Antonio Esfandiari wasn't really sitting at table 154. Barefoot, sandals on the floor, he was kneeling on his chair at the end of the table. Antonio is very colorful with high energy and is a delight to have for entertainment at a poker table.
In front of him on the rail was a short stack of hundred dollar bills. These were being used to fund the "Proposition" bets he was making to amuse himself (and everyone else) as the game goes on. He got a few takers that he couldn't do 55 pushups. He did 60 during the break.
After I pushed into the table they started playing "Lodden Thinks". This is a game that Antonio (and I think Phil Laak) came up with to break up the boredome of some long tournament sessions they were playing in London a year or two ago. They would ask Johnny Lodden, a talented Norwegian Poker pro, what he tought about something and then bet to see who could come closest. For example they asked him to think how many pushups Antonio could do without stopping. Now it doesn't matter how many he can do, it only matters how many Lodden
thinks he can do. Once Lodden had a number in his head, then they would bid on the number.
- "Over 35"
- "Over 40"
- "Over 55"
- "Over 70"
- "I'll take the under for $100"
- "You got a bet!"
Then Johnny Lodden would reveal what he thought and the bet was paid off.
During my half hour at this table I dealt about 15 hands of Poker during which, one player posed as "Lodden" and the others bet on the following:
- How much money would it take to get Dave (in seat 5) to shave his head?
- On a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being the best movie you have ever seen, how would you rate "Inglorious Bastards"?
- Same question for "My Cousin Vinny".
- Phil Laak is playing $10-$20 No Limit Hold'em in a marathon session at Bellagio to try to set the world record for longest single session of poker without sleep. How much money do you think he is up or down?
- Lifetime total for all the men at this table, how many hookers have they had? "Including the dealer?' "Yes, including Buz the dealer."
There was a lot of discussion, a lot of laughs, a lot of bidding and as far as I could tell, the money was about even on the proposition bets.
2 comments:
What was the Lodden thinks answer to the hooker question? And did we find out what was the actual true answer was?
The bidding was pretty lively on the hooker question. There was a discussion of the fact that one of the players had recently visited Thailand and with the proliferation of cheap Bangkok hookers, the number went up. Antonio made it 50 and 2 guys took the under. "Lodden" thought 15, so the unders each won $100. The "real" number? Nobody ever took a poll. It didn't matter.
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