It’s with grand aspirations that I make my way to the Salle des Étoiles, the Room of Stars, where the European Poker Tour is being held. It’s considered one of the most beautiful poker rooms in the world, and I can understand why. I’ve certainly never seen its equal, before or since. The main tournament area forms a circle. The roof of that circle retracts, revealing the sky and letting players, for a brief moment, feel a bit less disconnected from the rest of the world.
That’s why it throws me a bit off-kilter when the first thing that catches my eye is a certain commotion in the left corner of the room. It’s where Erik is playing—the section reserved for the $100,000 buy-in tournament , otherwise known as thesection. I’ve never seen a super high roller in action before, but I expect it will be comparably more serious, say, a hundred times more so than the lowly $1K. This is where the Real Players play.
What I’m witnessing is a prop bet in action. Prop bets are bets on a specific proposition—say, that you can complete 105 push-ups in under 22 minutes in the middle of your $100K. I’ve read about them. I’ve never seen one acted out.“Come on, boy, 10, 11, you’re pushing it!” Kevin Hart is screaming. “Two more! Push it, push it, go! Twelve, 13…oh, you’re buckling! This is gonna fuckin’ hurt!”“Shake it off, shake it off!” coaxesDan is back on the floor.
Titanic Thompson—real name Alvin Clarence Thomas, the likely inspiration for Masterson, nicknamed Titanic because he sank everything in his way—is considered to be among the earliest of a long line of players whose interest in bets of any sort echoed and sometimes outweighed their interest in poker. Titanic scammed more than one round of golf and famously won a bet against Al Capone, when he wagered that he could throw a lemon onto a building across the street .
mkonnikova Good stuff
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