I was walking out of the Sirio restaurant in City Center and my buddy goes "That's Sammy Farha standing by the entrance." I went over and casually asked him if he was playing in the upcoming High Stakes Poker season. He said he was supposed to play, but at the last minute he opted out. He decided that it's bad for his game. He stated that he had been easily winning for 20 years, but now that people can see his hole cards and figure out how he plays, the game has gotten harder. So, as he put it (and I quote) "It's bad for my game to be on TV".

I couldn't believe how friendly he was. We chatted for about 5-10 minutes even though his wife (or girlfriend, or just friend - not really sure) was standing there waiting for him. He could easily have walked away and ignored his fans, but he was happy to chat with us.

Anyway, a few other things discussed are:

When he said he wasn't going to play on HSP, I said I was disappointed because I really wanted to see him, Eli, and Durrrr at the same table because they are all so loose. He immediately said that Durrrr is amazingly difficult to play against. He continued on for a little while about how good Durrrr plays. He also mentioned that he thinks it's "bad for Durrrr's game to be on TV".

My buddy mentioned that his favorite hand on HSP was the hand where Farha had aces and Jamie Gold had kings and they were betting and raising before the cards were dealt. There was a call preflop, but then before the flop was dealt, they started betting and raising again for the flop before the cards were dealt. Sammy said he knew Jamie had kings and could put him allin, but he thought Jamie was a nice guy so he didn't want to break him. But, looking back he said he would now have gone allin.

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Finally, later that night I was playing at the Bellagio and mentioned this conversation to the guy next to me and when I said the Sammy was talking about how great a player Durrrr was, the dealer chimed in and said Durrrr plays extremely well in Bobby's Room and seems to always make perfect reads. She said that during her deals, Phil Ivey and Durrrr are by far the biggest winners. She said they are a "class above everyone else". (Of course, take that statement for what it's worth since she can obviously only deal 30 minutes at a time, and I'm sure those guys are playing for hours/days.)


I just thought I'd share this story... hope it lived up to your expectations...

cool story

cool story bro,

really

can you highlight the good parts please?

that's a pretty cool story

what does this mean tho lol?

But, looking back he said he would now have gone allin. (he decided jamie isn't a good guy?) Either that or he decided the money was worth more than the good feeling he had from helping jamie out....hehe

pretty cool that he talked to you, although i'm guessing prob not that many people know who he is so its not quite as annoying as it would be for some other celebrities...

my god dude, its not even that long and its split into paragraphs

yeah, but i'm pretty hungover

thanks for sharing, always thought Sammy wasnt much of a people's guy.

haha yeah, that must've been it

srsly? just from what i have seen on tv, it seemed like he was one of the more talkative/social guys playing.

nice, and also well written story.

DID NOT EXPECT IT.

No wonder we have seen less and less of him on t.v.

OP, was this her? If so it's his wife

Imo he probably was a winner before TV as the game was full of horrible old nits, but it's not TV which has made him start losing.