I Spotted The Most Wanted Man In Poker

I had an incredible Saturday night to say the least.

I was playing the 1/3 NLH at Caesars and was up $100 when I got the tweet from the Palms Casino that the Pokerati mixed game was going and that I had a seat locked up. (You owe me a dinner Joe V.)

I gathered my chips and meandered on over the the Palms. Within the first few hands of NLH, I managed to run Kings into Aces and lose half my buy-in. I can only thank my lucky stars that he was short. Unfortunately, just a few hands later I flopped a boat with 9s full of 5s in PLO... obviously it was unfortunate because the villain had 5s. Long story short, I found myself stuck about 700 and down to my last $25 in chips when my friend Jon Friedberg sent me a text inviting me to dinner. I knew I had to rally, if I didn't want to leave broke-ass.

I got my chips in preflop in a 6-way PLO pot and luckboxed the hell out of it. I then caught great hands that actually held and by the time Jon showed up, I was back up to $400. He was hungry, I was hungry... exit stage left.

Jon had heard good things about Sen of Japan, a restaurant here in Vegas that is popular among the poker crowd. So off we went. Jon and I were still deciding what to order when we saw a pony tail of bouncy curls walk in the door accompanied by two other people.

Jon immediately froze in his seat and his jaw all but hit the table. It was none other than Howard Lederer, Annie Duke and the mop haired Joe Reitman. We were stunned. Joe, the sweetheart that he is came over and to say. "Hi." Annie was close on his heels and gave me a hug and shook Jon's hand. Mr. Lederer took his seat.

Annie said that Sen was one of her favorite restaurants in Las Vegas and Joe concurred. We chatted for about a minute then the couple returned to their table to have dinner.

Jon and I shared a few rolls, and talked about this and that, but really, it was extremely difficult to not discuss the 500lb gorilla in the room. We elected to allow the family to enjoy their meal and not tweet about the sighting.

After leaving the restaurant, Jon and I contacted our peoples and blurted out our secret. I can honestly tell you that I fear the backlash of the poker community for not "cornering" Lederer on the spot. But, Jon and I were at dinner and Lederer, Annie and Joe were at dinner and sometimes it's just best to live a normal life away from the industry.

While I know I will be chastised by my peers for letting Lederer get away, I hope that my discipline has earned me enough respect to get an audience with either Lederer and/or Annie in a more appropriate setting for a serious interview.

Posted in: Annie Duke,Full Tilt Poker,Howard Lederer,Poker