Hypnotized, by Neil Channing and Phil Laak

I was at the Red Room in Mayfair to report on the PartyPoker Big Game IV. I'd just seen Roland de Wolfe play a £40k pot against Phil Laak. The chips went in on the turn and they agreed to run the river four times. Roland de Wolfe won all four times.

The man to my left told me running the cards several times doesn't make mathematical sense because it reduces your expected winnings. I nodded in quick agreement as he explained in unsolicited detail.

He told me he was a hedge fund manager and had been having dinner with friends at the casino next door. He wore spectacles and looked to be about 50 years old.

I don't know what made him start talking about neuro-linguistic programming. But first he was imploring me to take a Richard Bandler course. He asked to look at the palm of my hand. I'm not sure what he was looking for, but all I saw was ink stains.

Then I was aware he was talking to me in a weird way, emphasizing certain words, choosing his phrasing carefully: "I know we don't know each other that well yet..."

Then he told me the lights were getting dimmer, the sound lower, I should take my hand out of my pocket, let my arms fall, and focus my eyes on the green of the poker table. I listened to his voice, and did what he said, and half-forgot about the crowd around me....

But we were standing next to the TV table just behind Neil Channing and Phil Laak, and we might have been in camera view. I pulled back and said "What are you doing? Are you trying to hypnotize me?"

He said "Yes, I was. But okay, this is not the right setting."

He told me with great conviction that NLP is of great use to poker players. They can use it to plant suggestions in the minds of their opponents. A lot more players use NLP than you'd think, he said. He told me I must write about it. I said "Yes, I'll look into it" and laughed nervously. "No, don't look into it, actually do it!" he said.

I wanted to get away from him without confrontation. I felt vulnerable because he'd quickly seen I'd be susceptible to this stuff. He'd been speaking loudly and I was sure the players could hear. And I really didn't want to be hypnotized by anything other than the passing waitresses in their red satin dresses.

I tried planting a suggestion in his head. Make him think he needs the toilet. He really needs the toilet.

Moments later he said "I have to go to the bathroom", and I naturally fled.