http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/TYA_zps59403399.jpg
When you are a self-made multi-millionaire and have bought your club for a fiver, I guess it’s no big deal for you to gamble the team’s manager position away on a poker hand in Las Vegas.
When I hit the runner-runner Royal Straight Flush at the poker table at the Mandalay Bay, I knew that I had won the bet with the grey haired, well-spoken Englishman on the other side of the table but I didn't know my life had just changed.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Barry_zps83cd66f0.jpg
Now I am jumping ahead in the story and I guess its best that I start by introducing myself.
My name is Tom Northwood.
What I did in Vegas is not important to the story and how I ended up on the poker table next to Barry Hearn I still don’t remember to this day.
We had spent the night playing poker, drinking Boddington's and talking about the history of English football and the future of American Soccer. He had introduced himself as a London based sports promoter named Barry.
I was just a soccer fan passing thru Vegas and I had no clue who the man opposite me was.
The bet was stupid even for a bet made at three in the morning. With an ace and a ten of diamonds on the hand and a jack of diamonds on the flop I still needed runner-runner king and queen of diamonds for the Royal Straight Flush. If I lost I would buy the next round of beers and if I won Barry told me that I would be the new manager of his football team. I didn't know what football team he was talking about but suspected I would get to help him manage his Fantasy Team and if I were lucky there might even be some prize money involved in the deal.
I did not care, it was my turn to pay for the beers anyway.
Before I got the chance to call the pretty cocktail waitress over to the table to ask for more beers, the king and queen of diamonds hit the table and my world was turned upside down.
The very next day I was onboard the private jet of Chairman Barry Hearn, flying back to London for the first day on my new job. Manager of Leyton Orient Football Club, or better known as The O's.
It was on that flight we made the blueprint for Leyton Orient F.C becoming the American team.
http://travelzealots.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/pr_g550_large-300x200.jpg
During the flight I overheard Barry had a long talk on the phone with the teams former manager Russell Slade and promised him a new job as the commissioner of his newest project, “The Ping-Pong League of Champions”. Apparently it was not exactly what Russell Slade had in mind and he declined the offer.
What happens in Vegas, stays in Leyton
When you are a self-made multi-millionaire and have bought your club for a fiver, I guess it’s no big deal for you to gamble the team’s manager position away on a poker hand in Las Vegas.
When I hit the runner-runner Royal Straight Flush at the poker table at the Mandalay Bay, I knew that I had won the bet with the grey haired, well-spoken Englishman on the other side of the table but I didn't know my life had just changed.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Barry_zps83cd66f0.jpg
Now I am jumping ahead in the story and I guess its best that I start by introducing myself.
My name is Tom Northwood.
What I did in Vegas is not important to the story and how I ended up on the poker table next to Barry Hearn I still don’t remember to this day.
We had spent the night playing poker, drinking Boddington's and talking about the history of English football and the future of American Soccer. He had introduced himself as a London based sports promoter named Barry.
I was just a soccer fan passing thru Vegas and I had no clue who the man opposite me was.
The bet was stupid even for a bet made at three in the morning. With an ace and a ten of diamonds on the hand and a jack of diamonds on the flop I still needed runner-runner king and queen of diamonds for the Royal Straight Flush. If I lost I would buy the next round of beers and if I won Barry told me that I would be the new manager of his football team. I didn't know what football team he was talking about but suspected I would get to help him manage his Fantasy Team and if I were lucky there might even be some prize money involved in the deal.
I did not care, it was my turn to pay for the beers anyway.
Before I got the chance to call the pretty cocktail waitress over to the table to ask for more beers, the king and queen of diamonds hit the table and my world was turned upside down.
The very next day I was onboard the private jet of Chairman Barry Hearn, flying back to London for the first day on my new job. Manager of Leyton Orient Football Club, or better known as The O's.
It was on that flight we made the blueprint for Leyton Orient F.C becoming the American team.
http://travelzealots.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/pr_g550_large-300x200.jpg
During the flight I overheard Barry had a long talk on the phone with the teams former manager Russell Slade and promised him a new job as the commissioner of his newest project, “The Ping-Pong League of Champions”. Apparently it was not exactly what Russell Slade had in mind and he declined the offer.
