A whole lot has happened since my last update in July! Most of you that would read this are well aware of all this news, but, for purposes of looking back on this crazy summer in twenty years when I’m just a has-been and 90% of Texas Hold ‘Em players are humanoid robots, figured I might as well get it in writing. Speaking of - when they build a robot version of Phil Ivey, could Phil Ivey still read it’s soul and crush it? Safe money is on Phil Ivey. Can’t wait for that Poker After Dark episode.

Someone say Poker After Dark?? My biggest celebrity friend and noted thorn in Norman Chad’s side, The Jeff Platt of Poker GO, had quite a debut. With a few big names at the table - Brandon Cantu and Mike The Mouth - Jeff more than held his own and more than doubled his $10,000 buy in. He even had a sick 7-2 preflop 4-bet for a nice pot plus the $200 per player bonus. All of that, in itself, would be noteworthy news, but as a cherry on top, yours truly was able to grab a little poker-on-TV sweat. Thanks to that receipt of funds, wife and I got us a new fridge. In his honor, the fancy crushed ice on the door is now referred to as “Platt Ice”. I have not cleared this with Jeff.

In local news, Mark Tucker (team fade member - I just have been lazy about updating our team members page) had himself a few nice scores this summer. Following his cash at the WSOP, the momentum has continued locally and at Winstar in cash games and some dailies. I think he’s up like, about $2M. Or a few thousand. I don’t know, somewhere in that range. All I know is the dude wins, and he wins a lot.

Although Vegas was a break even trip for me this summer, I was able to score a nice little run in Shreveport in August. RunGood has real momentum in the South right now, and the tournament series they are running are among the best I’ve ever played. The main event was a very reasonable $460, and it drew over 400 players. I was able to run all the way to 17th for an almost $4k score, albeit on my second bullet. PokerNews captured some pretty nice pictures of the event, and just having them there reporting made the whole thing really feel...big time, even if it is sort of the AAA league to the WPT/WSOP still. 

At that event, I saw something I’ve never seen before in the thousands of hours spent playing in a casino - blatant, ballsy, outright old west cheating. Here’s the story, and buckle up.

At two tables, we were 19 handed and at 18, there was a little $500 pay jump. Obviously, at this stage, every single hand is critical. There’s two or three stacks that are playing 60+ big bling stacks, but for the rest of us, every hand we decide to play has a high likelihood of getting all-in. It’s almost like this weird game of poker chicken, with everyone giving each other the side eye, saying, “I’ll just wait for the next guy to bust, THEN I’ll get involved...”

At blinds of 30k, 60k, with a 60k big blind ante, a guy two seats to my left had one single 25k chip. We had just come back from break, and he was in the small blind. He’s all in, blind.

Cards are dealt, and the first guy to act folds his cards. Now, poker etiquette dictates that, if something happened and there was a mis-deal (you got 3 cards or 1 card somehow), you alert the table BEFORE action takes place. That did not happen. After the fold, ole short stack pipes up and tells the dealer he only has one card. 

[note: Stalling in general like this has been a relatively recent, very uncool poker tournament trend. The whole point is to waste enough time that a player at another table busts, and you ladder up, essentially by default. While not illegal, it’s super bush league.]

To paint the picture even more, this dealer is an absolute boss. I saw her dealing in Vegas this summer, and I’ve seen her at various series for ten years. She’s a pro’s pro. Immediately, myself and a few others smell something foul.

The floor is called, and all of the players are asked to move away from the table. The other table pauses and watches. Sure enough - the dealer counts the cards and only has 51, including the cards dealt. Less than 5 minutes ago, there was a fully spread deck on the table for all the cameras to see. David effing Copperfield would be amazed.

The next thirty minutes can only be described as bizarre, awkward, and a little like being on a hidden camera show. As the casino asked us to roll up our sleeves, empty our pockets, took the table apart, and searched the dude’s bag, I kept expecting Ashton to jump out from under a table. (If you don’t get that - ask your MTV generation friends)

Finally, cameras are checked and confirm the guy got two cards. He receives a very thoughtful escort to the parking lot and zero dollars for this impressive magic trick, and we resume the business of playing cards. 

So, what happened? 

About ten minutes after we resume, a dealer across the room yells that they’ve found the card under a cup holder. Somehow, the guy (pretty skillfully, like, he’s done it before), slid the card underneath it and managed to get it to stick to the bottom. In all the commotion of searching the table, he had, again, skillfully, moved that cup holder to another table. 

In a casino, where literally every inch of the room is covered with a camera, this is not only incredibly stupid for an extra $500, it’s almost virtually impossible. So, props to that guy I guess. You shot your shot and bricked it. 

Otherwise, it’s relatively quiet these days on the poker front. I haven’t caught up that much sadly with our Stephenville cowboy Mr. Prince, but I have seen a few updates of him with stacks of chips in front of him. He’s sort of like Batman. You never know where he might show up, but when he does, some ish is likely going down.

On the life front however, not so much.

The Barreracudas are expecting a baby girl in January, and, if you know those two, it won’t slow them down one bit. While all of #teamfade misses them greatly, I have no doubt that in 2020, the Boss and Super Mario will pick things right back up on the tables. Babies needs new shoes, after all.

And lastly, I’m very happy to report that Mr. James Vaughn is expecting his own pocket Aces, twin boys to be exact, in October. Literally like, any day now. Expect future Fade The Spades events to now include changing tables and childcare. 

I love this game, my friends in it, and the joy it brings to all of our lives. But let’s be honest, sometimes you just....don’t feel like seeing someone show up on the river with 10-7, knowing they hung around with a gut shot straight draw only to hit it. It’s fall, football and TV are in full swing, personal lives are busy, and we aren’t playing this game to make a living. Sometimes poker just...gets tossed in the backseat for a while. That’s the case for me for a while, but cheers to 2019. It was a good, profitable (slightly, thankfully) year, and I’m looking forward to continuing the journey.

Let’s make a vow to ourselves and to each other that we keep poker, this game, in perspective. New fade the spades kiddos, school for Mario and Jim, work/life balance - it’s all key to not only winning at the table, but also in life.

Cheers to each of you. I’ll see ya when I see ya. Until then, I’ll be changing some diapers and cranking out some spreadsheets in a cube somewhere.

#teamfade

Colton