I felt someone tapping on my shoulder, and as I turned around there’s this larger-than-life character sporting a pink hat and checkered pajama pants on his six-foot-sixish frame. “Hey, you really had pocket tens, didncha? Tell me the truth!” The hand Greg FBT Mueller was referring to had happened the previous night during a 10-20 NL game at the Bellagio. I had no idea who he was, but I was simultaneously hating him while watching in awe at the way he controlled our table.
I hated him because I was winning every other pot before he sat down. After he sat down (actually it was more like a short descent down a level in the atmosphere) there wasn’t anything I could do to win one. On the hand in question, I had raised preflop, he called from the blinds and an early position limper called. I felt good about my hand on a J high flop with two diamonds. Action was checked to me, I bet, and both players called. I knew that Random Guy was drawing to a 
, but I had no idea where FBT was at.
He knew just where I was, though. On the non- turn, FBT led out, the player in between called, and I put in a big overraise figuring to squeeze this blonde-haired behemoth out of the hand. Instead, the big jerk shoved, random Guy called (on the draw), and I folded. Greg had a weak J but knew exactly what was going on. He read the situation perfectly and played the hand perfectly.
He spotted me the next day on the floor at the WSOP and was dying to ask me about the hand. While I still wanted to hate him for being right, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. There’s something endearing about a gimongous ex-professional hockey player who wears pink hats. I’m fairly certain that my favorite poker writer will be adding him to his shortlist of the world’s largest eight-year olds (FBT can give LA Mike a run for his money).
Over the last year, I have been able to spend a little more time each tournament hanging out with Greg. That’s because he keeps making it deeper and deeper each event he plays (and when everyone else starts going home there's no one else to hang out with but wanna-be writers). This A-list cash game player has been making all the right moves in becoming an A-list tournament player.
I think the main reason he has been doing so well in making the shift over the last several months has everything to do with the crew he hangs out with when he’s away from the tables. While every player who’s vying for a bracelet has a crowd there to cheer him on, it’s clear that Greg has two friends who may as well be brothers.
The genuineness of their relationship is something often not seen on the tournament trail. There’s an authenticity to their friendship because there’s an authenticity to each individual. I look forward to telling the story of Kyle Wilson and the newest WPT Champion Shawn Buchanon over the course of the WSOP.
FBT ranks them in the top 1% of cash game players in the world. There’s a good chance that by the end of the 2007 WSOP, we will be counting them in the top 1% of tournament players in the world as well.
