Lou Kriegers MARGE Trip Report, Part 3
Sitting in the Mississippi Long Bar with Steve 'Ice' Eisenstein, drowning my sorrows in a plate of red beans and rice after being unceremoniously eliminated from today's no-limit hold'em tournament, I experience an epiphany of sorts, about why I like this place so much. It has everything to do with those who work here. During a break in Saturday's tournament a spread of food was brought out for the players and anyone else who happened to be in the general vicinity. Nothing unusual about that, of course; the same thing happens at many tournaments.
But what was uncommon was that most of the items and all the desserts were hand baked and homemade by the Grand's poker room staff. They did this on their own time, on their own money, and they did it for no other reason than they enjoy having the MARGE revelers playing in their poker room.
From afar it's easy for hard boiled New Yorkers, all-too-trendy Californians, and slick Las Vegas gamblers to write off the idea of southern hospitality as some outdated notion that grew out of one too many readings of Gone With the Wind, but down here in southern Mississippi, on a long stretch of Gulf Coast beach, where people still say 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' and mean it, the gracious and hospitable content of most people's character is simple, honest, real, and refreshing.
I think everyone here was genuinely touched by the fact that casinos employees took the time to cook and bake for their customers - we are, after all, once-a-year visitors for the most part - and made all of us feel like we had been invited into someone's home for dinner. The idea of employees lovingly preparing a meal for their employees in other parts of the country is simply unimaginable. While some of the spreads at other poker tournaments are lavish, tasty, and enjoyable, there's nothing quite like knowing that someone gave up some of their own time to cook a meal just for you.
Poker Manager Tony Collins, his staff and employees, all deserve this MARGER's thanks for the care and attention lavished on us all. Many people think the Grand Casino Biloxi's poker room is one of the most enjoyable rooms in the country to play in, and I agree. And when one stops to think about why that might be so, the answer is obvious. It's the people who work there.
So if a trip to MARGE is to be thought of as a poker vacation, it really lives up to its billing. If a vacation is supposed to rest and recharge one's inner spirit, the incredible level of customer care and service lavished on us by the poker room's management and staff goes a long way toward making that happen.
Even if I did lose a significant chunk of my chips in yesterday's no limit tournament with pocket kings - a hand that's killed more and better poker players than me - and even if I was finally knocked out of the event on one of those dreaded 'classic confrontations' when the A-K I was holding never improved and I lost to a pocket pair of eights, I was happy. I love MARGE, and it's the people at the Grand who make it so.
It didn't even give me a moment's pause when I flopped a set of tens that improved to a full house in a $15-$30 cash game, only to lose to a one-outer on the river. All I said was, 'Nice hand,' and I meant it. I did not speak in that drippingly sarcastic RGP manner we use among ourselves, 'Nice hand sir, well played.' I said 'Nice hand,' and meant it.
I was in the big blind with K-T, three or four players limped in, and my adversary raised from late position. Everyone called his raise. I bet out on the flop when I saw that two tens and a rag had jumped up on the board. There were one or two callers along with our adversary. I checked a ragged turn and raised when he bet, which left us heads up going to the river. He called. I knew I held the best hand at that point. He would not have raised before the flop with any hand that could have give him a full house on the turn, and because he was an aggressive player, he probably would have three-bet me if he had A-T.
The river card was a king. Now I had a full house and didn't give a damn about the chances that my read of his hand on the turn might have been wrong. But my opponent had raised before the flop with pocket kings, called a checkraise with a pair on board, caught the case king on the river - the one card in the deck that could beat me - and won a pretty good chunk of change for his troubles.
The hand did not disturb me. I didn't have to get up and go for a walk around the casino to cool myself down. I just tossed my cards into the muck and went on to the next hand.
At some point I grew tired, slightly pokered out, the home-cooked meal had worn off, and the tables full of all those desserts were by now long gone, so Ice and I ambled off to the Mississippi Long Bar where the ambiance of the darkened room, bowls of chili, plates of onion rings, and red beans and rice will probably cure most anything. We talked of poker and ARG events, and how we particularly love MARGE, until we finished every morsel on our plates. Then we talked some more until we finally pushed ourselves away from the table in response to the siren song of clattering chips we imagined but could not hear.
If you're new to this forum, might have read about events like BARGE, MARGE, AT-LARGE, FARGO, and ESCARGOT but have never attended one, do yourself a favor and get on a plane or gas up your car and go. I guarantee you a good time. And it's the people as much as the poker.
If you're like most thoughtful poker players you've probably arrived at the same conclusion most of us have: Many players you meet at a poker table are people you wouldn't want to have anything to do with outside of poker, but about ten percent are among the most interesting and fascinating people you could ever hope to meet.
Well, mon ami, it's this ten percent, a self-selected minority of poker's brightest and best, that you'll find at every ARG event. After all, to quote perennial ARG event attendee Peter Secor, 'There are no strangers here, just friends you haven't met yet.' He's right too. Better start planning your trip right now. The next ARG event is ESCARGOT, in southern California at the Bike, in February 2003. See you there.
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