Tribute

Quoting myself from nearly two years ago:

Then it happened. I’ll never forget it. Reading through www.wilwheaton.net, I noticed a text add placed by a poker blogging site: guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com. I clicked on over to Iggy’s site and began to read.

To say what would follow in the years and months to come was not life changing would be lying to myself.  It has been, in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

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Each time I’ve met Iggy, he’s surprised me; but not until much after the fact.  He doesn’t like to share much about himself, but if you listen closely enough, you may be able to glean something significant about the man that remains shrouded under the legend of being impossibly uber and diminutive at the same time.

One of my own characteristics that has lead me to do fairly well in poker and in life is to operate under the default behavior of giving other people respect.  I don’t walk around with the attitude that someone has to earn my respect.  I either let them keep it from the beginning or lose it later on down the line.  Same thing at the poker table.  I’ll give a table of unknowns credit for being competent; that is, until they prove otherwise.

So when I met Iggy for the first time, we got to chat a bit at the now legendary Sherwood Forest Bar at the Excalibur.  I can’t honestly tell you how long the conversation lasted, but during that time, Iggy kept my respect.  Just as he’s done each subsequent meeting.

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Actions speak louder than words.  Last January, while in Tunica, I had just chopped a satellite to the $1k WSOP Circuit event that was scheduled for the next day.  I had in my possession a $500 lammer.  Unfortunately for me, I would have preferred the cash.

I sat down at a $4/$8 table watching Iggy methodically and with deadly precision tilt the entire table.  Especially Tuscaloosa Johnny.  But also during that time, after he heard of my chop, Iggy offered to stake me the second $500 required to play in the event.  I politely declined, feeling that it was a waste of his money to do so.  But that was the first time anyone has made such an offer to me.  I was taken aback.  After I told him about preferring the cash, Iggy simply pulled out $500 and purchased the lammer from me.

I would only learn later that he had already bought into the $1k event and really had no need for the pink WSOP chip.  He was really just helping me out.  Just another poker player traveling the same road he’s already been down.  I won’t forget that gesture.  Ever.

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I’m not sure anyone but Iggy knows what’s going to happen to Guinness and Poker.  But let’s not mourn the passing.  Collectively, we all owe something to that site and the man behind it.  And with each of us who’ve fostered our own group of readers and found our own voice in the ‘sphere, we can keep the torch burning.  And even if we choose not to, you can rest assured someone will.

Life happens in cycles.  Even in our own small virtual world of poker blogging, we see it.  Blogs appear, blogs disappear, and every now and then a new group of talent takes the lead at the helm.  The New Wave of Poker Bloggers, like Hoyazo, Jordan, CC, and many others who offer giant wads of content, will pick up any slack that appears when one of the Old Guard shuts it down or loses interest.

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A hoist, then, of one final Guinness to Ignatious J. Reilly.