The Ongoing Ellix Powers saga part 16

Ellix and I touched base over the phone a few times while I was nursing my wounds. Before last night, I had only made it to the Rio once in the past week. It was last Friday night, and I was ready to step into a big game. I had been wanting to play 10-20, and having made 500 playing 4-8 over my Tahoe weekend, I decided to throw 250 in the mix and see what I could do. Ellix was seated one table over from me playing 20-40, but he came by to see how I was doing often. I would say he was actually sitting and playing on average 15 minutes out of every hour. I hadn’t been able to get anything going, two people caught straights on me when I had top pair and I paid them off, leaving only about 100 dollars of my original 250 sitting in front of me. I was in the little blind and looked down to see the A-K of hearts as Ellix looked on over my shoulder. Everyone folded over to me, and I reluctantly asked if the guy in the big blind wanted to chop(a custom where the two blinds take back their bet if everyone folds, most players either chop no matter what they have or never chop and I had already been established as the former). Before Ellix had even heard me finish the question, he gave me a swift elbow to the ribs and made an angry face. I knew what he wanted, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I again offered a chop which was accepted, and Ellix was furious with me. “This is 10-20 man, that shit don’t play up here” he whisper shouted at me as he walked away in anger. I ended up losing the rest of my money, and I didn’t see Ellix again until yesterday.

I got off work at like 5, headed home right quick, and made it to the Rio around 6:30. I met Ellix at the Hustlin USA clothing line stand, where he was helping to hawk hats and t shirts. He was sitting on a chair just outside the both, drinking some sort of alcoholic concoction. Within the course of a few sentences I realized that he was drunk, and that I was in for a show. He was happy to see me and immediately demanded that the owners of the stand give me a free hat, “Come on man, this is my boy” he said adamantly, and they complied. A few minutes later, one of the dealers was walking out of the complex past the stand, and seemed to be peering at the merchandise from a distance. “Well come on now man, you can’t buy nothing from out there, come on inside now” Ellix yelled at him. He laughed a little, as Ellix grabbed a hat from the stock and said “This is you man, doesn’t this motherfucker look good in this hat?” To everyone’s surprise, the guy said “I think you’re right, Ill take it”. Ellix rang up the sale, and had a look of pure pride on his face the next 5 minutes.

He pulled me in and told me, “You see man? Things didn’t work out the way I thought they would at the world series, but they might work out better. I got me a job, no two jobs, I got a motherfucking interview for a third job right quick.” It was as though he had just reminded himself about the interview when he told it to me, so he went to use a house phone and call the client. I shot the shit with the Hustler USA guys and waited for Ellix to return. When he did, he informed me that he told the company he would be bringing me to the interview and wanted to make sure that was cool. I had been hoping to play some 4-8, but I certainly wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see where this rabbit hole led.

As we were killing the fifteen minutes before the official meeting, Ellix continued to drink and saw a player he knew passing by. “Kenny, hey Kenny man!” he yelled in the general direction of a short, skinny, bald, middle aged white guy. Kenny completely ignored him, until he got close enough to Ellix that Ellix could grab his arm. He instantly smiled at seeing Ellix, and reached into his ears to pull out earplugs. “You wearing them to play in there?” Ellix asked. “No, I just can’t take all this damn noise” Kenny angrily replied. I immediately filed Kenny under crazy in my mental rolodex. They started talking about old times and Ellix mentioned “You see Joe Homeless over here, he was hanging out.” Kenny confirmed that he had, in fact, spoken with Joe Homeless and they went on to talk about a few old friends playfully. Suddenly, Ellix got real serious and said “Listen man, I’m gonna be in a position to help you out real soon, but its going to be on my fucking terms, you understand?” Kenny initially laughed it off, and said “I’ve had a hundred people tell me they were gonna help me, but nobody has given me shit.” Ellix shut him up before he could finish “Listen to me man, you know me, I’m going to take care of you. How long we known each other? Thirty years man, trust me. You know IM not like those guys.” Kenny responded, “Yeah, I know man, I’m just sayin I’ve been hearing that a lot.” Now Ellix was past the point of angry “Alright man, take a fucking walk then. Take a walk, I’m trying to help you out, and you’re not even listening, take a fucking walk man.” Kenny calmed it down, “I know you’re looking out for me, I was just saying that I’ve been hearing that a lot. What do you need me to do.” “Ill let you know when it comes time, but it was good to see you man. If you see Joe, tell him to come see me.” They said goodbye and I was left to wonder if Joe Homeless was in need of a mortgage broker.

