The ongoing Ellix Powers saga part four

I didn’t even stay around to watch Ellix play in the tournament because I was throwing a party for the Ultimate Fighter event on pay per view that night at my place. I told Ellix to call me and let me know how it went down, because he needed to raise his stake to 1500 in order to get the 1500 dollar buy in for his event. After staying out all night drunk, I woke up at like 1030 in the morning and saw a message from Ellix on my phone.

All it said was “Ed, this is Ellix call me back”. I did as was told, and after a few rings ellix answered “This is Ellix, who’s this?” “Its ed” “Who?” “Ed, remember I gave you money for the satellite, and I gave you a ride” “OOOh, Ed, that’s all you had to say, yeah man I got head up with one other guy and we decided we would split a grand and play for a grand, but I got the ass end of it, so I have to turn this 500 into 1500 by noon, where you at?” Basically, what he meant was that he paid his 200 dollar buy in with 10 other players for a prize of two thousand to the winner. When it got down to him and the one other guy, they made a deal that they would each win 500 no matter what and the remaining one thousand would go to whoever came out on top, so they could get into the next tournament, but Ellix lost the match and only got 500. I told him I was coming over later on to watch him, but that I felt like shit right then. When I called him back a couple hours later, he didn’t answer.

I headed over to the Rio to see if he was playing and do some damage myself, but I couldn’t find him and he still wasn’t answering his phone. I sat down and played for a bit, winning a little but not much, when I saw wheels hanging out at the front of the room. I went over and asked if he’d seen Ellix, he replied “I don’t know, did he get into this thing?” “I don’t know, he hasn’t returned my calls” I said. He looked up at me, concerned, and said “you know he’s a street hustler, right?”

He went on to tell me, “He was playing earlier today in one of those satellites, we were supposed to split the money, he got heads up with some guy and they were supposed to split 500 each and the winner take 1000, but the guy backed out of the deal after he won. Ellix called over the floor and everything, but the dealer didn’t back him up and he didn’t get any money out of it. That was the last I saw of him.”

I told him the version of the story Ellix had given to me, and at first wheels got really angry thinking he’d been tricked, but then I brought up the point “Its more likely that he was lying to me than to you, given the fact that the man is a street hustler.” He laughed and then asked me if I thought he should buy into the 225 dollar super satellite for the main event that was about to start. He went on to say he came in third in the 225 dollar twilight tournament that had been held the night before.

When I pressed him on some details, he explained that his share was a little over six grand and that the tournament had started at 11PM not finishing until 7 the next morning. He claimed to have ordered a scotch and water every time the cocktail girl came around, and put a conservative estimate at 20 as to the total number consumed over the duration of that nights tournament. He said by the end, everyone was scared of him, because he would just aggressively raise and they couldn’t tell if he had a hand or even if he did, whether he could read the cards. I was laughing, when he stopped me and said sternly, “No really, I play better drunk.” This report was confirmed by various members of the Rio staff who randomly walked by asking questions like “were you green this morning”, and “do you even remember winning last night?”

Wheels and I parted ways, and I didn’t hear from Ellix again until two days later. He called at like noon on Tuesday and told me “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back man, I been real depressed, I didn’t make it in, couldn’t turn that 500 into nothing.” “Wheels told me you never even got the 500, the guy backed out of the deal.” “Yeah, like I said man, I been real depressed, so what are you heading over there today?” “I got work, but I might be by that way later on, Ill give you a call.” “Alright man, let me know.”

The ongoing Ellix Powers saga part four

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