But the losses don’t dog him. “People say I should not be happy about leaving when I am $5,000 behind [after a session of poker]. They think I should try to get it back. But I’m not winning. So what should I do? Wait until I lose $10,000?” he asks, with a fey wave of his hand.
Then Men reaches below the coffee table and pulls out a fancy, hard-angled liquor bottle that contains a cobra floating in rice whiskey. He pours a healthy shot and hands it to me. “It make you strong here,” he insists, grabbing his crotch. I down the shot without thinking too much about the cobra. Now augmenting his shirt with a bright-yellow sport jacket, Men downs his own glass of snake wine, testifies to a sudden rush of steely strength, and leads his guys across the street to the Four Queens casino, where they’ll play poker and aim to make American dreams come true.
Just before we walk in, Men suggests that I try entering a tournament. He insists that I should’ve picked something up from the tutorials. His words leave me thinking that maybe I have. It’s my last night in Vegas, so, what the hell.
There’s a 10-man freeze-out about to start (you play until your entry stake is gone, freezing you out). The game is no-limit Hold’em. Everybody puts up $80, and the last man standing leaves with $400 while the rest gets split between the next two finishers. Fine. I slide four 20s across the table and buy myself a seat. The other players riffle their chips like extras from Rounders, second-guessing one another’s hands. Me, I’m not saying much. I’m trying to recall all the poker tips I’ve photosynthesized from Men.
Stunningly, once the game begins, I realize that some of the lessons have stuck. I seem to be bluffing at the right moments, pressing people to fold when they should. Backing out when others have me beat. I even toss away a pair of pocket queens when an ace comes on the flop and somebody makes a sneakily small bet in early position. Men sees me do it and pumps me on the shoulder. Then he slinks away from the table after another player expresses displeasure at Men’s gleefulness (his exact words: “Who the fuck is this guy in the yellow jacket? Am I playing against one guy or two?”).
“Who the fuck is this guy in the yellow jacket? Am I playing against one guy or two?”
Finally, it’s just me and three other players. All I need to do is outlast one of them and I will finish in the money. Amazing. Men sees what’s going on, and he materializes back at the table, this time maintaining a respectful distance. I get dealt ace/10 of spades in early position. What do I do? Figuring it’s a good hand but not a great hand, I make a medium-size bet. Two players fold, one player calls me. Men inches closer to the table. A king of spades, a 10 and an off-suit deuce come on the flop. The other player goes all in. Now what? I call the bet. Of course, he’s got two kings. Of course, he wins the hand and knocks me out of the game, out of the money. As I pull back from the table, other players are congratulating him and they’re figuring out how to chop up the proceeds.
Meanwhile, Men is apoplectic. “That was terrible!” he tells me, raising his voice with frustration. Shaking his head in disbelief, he adds, “That should never have happened.”
He calls over a Vietnamese pro named Vin. “You’re playing four-handed, you get ace/10 suited in early position. What do you do with your first bet?” Men demands to know.
“Go all in,” Vince correctly answers in a flash.
“I didn’t think ace/10 was that great,” I plead.
“Short-handed, in your position, it was great. You would have won the antes. The other guy would not have gone in.”
Now Men’s voice gets even more agitated. “You sent him the signal that you had shit.”
“Well,” I say, feeling a bit embarrassed and not sure what else I can offer, “at least I know for next time.”
Men raises his eyebrows and hugs me. After a moment, he steps back a couple inches and softly says, “I only yell because I care.”
Then he takes off, searching for a game of his own.
At this writing, Men Nguyen was playing in the 2003 World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino.
