well the harlem globetrotters came up to montana in the early 1980's. we had a decent no limit holdem game going every night at the hotel. they stayed there and hung in the bar and came in to play poker the night in town.

the table was a fairly high one with higher chairs and they didnt really fit in those chairs. they were all over 6 foot 6 to 7 foot about. so they stood up and played, easy for them as they didnt last too long in the game. each would maybe make one or two at the most buyins.

it was funny playing next to them standing up while the rest of us sitting down and them towering like the empire state building over us. they were a hoot with all the sayings and fun with their jokes and lightheartedness.

not one of them ever played holdem and it showed.
lots of famous or unusual people stayed there as it was the only big hotel and convention center in the area and a must stopover traveling through northern montana.

He was also great in Infernal Affairs 1 and 2 -- the Hong Kong movies that were remade in the USA as The Departed

Played $1-$2 with Vincent Schiavelli in St. Louis 15 or 20 years ago. Odd looking actor from "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", "Ghost", and many other movies and TV shows.

I tried not to stare but he certainly had a unique appearance. Seemed passive and nitty.

Said he was in town for a play.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001704/

https://www.google.com/search?q=vinc...iGDYAQ_AUIBigB

I think his fiance "uncle" is a Triad members and the whole ordeal was consider an embarrassment to the family because they were getting married when the scandal hit. The threat was credible enough that his ppls have to do an extraction to L.A.

Here's the piece that VICE did on him..

I used to be a regular player at the Hard Rock in Vegas years ago when they had a good room. There was another reg there named Sanford who was really nice but something always seemed off about him. He would bring in odd people like a cracked-out looking girlfriend or this really abusive guy who would berate people at the table then run to the floor when they started fighting back and try to get the other guy kicked out. He seemed to take a liking to me but I kind of kept my distance after seeing his other friends.

He often had a laptop with him and if someone ask he'd say he was building a website to tell stories about playing poker and at one point he was talking about making a reality show about the people who played at the HR.

He stopped coming around as much and I happened upon a news story about how he was indicted for hacking Facebook accounts in order to spam them. Turns out he was known as the "king of spam" and is one of the biggest fax/email/myspace/facebook spammers ever:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Wallace

I think the abusive friend is the guy in the middle here sucking up to him:
http://www.vegasnews.com/153729/spam...-with-him.html

He's in jail now.

There was an American Greed episode on him that was pretty interesting.

Ray zee, where were the mafia guys playing with you, Vegas or NY?

Any good stories about the underground games in NYC back in the day?

Michael Phelps several times. It was a running joke between us that I never beat him in a pot and I really don't think I ever have despite getting into probably a dozen hands HU with him.

Terrell Suggs. He folded for an hour and then left to play blackjack.

I played 2-5 with Jason Gedrick of Iron Eagle fame. He didn't really know what he was doing but was super nice and friendly. Seemed like he just wanted to see what it was like to play. All the players were nice to him (not in a whale kind of way) but nobody really indicated they knew who he was. He played one bullet then left.

Did you lend him any money ?

Sunil Gavaskar (Indian cricket legend), was in town, to commentate on 5 day test.

His wife, came to local casino, and she played v decent for days 1-3 .. but, local pros, wore her down, day 4/5.

V pleasant to play with .. some decent stories, about cricket legends.

I'm a bit shocked that no one has mentioned James Woods yet, I guess he's not that obscure. I see him almost every time I'm at the Bike, he typically plays cash but does show up if there is a larger tournament series going on.

The one time I played with him was in a $235 Daily Deepstack at the WSOP a few years back. He sat down fairly tilted after busting a $1500 and proceeded to three and four bet almost every other hand for 15 minutes. I was completely card dead so didn't get a chance to play with him, but other guys were getting frustrated with him running over the table. "He seems to have it a lot" an older fellow mumbled next to me, "Yes but he does act for a living" I reminded him.

Russell Westbrook was cool, but it was only 20-40 so i think he was bored and wanted to play bigger. When his team is in town they like to play spread so they can bet/raise $500 at a time ad infinitum.

Shannon Elizabeth was nice but i'd played all day and all i could think about the entire time was "do i stink?"

Jose Caseco is a ****bag who threatened to kill me, so the POS Rio floor threw me out.

