"FUN WITH TONY B."
Tony B. was an African American player from Georgia, the self proclaimed 'Tony Bologna'. He was very interesting, as a player and personality. He would provide trash talk, a good suck out and an occasional slow roll. All of which added to the "Fun" at the table.
I played with Tony over three different days at the Aladdin in December. Over those three days, Tony never changed his shirt. Whether he showered was yet to be seen, but I will say I have noticed a trend; if a player wears the same clothes on consecutive days they seem to be more loose. I do not know if this is because they are gambling the entire time they are in Vegas, or if they just don't bring some other clothes. But no matter what the case was, with Tony B. it was the gamble that kept him going.
Tony had money, he befriended me, as he said, I was "on his side." He thought all the chips should come to our end of the table, and I played this off, giving him high 5's, and encouraging him to make even worse calls, all while I sat and waited. Now I know I have not mentioned too much about his play style but this should give you an indication.
On the second day I saw Tony B. I played a 14 hour session, because as long as he was at the table, the table was good. During this session I watched Tony build his stack up from his $200 buy in to $1900, then proceed to lose everything and re buy 4 more times.
The following is an actual hand Tony played during this session. While sitting in the 1 seat and under the gun, Tony B. raised preflop to $25, his current chip stack was around $400. A tight aggressive player in middle position called, and a loose player in late position called. The flop of Ac 8d 5d came down. Now Tony had a thing for black chips, and during his run at the table every time he had more then $300 in front of him he was coloring up a stack or two of red $5 chips to a $100 black chip. Tony had one Black chip when this hand started. Tony's patented move was to throw in a $100 chips almost at random, you never knew when he would, this was partially what kept this game so damn interesting.
So with the flop of Ac 8d 5d Tony made this ever so famous $100 chip flip into the middle of the table. No sooner did the chip hit the table the first caller announced himself all in for $275. Immediately the loose player in late position pushed his $400+ chips stack in the middle as well. Tony sat there and stared at his cards, then the board then his cards then the board. Almost like it was a Tennis match that no one could ever win. Finally the first all in player said, "C'mon how about a call, you have called everyone else so far." This is when Tony's charm came in, he looked up after taking a drink of his 12th 'Beefeater and Grapefruit Juice'
(http://www.garnetwine.com/sku003071.html) and said. "We'll you don't want Tony to call, cause if he calls , You Lose!" This statement was just fitting, after all referring to yourself in the third person is just one part of becoming a winning player, according to Highwaytime Mike.Well back to the hand. As Tony thought for a minute more the dealer informed him he would need to either put all his chips in the middle or fold, he looked up and said "So you are saying I should bet this?" and shows the dealer his hand. A look of disbelief came over the dealers face. Almost to say, 'We have been waiting this long for that?' Finally Tony grabs his his chips, double fisted I might add; (which could be the third rule as to what you should do to become a winning player according to Highwaytime.) and throws them in the middle of the table. Once he does this the dealer says call, turns and burns the turn and river cards faster then I have ever seen any dealer. The turn card was the 9s the river card was the 7h. The dealers proclaims "Turn them up."*
The first all in players shows down Ad Kd, he had flopped top pair with a flush draw. The second player shows down As 10c for top pair. Finally it is our hero's turn to flip over his cards, Tony B. gets a big smile on his face, "Says I don't know, but if I was to look at my hand, I think it is the winning hand, ship it to Tony!" Both players look at Tony with amazement, Tony then gives one of the greatest slow rolls of all time flipping each card over, first showing the 10s and then the 6h for yeah, that is right a 10 high straight. The whole table just loses it and pandemonium breaks out. Everyone is talking and laughing, players from other tables have made their way over to see what had gone on. The dealer counts down Tony's stack and he has both players covered, she prepares the the pot and pushes it to Tony. He stands up reaches his hand out to the player who had the Ad Kd and shakes his hand, as he shakes it he says, "It's not many peoples day, when Tony Bologna is at the table." The player pulls his hand away tells him to "Fuck Off," and leaves the Poker Room. The other player from this hand then asks how much he can re buy, is told a max of $200 and then calls the floor and asks if he can buy more then $200, he is told no and re buys $200 and sits behind his $200 stack furious. I honestly don't even think this second player, realized the other player in the hand had him beat, but he was now determined to personally destroy Tony. Well that lasted all of 2 hands as this player paid off my nut flush for his whole stack, man was Tony good for the table.
As I mentioned this session I player 14 hours against Tony, most of which was me watching him destroy new players as they sat down, with plays similar to this, although probably not with him holding cards in quite a worse position then his 10 - 6 was in. As we played on I picked up a couple of hands against Tony and my session was a good one, I cashed out $1400, on a $400 buy in, from this session almost all of which came from Tony. In the three days I was up $2200 from playing in Tony's games. I can only hope Tony comes back to Vegas soon, but if you are ever in Biloxi, you might just find Tony as he had said many times, "Tony Balogne is the man, in Biloxi!"
*Using the Card Player poker odds calculator, (http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_odds/texas_holdem) you can see what the players odds were after the flop.
Tony had a 2.1% chance to win
Player 1 had a 93.02% chance to win
Player 3 had a 3.54% chance to win
on the turn the odds were
Tony 7.14%
Player 1 90.48%
Player 2 2.38%
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