After he was gone, Ellix started telling me about Kenny back in the day. “That man was a millionaire. He made thirty people millionaires on his back. He blew it all, but that guy beat the carousels, he was the first guy to do that.” I asked him what he meant by beating the carousels, and Ellix exaggerated. “You know man, video poker. He was the first guy to take those machines down. They had to change the shit all around after him. He made thirty guys behind him fucking millionaires with that tiger team shit. He invented that shit, and now none of them will help him out. You believe those motherfuckers? He made them millionaires.”

We realized it was getting close to the time he was supposed to meet for his interview, so Ellix and I left the Hustlin booth and headed towards the main casino. All Ellix knew was that we were supposed to meet him by the Starbucks, but I was pretty sure there was more than one starbucks in the Rio, those thieving bastards. When we got to a starbucks, Ellix started looking for his contact and then for a house phone to call him. I told him that I didn’t think this was by the elevators to the hotel which is where Ellix had said we were going, but he was adamant that this was the right place. There was an information booth with a line of about 4 people waiting for information. Ellix jumped the line, interrupting her current clients to ask the information lady “Is this the hotel?” She paused, not sure what to make of the question, and then Ellix repeated “I said, is this the fucking hotel?” The lady said “Yes”, at which point Ellix turned to me and said “You see” then turned to the lady “was that so fucking hard?” I asked her if there were elevators to the rooms nearby and she said no, then I asked her if there was another starbucks on the premises which she directed us to.

As we strolled up to the starbucks, Ellix saw his contact a young guy with a Pokulator.com shirt on. He said he had to go to the gift shop to grab a few beers real quick, and Ellix was very much in favor of the idea. Me and Ellix sat outside at the barista, and he started telling me about how Panther Poker was going to put him in the Legends of Poker and a few other tournaments. “I don’t think the world knows how good I am. I don’t think they understand, you know I really don’t think they know. I really don’t believe that they know how good I am.” He said this to me repeatedly and with such resolve that I could do nothing but agree. Joe returned and we headed up to his room on the 20th floor.

When we got there, we were greeted by a two floor suite with all sorts of paintings, nice furniture, and twice the size of my apartment. Looking around, I asked “Where’s the queen?” trying to make a joke about the lavish accommodations. Joe turned and said “Right there”, as an attractive chick in a short skirt and Pokulator tank top appeared. She was introduced to us, and the four of us sat at the long dining room table as Joe handed each of us a beer. Joe then started telling us what his site was about and what he wanted from Ellix. He said it was all about calculating odds in poker, and letting people know their percentages to win any given hand. He wanted to do a piece about Ellix and show the mathematical percentages of McManus having had the best hand when he called Ellix with a Jack High. Ellix just nodded, and said he was cool with doing the interview, he was an open book. “You got to understand I’m an open book. Do you read card player magazine? You got to read that, I have a three page article in there. You got a pen? I need you to write this down. Before you write up this interview, you got to go to yahoo and type in my name. There will be about four or five hundred pages, you need to read them. Then I need you to go to google, another 4-5 hundred pages, read them too. Then you will understand, I’m an open fucking book man.”

Joe relented and said that he would do his assigned reading, but that he just needed Ellix to sign a release before they could start the interview. He also produced the 100 dollars cash that Ellix had been promised. Ellix placed the money in his billfold, then took out his reading glasses to peruse the details of the release. I tried to make pleasant conversation with our hosts, but Ellix shushed me immediately so that he could concentrate on his document. We sat in silence for a couple minutes as Ellix read, when he finished he took off his reading glasses and announced “This isn’t going to work.” He threw the paper back on the table in disgust. “Well, I didn’t write this, it’s just a standard release I printed up, what exactly do you have a problem with?” “This shit isn’t going to fucking work” Ellix repeated. “Is there a clause in particular?” Joe asked. Ellix took his pen to try to start crossing things out, but Joe put his hand in front of the paper to block him and said “Just let me know what you have a problem with, and maybe we can fix it.” Ellix said alright, picked up the paper and read a clause that he didn’t like. It was something along the lines of them having the right to put up whatever advertising on the site they wanted and not needing Ellix’s approval to do so. Joe tried to explain that it wouldn’t be them changing Ellix’s interview or anything, it was just that he didn’t have to approve the banner ads around it. Ellix still wouldn’t budge. “You guys are giving me a hundred dollars here, I’m not signing my life away.” Joe realized he was serious, and said “Is that the only clause that you have a problem with? Are we good if we take that out?” Ellix looked straight threw him, “Watch this.” He picked up the paper, and though Joe made a move at it, Ellix told him to “calm down, just watch this.” Ellix then proceeded to rip the paper in half, throwing the portion with all the terms on the table and signing where all that remained was a signature and date. He took a big chug from his rolling rock, then he handed the sliver of paper to Joe, happy that this would be the conclusion of their release negotiation.