The guy in the middle is Las Vegas comic-magician Mike Hammer. I've seen his show more than once (really funny and inexpensive) and being an abusive railbird does not seem to fit with my impression of him.

His stage show persona is funny and good-natured. I suppose it could have been him, but I think it may have been someone else.

Where was this?

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Dr. Jerry Buss at 1500 HORSE WSOP Event for 4-6 hours. He sat right to my left. I was short when he was moved to my table. He was extremely nice. He would make change for my blinds without me even asking. I doubled through him when he had AA23 at O8 when I made the wheel with A458 and he was still nice. There were a few pro at the table that he knew so he was talkative and even answered basketball questions about the finals that were going on. Only person he had with him was an assistant.

the "celebrity" regs at O11 casino in Oceanside CA are Coach Bill Frieder (very nice guy, i give him heck about his failure to get Magic Johnson to play for Michigan), Rene Nezhoda (kind of obnoxious but good for the game) from Storage Wars, and Brandon Call the former kid actor from Step by Step. Brandon got $4400 in on a draw at 5/5 the other night and was so upset after losing he was OTD before they counted his chips...the house is holding $140 for him for the next time he returns

I used to play a lot of blackjack late at night with Aaron Craft when he played for OSU. I didn't know who he was for about 6 months but apparently he was a big deal in Columbus. Terrible at poker, bought him in one time after talking about it for so long and he had no feel for it. He actually won my money back and ran up a huge stack on blind luck over about 25 minutes going all in pre a few times. People tried to adjust but he kept spiking aces vs kings or queens. Think he cashed out up 6 or 7 buy-ins in under an hour (back when the casino had table max buy-ins and there was actually money on the table). I told him to stick to blackjack!

Macaulay Culkin lol years ago at the club on 72nd st in NYC.. at the same BJ table as Allen Iverson at the Taj.. used to see him all the time there when he played for Philadelphia..always in 76er sweats and a hoodie like he came straight from practice.. I lol'd just typing the word practice next to AI .. I remember just being in awe of how small he was lol and thinking damn how does he get so busy in the NBA

lol we talking about..... PRACTICE........

played with former NJ devil ken daneyko a few times online in NJ. one game that i had club seats i ran into him while he was on an intermission break from commentating. he seemed like he was in a rush and wanted to say hi quick and move on but once i mentioned poker it was like we became best friends. we chatted for a while about the game and had some laughs about beats. that dude LOVES poker.

I was talking about Brian, the guy with the red beard in the middle. He even mentions later in the show about how bad he can get at the poker table.

Thanks for that. Although I followed the scandal pretty closely at the time, I couldn't quite figure out who he was. For some reason, I thought he was the guy in Young and Dangerous -- Ekin Cheng? -- though he's obviously a lot older than Edison.

Asia seems so different to Europe and the USA. Nobody would give a **** about that stuff over here. As long as it's not kids on your laptop, nobody would think it was any of their business.

IMDB commenter says he had Marfan's syndrome. Didn't know he died in 2005 at age 57.

jeremy roenick former nhl player at commerce was pretty nice guy playing 40-80 lhe was brutal at poker
james woods at a tournament at the bike was very obnoxious and completely in love with himself
didnt play with but the table over from me paul pierce was in town playing 5-10 NL drinking til about 3 AM then missed the next days game with flu like symptoms

Ben Affleck back in the early days at the Aruba Ultimate WPT. He was just in splashing around and not caring about the tournament at all; saw him later at a much bigger cash game seeming to concentrate a bit more.

Paul Pierce at WSOP main a couple years back. He played like an enthusiastic amateur. He wasn't as tall as I thought he'd be.

Directed a charity tournament for some retired NHL players, including Paul Coffey, Dale Hawerchuk, Pat Lafontaine, Denis Savard, Marty McSorely, Theoren Fleury, Jeremy Roenick, and others. All were great, and the off camera stories were amazing for a Canadian kid who grew up in the 80s. When I told Fleury I'd grown up in Edmonton, he said nobody's perfect.

Phil Kessel also participated and spent most of the time on his phone, alternating contradictory complaints to me about "this tournament is taking all day" and "these blinds are way too high". I can see why hockey people have such a weird view of him; he literally does look more like a plumber than a professional athlete. Nice enough guy, but more than a little socially awkward