The ongoing Ellix Powers saga part 13

Ellix called me up at like 630 PM last night, looking for a ride. I had just gotten off the phone with my boy Sean who was already at the Rio, so I told him that was cool and I would call him when I got there. As I was walking in, Sean was walking out, having been busted out of two satellites, I convinced him to take a lap with me and look in on some of the action. When we didn’t find Ellix out on the floor, I called him and he said he was outside the full tilt area with his cameraman Clay. Sean took off, and I went to go find Ellix.

When I got there, he and Clay were talking about the direction of the documentary, and Ellix was adamantly saying to Clay “You are the only one I trust, you are the only one on this crew who’s real with me. I know those other guys hate me, see I read people for a living. I do this for a fucking living man.” Clay was trying to defend his co-workers while at the same time thanking Ellix for the compliment, it seemed as though Ellix was pretty drunk and he was holding an empty wine glass with a hint of merlot still at the bottom. I asked Ellix why he was drinking wine tonight, but before he could answer Clay piped in “I think he just found that glass on the floor”. Ellix looked at it confused, then put it back down. He said his goodbye to clay, put his arm around me, smiled and said “Now, lets go get some money.” Ellix saw some guy walking towards us as we headed to the main floor, and yelled “Hey bob, come over here, I got to set you up with that guy.” Bob was a pudgy middle aged white guy dressed in a nice shirt and pants, but with inexplicably baby blue loafers. After he joined our group, ellix walked behind him and pointed out to me “Look how nice this motherfucker is dressed, he’s up to his eyeballs in debt, but he still comes out looking nice.” Ellix walked him over to the table where the guy was selling “Hustler” logo poker gear, and made an introduction, then grabbed me and headed toward the main floor to leave them to discuss business. As we walked toward the satellite area where his backers were, he told me more about the Bob guy he had just met, “You believe that motherfucker makes two hundred grand a year, and he still bounces checks. 200 fucking grand, and this motherfucker cant make a car payment.” I saw smith and Mickey sitting at opposite tables, and Ellix went to talk to smith first then Mickey. After a short discussion, Mickey went into his pocket and got Ellix a 20, after gripping it, Ellix said “Come on Mickey, what about a hundred spot” but he was rebuked. We walked out of the poker room and ellix checked in real quick with the hustler guys claiming he was going to get them some kind of drawing, they laughed and we went on our way.

About twenty paces up, Ellix saw the cameraman Clay walking alone, and he leaned in to me to say “lets see if we can hit this motherfucker up for some money”. “Hey, clay, clay, hold up a second. Listen man, you think I could get like ten bucks?” Clay thought about it then seemed to figure what the hell. Clay – “What if I don’t got ten bucks, I only have a twenty.” Ellix grabbed it and said, “Let me just go get some change” which elicited the desired response “Don’t worry about it, just get me back.”

We then walked towards the exit talking to Clay. He had some ideas about a reality show on BET about black poker players and Ellix was so enthralled by it that when I tried to interject, he silenced me by putting up his hand. After hearing him out, Ellix again told clay that he was the only one on the documentary crew that he trusted. He started separating the world into business, friends, and life and giving Clay the whole run down with sweeping hand gestures. Eventually, they Ellix got to a point where he concluded, “Believe me man, if you have faith in me you will be rewarded, believe me. As long as you have faith and you don’t cross me,” he got up in Clay’s face at this point, “If you cross me, then you better protect yourself, but otherwise we’re cool.” Clay said something along the lines of “I only lost faith in you one time, that was in Denver.” Ellix responded, “Yeah that was over some stupid shit, it’s always over some stupid shit.” And Clay continued “It kind of started when you threatened to sue me”. Ellix laughed it off and said, “Come on man, you know we’re friends, you know I’m going to take care of you.” At no point did Ellix deny that he had in fact threatened a lawsuit. The discussion fizzled from there, and they left on good terms as we headed out to my car.

We walked out the doors and one of the dealers recognized Ellix from his regular club back in Reno(The dealers to handle the world series are brought in by the Rio from all over). Ellix smiled wide, said hello to the guy and started talking, then he asked, “Yo man, I know you guys are raking it in over there, can I get like ten bucks.” The guy tried to weasel his way out, but Ellix asked again, and eventually he said no point blank. Ellix said “That’s alright, its good to see you man” and we walked away. After the guy turned his back, Ellix said to me “That phony motherfucker. You see him, saying hi and all that shit, but the motherfucker can’t spot me ten bucks. Cheap motherfucker. You know how long I known that guy, twenty fucking years. That’s how you can tell whether people are phony or not. Phony mother fucker.”

He went on a rant about his poker abilities from there, “I’m the best player in the world, Ed, you understand? I may get beat, but only if someone fucking sucks out on me. When I get knocked out, you better believe the other guy is sucking, you understand?”

Then he started talking about the other guys in the documentary crew other than clay. In particular, he was talking about the boom mike operator who he hated. “Motherfucker put me out of his car, you believe that. I still came into work the next day, motherfucker put me out of his car, and I was still professional about it. There’s business, then there’s fucking someone over, you understand?” I asked him what he meant by saying that this guy put him out of his car, wondering where it happened and so forth. "In the middle of fucking nowhere, in Denver, this motherfucker tells me to get out of his car over some stupid shit. I don’t even remember what the fuck it was about, some stupid shit. Wait, I remember now, you’re not going to believe this, your not going to fucking believe this, it was because I hit his fucking boom mike. Mickey was in the money in some tournament so they were interviewing him about it and they weren’t asking the right questions cause they don’t know what the fuck to ask, so I came over to help out, and I accidentally hit the mike. Motherfucker starts cursing at me, I’m human, people have accidents. I’m trying to apologize to the motherfucker and he’s cursing at me in the car, so I said “fuck you”. I kept saying “Fuck you”. And the motherfucker put me out of his car. I still came into work the next day." I asked if he had to walk the whole way home and he said, “No, someone recognized me and took me back where I needed to be.”

We drove back towards Ellix’s resting place at the Little Hotel, and he told me “I got some money coming in soon. Stewart is flying in, and I already know where I’m selling his jewelry.” He then told me how lucky I was to have his expertise, which couldn’t be more true. He wanted to give me a true life lesson, so he slowed the conversation down and asked teacher to pupil, “Do you know what a deal is?” I took my best shot and said “A deal is anytime you talk to someone”. “No, man, do you know what a business deal is?” I gave up and Ellix filled me in “A deal is what one person is willing to offer and another person is willing to accept. Too many motherfuckers walk away when they don’t get their way, me I make deals. Remember that Ed.” With that he got out of the car.

The ongoing Ellix Powers saga part 13

Post a comment