LENNY

I have played poker with Lenny for at least five years and as a reader of my blog he wondered why he wasn’t included in my colorful characters blog. Lenny doesn’t play blind like Lance, he doesn’t call-muck or raise-muck like Doctor Dosh, he doesn’t read cards correctly and then call anyway when he’s beaten like Richie the Hat and he doesn’t straddle for $400 like Paul but that doesn’t mean he isn’t colorful.

He was especially “colorful” the night that he was chip leader in a thirty man tournament with a very large buy-in. Doctor Dosh had arrived late and was not in the tournament, and when Lenny was forced to leave the table in order to take an important business call, Doctor Dosh took it upon himself to play Lenny’s hands. Lenny returned to the table fifteen minutes later just as Doctor Dosh was pushing in the last of Lenny’s chips on an ill-timed bluff. Yes Lenny was quite “colorful” that night.

He was “colorful” on another night at a home game in his own house, when at about 3:30 A.M. from the button he looked down at his cards to find pocket aces. I happened to have been playing that hand and when another player made a significant raise I reraised even more significantly with pocket queens. Sitting between me and Lenny was Ariel, a player whose style of poker could best be described as maniacal. Without a thought Ariel called my reraise. It was then Lenny’s turn and since we were all deep-stacked he raised enough to drive all mortal men out of the pot. Any of the players in that home game would tell you that I was the most aggressive fearless player in that game and yet when Lenny reraised, my queens shriveled like a dead lizard in the desert. There was no doubt to anyone that he held pocket aces. We all mucked – all except for Ariel - who nonchalantly tossed his chips into the pot. When the flop came 10-5-2 rainbow Ariel calmly turned to Lenny and said “I’m all-in.” Lenny instantly called and Ariel turned up 10-2 offsuit, which held up to win the monster pot. Yes Lenny was “colorful” on that night as well.

In fact Lenny can be quite “colorful” whenever anybody sucks out on him. If he raises with A-K and some poor shnook calls with A-Q and the flop is Q-Q-A, you can be assured that Lenny will be “colorful”. And if it happens at the beginning of the session you can bet your last chip that he will be “colorful” until the final card of the final hand of the night is a distant memory. In fact there came a point when I would ask Lenny what he wanted me to do when he raised pre-flop. ”Lenny should I call or muck? I’ll do whatever you say.” I did this so that Lenny could only blame himself for any mishap and yet even then I could never be sure that he wouldn’t get “colorful”.

Lenny is an intelligent, fun guy and I will say without equivocation that he is a loveable teddy bear with a heart of gold. He’s one of the people I enjoy playing with the most because the laughs rarely stop – exceptof course when he’s “colorful”.

This is my Lenny column but I want to make a quick comment about another player in my home game: Tony would love to try bluffing but he hasn’t been able to get cards that are bad enough.

Now back to Lenny. Lenny we love you. Don't ever change!!!