Moose Lodge Vegas poker tourney a friendlier sort

Eugene “Jeep” Jones played a lot of poker in the weeks before competing in a big Texas Hold ’Em tournament in Las Vegas early this month — just not with other people.

“I played mostly on the Internet,” said Jones, who finished 30th out of more than 500 competitors in a national Moose Club tournament at the Golden Nugget casino.

Which has certain disadvantages, as opposed to sitting across a table from human opponents. For one thing, a good poker face is pretty much wasted online.

“I was kind of nervous for the first few hands,” said Jones, who represented Moose Lodge 1727 of Lynchburg and Campbell County in the event, “and then it went away.”

Eventually, so did all the $50,000 in chips he was handed at the beginning of the tournament.

Of course, these didn’t represent real money, just a means of keeping score. Every entrant put up $500, which served not only as the entry fee, but paid for a room at the casino hotel from Jan. 10-14.

“I wound up winning $675,” said Jones, who survived until the last day of the three-day event. “So I pretty much broke even.”

Well, sort of.

“I didn’t do too well on the side gambling in the casino,” Jones admitted.

That’s why Vegas loves tournaments. If you can gather a few hundred people together in your casino, chances are it will be to the ultimate benefit of the house.

For those accustomed to the flamboyant poker characters on ESPN and other sports networks, however, the Moose tournament might have seemed a bit dull.

“It was probably the friendliest tournament I’ve ever had, for having this many people in a room,” Golden Nugget manager John Colville said. “They apologized for knocking each other out. They shook hands.”

The final handshake went to Anthony Mills, of Hutchinson, Kan., who won the $10,000 first prize. But Jeep Jones had his moment.

“There was a time when I had over a million dollars in chips,” Jones said, “and they told me I was either first or second in the whole thing.”

Had Jones simply been freelancing at one of the Golden Nugget’s tables, he would have stood up at that point, cashed in those chips, and gone home with a huge smile on his face.

But you can’t do that in a tournament, because the whole idea is to bankrupt all but one player. So Jones had to keep his seat — and because the competitors weren’t playing with real money, the betting got crazy.

“The last day was brutal,” Jones said. “But I did alright, I thought.”

During his three-day run, Jones played cards from 10 in the morning until six at night.

“There were nine people at a table,” he said, “and whenever somebody got knocked out, they would move people around. I think I sat at five different tables.”

One of the perks was a more-or-less constant flow of alcoholic beverages to any player who wanted them during play.

“I knew better,” Jones said. “I drank soda.”