan Boston was completely dominating the table with his chip lead and his table talks. (He’s actually really funny, He’s got jokes to tell on every hand)

Finally, I busted Tom Dwan with those impossible straight draws and it felt like I had accomplished 65% of my Poker goals in life.

And then, my Friend Leon busted me with my aces with those impossible straight draws and it felt like he has accomplished 100% of his poker goals in life.

At the End, Mr. Boston won! It was one of the best games I’ve ever played online. Not a single dull moment. Well, Maybe these are my initial small baby steps in Poker. I can just imagine sitting on a high stakes poker game one day with Tom Dwan or possibly Mr. Boston and telling them about this tourney. It would be one helluva story for a good poker news, is’nt it?

Till next time, Bye Folks!