Blog of Bling #6- "Railing" ain't easy

Trues came to town last week to play in the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in London. After two weeks of 70 degrees F and sunny, it poured rain for 3 straight days in the 50’s when he arrived. At least he got to see the real London…

Anyway, he survived day 1 of the tournament with a few more chips than with which he started. And it just so happened, that as Trues flew into town, my two bosses flew out, which allowed me to take a “mini-holiday” without too much notice. (Just for the record, I have no equipment yet, so I’m not really working, per se, just sitting at my desk and acting busy…i.e. writing blogs)

So I decided to go watch Trues play Day 2 of the tournament. By no fault of my own (the district line is shit), I was an hour late. I found a great spot on the rail behind Trues and watched him move all in about 4 times in the first hour. I’m pretty sure that I was the more nervous of the two. Sitting to the left of him was some old guy with a bracelet who was apparently pretty popular. And while I didn’t know who the old man was, I certainly knew all the professionals from the tele that kept coming over, moving me out of the way to talk to their buddy. I didn’t mind when the old guy’s 27 year old girlfriend came up and tried to squeeze in next to me, though.

Anyway, after watching trues for about 7 hours, the day ended with a gruelling hand by hand play, waiting for the final 2 players before the money was reached. Standing on the rail, or “railing” is not the most fun especially if your player of interest has a run of unimpressive cards. It’s even more gruelling when each hand at the table takes 10 minutes while all of the 8 tables left in the tournament complete one hand at a time. I’m pretty sure that I blacked out for a few moments from the pain I was feeling in my hamstrings…

So finally! only 56 players remained and Trues was guaranteed a very nice payday that could only get better in day 3. But thanks to weekend public transportation works I was only able to get to the casino to watch Trues for about 30 minutes before he caught some idiot trying to steal the blinds. A great call on Trues’s part wasn’t rewarded when the jerk-off caught his pair and knocked Trues out of the tournament in 24th place.

Unfortunately for Trues (or maybe fortunately) we weren’t able to find a place showing the UK vs. Alabama game and settled for a few too many pints. Let’s just say Trues wasn’t feeling himself for the duration of the tournament and called it a night pretty early, while I ended up in a club called Inigo with 4 people I didn’t know at the beginning of the night. Honestly, getting patted down like I was getting on a plane was a bit unsettling as I entered the club, so I didn’t last very long there either and it was off home for the evening. I’ve yet to talk to my “new friends,” since.

Long story short, Trues was off to Berlin to meet the other person he knew on this continent and the town was left a good sum of money lighter, with his exit.