“You guys are the worst players…I’ve got to get a new tournament”

I was sitting at the Sahara poker room’s 7pm tournament when the player in the 6 seat, clad in Yankees garb, started berating us all for our sucky play. 

"If you guys hadn’t sucked out on me I’d have about 17,000 in chips right now."

I ignored his Hellmuth-ian tantrum and started fiddling with my new noise-cancelling headphones.  These babies totally rock.  I picked them up on the way to Vegas in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport’s Brookstone store.  I had just gotten off a plane seated next to the turbine, and I swore it was time to buy a pair.

As I strolled through Brookstone, I swallowed at the thought of dropping $150 or $200 for a pair of headphones.  Finally, I saw these and realized the brilliance.  First, they’re cordless.  A lot of noise cancelling headphones have a cord, and a control deck, which is more pain in the ass to deal with.  Second, they have a dock to plug in your iPod shuffle, as well as a Line In jack for your normal ipod.

Put these babies on and you’re walking around cordless, with your music and background noise cancellation.

So I turned up the Macy Gray on my new headphones and ignored the Yankee fan/idiot.  I overplayed a draw and got sucked down to about T2,300 in chips.  The Yankee fan raised it up to T300.  I looked down and 96s and decided I needed to Go Big or Go Home, and pushed in my money hoping for a steal, or at least a suckout.

Yankee fan turned over a pair of queens.  When the flop came Five-Eight-Ace he said, "Oh here comes your Seven."

The dealer turned over the fourth card and…wait for it….it was a seven.  The Yankee went nuts and stormed off.  I continued to play, looking for spots, when I finally pushed my stack in with a pair of black 7’s.  A new player to the table thought for 3 minutes and then finally called with Ace-King and hit his Ace on the flop.  I was out, but happy.  I needed to pick up some chips fast or I’d be out soon.

As I walked back through the casino, Yankee fan stopped me.  "Hey, headphones.  Can you believe that?  These players are so terrible.  I’ve got to get a better tournament.  Maybe the Orleans…"

I looked right at him, and said, "If we’re all as bad as you say, you ought to love this tournament.  Bad players mean lots of easy chips."

The Yankee just walked away, mumbling and finding another person he knew, did not bother continuing the conversation with me.