The Story of "The Weaz"

My name is Sean Gleason but in the Poker World (and a few others), I am called Weaz. The origin and meaning are not important and this story is long enough so I will just say the nick-name developed 17-years ago and was influenced by the fact that I was a 115-pound college freshman that ran Cross Country and Track for NC State. After graduation I left for Asheville, NC and made a few mistakes. I returned to Raleigh at the beginning of 2003 and lived with some friends, Eric and Corey, while searching for a house to buy. At the same time, the World Poker Tour was starting to be aired and the popularity of Texas Hold'em was beginning to soar. The house I was renting at also happened to be the location for Corey Hubbs weekly poker game on Monday night. To their credit, the game had been a weekly event for the past ten-years....long before poker became so popular. I have always been a gambler and with a game in the house, I figured that I must check it out. I had trouble keeping Hold'em and Omaha straight in my head and only played a few times with the boys but my addiction had begun. I bought my house six-months later and with the WPT and the WSOP firmly grasping my heart with addiction, I insisted on hosting a poker game as soon as I moved in to the new house.
The Wednesday night game at my house was only Texas Hold'em and we recruited friends who also were new to the "sport" :) Friends brought friends and thus some great friendships were made with people like Curtis, Pinky, Shannon, Ned, Bob, Eric, Brandon, Lush, Lance, Crab, Huff, etc, etc, etc. We kept a rake to buy food every night and the remaining funds were saved for future group trips to Atlantic City. It was during these early poker games that the discussion of Doyle Brunson getting the 10-2 named after him arose. While we were playing one night, I was running my mouth as usuall and boldly stated that "I will win the World Series of Poker with the 6-9 and after I win, they will name it "The Weaz" for eternity." This brought a few laughs but I was serious. The 6-9 did not have a popular nick-name at the time other than the chuckle that it always brings, so I was determined to have it for me. The guys agreed to call it "The Weaz" from here on out and if I did not win the WSOP then we would give it our best effort to spread the word via "word of mouth".
Texas Hold'em continued to rise in popularity and the boys held true to their word. We even made a house rule that if someone won a pot with the 6-9 then it would go rake free. It's amazing that an incentive of a maximum $4 can induce such loose play....but try it, you will see. So my friends from high school soon learned "The Weaz" and they told their friends. Friends that played in our "Barbershop" tournaments also became privy to "The Weaz". In fact, Brad Morris played in a weekly Tuesday night game with some friends from Cary. When Lance and I went to play in one of their tournaments, I had a few of them come up to me and say "So you are Weaz! I won a pot with your hand the other day.". I had never met these people until then...and they were spreading the word.
Of course, winning the WSOP would certainely help my cause but you have to play to win and I have yet to play. But this past December, our group went to Atlantic City for our yearly trip. We stayed at Harrah's casino and were there for about 33-hours. Sixteen of us made the trip and since it was such a short visit, we played almost non-stop. At 4:30am I found myself in the poker room playing some 1-2 NL with a $200 maximum buy-in. The casino had a badbeat jackpot that was up to about $50,000. The qualifiers were typical and it must be aces over jacks or better to qualify. I was at a table that was not far from breaking up and I was considering getting some sleep after the next round through the table. There were 7-people for most of the hands and no one was particularly loose or drunk. In fact, around 3am one of them had actually said "well, I guess we are all just playing for the badbeat jackpot.". I thought to myself, yep...I guess we are...but I was SO tired and my focus wasn't all there. I had about $200 in chips despite having played for 3-hours....it was actually quite boring. A fairly straight forward playing lady raised it to $6 from UTG and I was in the BB. Two people had just gone to the ATM and to get some smokes so this was 5-handed. Two other people called and I loked down to find the "Suited Weaz" (in spades). Bored and late in the evening with ZERO action and only a raise to $6.....OF COURSE I'm playing! I complete and we go to the flop.
So the Dealer flops an 8c8s5s and I tiredly check. I'm interested in this flop but for a lot of the less obvious reasons. I had won money on the plane....lost a little at Blackjack....lost a little at slots.....got 6th and my money back in a tourney.......and earlier had dropped about $150 playing Hold'em. My mind was on trying to get back to even or better so that I could really LOOSEN up during the last few hours of the next day. So I checked my gut shot straight flush, gut shot straight, and flush draws and waited to see what happens. In my current state of mind, I may have done jsut about anything but I figured....let's see what they do. The lady bets $10 into the other three of us and to my surprise the other two guys call....now it's a no-brainer, easy call. We go to the turn and the clouds parted and the lights of heaven shined down on the table....it was the 7 of spades. Viola! Now, how do I get her to committ to all my chips (she had $100 more than me) and/or bring these guys along for the ride. I check my monster and she bet's out another $10 into the $60+ pot.....the other two guys fold, leaving her and I to fight this out. So I put on my Oscar winning face and take my time raising her another $30....she quickly reraises me $30 and this leaves me with about $70 or $80. I start putting on the act....I am acting truly torn....I look at my now dismal stack and finally and very reluctantly just say "Ok, I'm all in!".
This is the really FUN part. She quickly calls and flips her cards over next to the cards on the board....showing her Quad 8's. I know I've won the hand but have completely forgot about the badbeat....I non-chalantly say straigh flush as I flip my "Suited Weaz" and the Dealer and the other buys IMMEDIATELY go bonkers, saying "Badbeat, Badbeat". This snaps me out of my tired spell and I quickly realize that I've just won a nice sum of money. I did not even know how much the jackpot was but I did know that I was going to up for the trip! The lady however is clueless. The Dealer firmly instructs us not to touch the cards or the board and the floor managers come over quickly. We explain to the lady that she won the jackpot....she still does not completely understand and she is even more confused as to why she lost the hand. We explain slowly and it starts sinking in....the Floor tells me to take my winnings for the current hand which was roughly $550 + or- $50 and wait for them to review the hand. Meanwhile, me and the rest of the table are high fiving all across the table....even with the people who were at the ATM....that is until they realized that they were not part of the hand....then they almost cried and quickly left the poker room. In the end, I won $12,714 for my part of the jackpot, the lady won twice that at $25,000+ and the three other guys all got lucky to split with only the 3 of them and they cleared over $4,000. I tipped the dealer the 6-black chips in my hand....and instructed the lady to make sure she gave him $1,000 or more (which she did). It took almost an hour to complete the deal and they gave me the option of check or cash. I took $1,500 cash and the rest in a check.
The remaining hours of our trip, I really tried to knock it out of the park and also build my comps. I played $50+ blackjack hands and some $2 slots. It was a great weekend and I owe it all to "The Weaz". So next time you are playing and you are dealt the 6-9.....remember to spread the word and call it "The Weaz.".