Initially, Joe was dumbfounded; he clearly had not printed a backup release. Ellix told him to get a pen and write down his terms. Ellix’s initial offer was something along the lines “I give pokulator.com authorization to use any audio, visual, video or written materials I have supplied them today through the 31st of August in exchange for one hundred dollars paid in full. Any future dealings are subject to future negotiations.” Joe informed Ellix that the website hadn’t even launched yet and that under these conditions, he would only be allowed to publish anything about Ellix for under a month. They went back and forth, and eventually Ellix caved and gave him use of the material until the end of the calendar year. All told, the release negotiation took approximately half an hour out of the agreed hour interview.

Joe now had his girl videotape the interview with Ellix and he, and told me to feel free to throw in any questions at any time. Ellix went through a lot of the stuff I have already outlined in my saga, but there were a few choice moments beyond that. When the conversation went spiritual, Joe admitted that he did not believe in religion. Ellix corrected him, saying “I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about God. God above all things, but he gave you the gift of choice. You can decide not to follow him, but you’re gonna burn. You ever been burned before? It hurts. Put your hand out.” It took some degree of chiding, but eventually Joe put his hand out, at which point Ellix place his cigarette lighter underneath and ignited it, causing Joe to pull back. “You see, you’ll be down there for eternity, and Ill just be up here waving.” He did a mock wave, looking down on Joe.

Another point of interest was when Ellix was talking about how he’d wasted his life with poker and he wished he’d taken advantage of some of his other opportunities. When prodded to name a few of them, Ellix came right out with “The Canadian football league. I missed that shit by two years. By then I was already so deep in partying, I couldn’t get back into shape.” Joe asked what position he played, and Ellix responded “tailback”. He asked if he played college ball, and Ellix said “Shit, I was a fucking All American two times.” He asked where he played in college and Ellix said “I don’t want to talk about this anymore”.

The final highlight of the interview was Joe asking Ellix if he thought the guy McManus who had called him down with a Jack high was a good player. Ellix talked about how McManus was pissed off at him because he had talked some shit to TJ Cloutier about how he couldn’t close things out. Joe asked if Ellix thought he could beat McManus heads up which sent Ellix into a diatribe. He went on about a challenge for like five minutes which basically amounted to him saying if anyone would put it on TV, Ellix would play McManus in any limit poker game, whether it was hold em, stud, pot limit, whatever, and that he would come out on top. He demanded that Pokulator put that challenge to McManus on their site, and then he pulled out one of the many business cards he had collected in his time at the series and told Joe to call the guy and set it up.

I took a few pictures of Ellix and the pokulator people for their website, and then we headed out. Ellix was very happy with the way things had gone and he started talking about how he was going to be set soon on the walk back to the car. “I don’t even dream about money anymore, I just need one of these things to come in. I’m too old to be dreaming.” I asked if he dreams about anything, and he replied “Shit, I don’t even dream about women no more. I fuck them and I’m done with them, young men dream. In the morning, I might grind up in that again, get some pussy, then I’m gone. I don’t got time to dream.” On the car ride back, he told me he was headed out of the little hotel the next day and he might need a place to crash for a night. I told him that wouldn’t be a problem we arranged that I would come by and pick up his bags this morning, which I did. As he was getting out of the car that night he added, “I’m so fucking jealous of those guys, fucking upstairs/downstairs suite, shit. Where the fuck is my suite?”

The Ongoing Ellix Powers saga part 16

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