June 24 - Day 2 - Slim

Legend Amarillo Slim Preston was moved to Chuck's table today, and took a seat to Chuck's immediate right. As you recall from last year's blog (I am sure), Amarillo Slim won one of the first World Series of Poker, more than 30 years ago, and was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, several times. The reason for the several times was because Slim is a bit of a philosopher as well as a poker player.

Chuck has had a "quotes" collection for decades. It is several shoe boxes filled with 3 by 5 cards with quotes hand written on them with very neat writing. There are 3 quotes from Mr. Preston. Chuck cannot recall them all has he sits here, but does offer this one quote from his memory:

"You can shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin him once."

The quote reminds me of what I had to tell my mother when she would tell me (at age 13) that I shouldn't be playing my big brother's friends for money, because it might hurt someone's feelings. I quoted the Mexican looting bandit, Calvera, from the Magnificent Seven, as follows:

"If God had not had wanted them sheared, he would not have made them sheep."

It is not clear exactly what Amarillo Slim Preston's true full name really is. The "Preston" part, the only part that looks like it is real, actually appears to be irrelevant. He says that you can write to him anytime, addressing the envelope as follows:

Slim
Amarillo, Texas

Slim had several fold more chips than Chuck while they were neighbors. Since Slim did not consider Chuck's small stack a threat, he would show Chuck what he was folding, which is a valuable education, as if to help leave his legacy behind in his final years. When Chuck left the tournament, involuntarily, #111 out of 2,200, and went to collect his winnings, Slim was still going strong and having a great time doing it. But, 30 minutes later, he got an ovation as he stood up to leave, chipless, and he waved and said "Thank you everyone" with a great smile, and total, genuine and effortless command of his audience.

Chuck was in a bit of shock, but did recover in the Sport's book after starting to analyze some baseball bets, and ordering his first frosty Corona. He did not break Nick's record of finishing 72 and winning about $4,500 last year. However, Chuck does hold a Sippl Legend's of poker record for consecutive major tournament "money" finishes, at 2. Since he has only played 5 or 6 tournaments in total, in his life, this is more than very good.

We all did better than we have ever done in this tournament, pitching many innings, and having quality starts overall, but, congratulations to Chuck for his extraordinary athletic performance on this world stage of cunning, skill and sportsmanship.