Playing No Limit With Joe Awada

[Vee Quiva]

I stayed at the Palms last weekend and at 9:30 AM on Saturday, Joe Awada sat down in the 2-5 No Limit game to my right.

I thought about leaving the game, because I know that my game is not anywhere near a top pro's game, but since I had position on him I figured I would just stay out of his way and maybe I'd learn something.

Joe seemed to know a couple of the locals at the table so my impression is that he plays at the Palms regularly. He played a fairly loose aggressive game. He got incredibly lucky once where his 9-8 beat his opponent's A-8 on an 8-8-7-K-9 board. Not all of the money went in until the river when Joe raked in a $700 pot.

The funniest part was the 21 year old wanna be pro on my left. He had been up all night as evidenced from his wristbands from Rain and the Ghost Bar. He kept saying that he recognized Joe. "You're Joe Juanda, right?"
Awada responded with, "Yes that's right, I'm John Juanda's brother" So then the wanna be pro rings up his cell phone and tells his buddy rather loudly that he just met "Joe Juanda" famous poker player.

I was a little surprised that Joe would play so low. From talking to him, it sounds like he really is only a pro player when the tournament circuit is in Vegas. Otherwise he sticks to his table gaming business.

[ClockWyze]

I played in this game with Joe during the WSOP. It is the biggest game they have at the palms poker room 'where his wife likes to play slots'.

He sat next to me and we talked for a while. He raised half the pots blind - and pushed on almost any flop without a care in the world. He also had his clearly underage son or nephew sitting behind him bored out of his mind. I thought it was a scummy thing to do. But joe seemed like a nice guy.

When he put sick beats on people after pushing rags on the flop he would say 'now you can tell all your friends joe awada bust you'.

[Sardo Numspa]

he's been playing in that game since at least late 2003 when i played with him there. let me ask you, was he wearing his WSOP bracelet, because he was when i played with him. one of my friends asked him why he wasn't playing at bellagio or where the games were bigger to which he said he yust liked the action at the palms

[ladykiller]

This is all true, and in actuality he sports bets for much higher stakes than the 2/5 at Palms. He just totally [censored] around in that game, but Palms does spread a 5/10 1500 buy-in and I've been there with some regs from time to time with a 10/20 game.

[SA125]

I'd love to play with any of them at 2-5. Why would you want to leave? Guess you haven't been watching HSP.

[Jeffawesome]

joe awada wasnt on hsp.

[pig4bill]

I played in a 5/10 NL game with Joe at the Wynn a month ago. He didn't do anything unusual but he was preoccupied with making a sports bet on some game, and he left a half hour after I got there.