Column: At long last, Wong is a winner

Doug Moe  —  7/04/2007 8:15 am

SUEY WONG can tell you losing stories until the cows come home. Most gamblers can. Suey has a dandy about a horse running at Arlington Park, outside Chicago, that was leading by a dozen lengths when it crashed through the rail and wound up in the infield.

Wong had already been planning the night's menu at Le Francais, the great restaurant in Wheeling. Instead, when his horse went through the rail, he used his losing tickets to start a fire in a Weber grill.

There are others, many others, and no one tells losing stories with more bitter relish than Suey, which makes him great company. But now, a terrible thing has happened. The other day in Las Vegas, at the most prestigious poker tournament of them all, Suey Wong became a winner.

Well, he didn't actually win event 38 of the 2007 World Series of Poker, currently running at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Vegas. But Wong made the final table of the three-day tournament, besting more than 2,750 other participants to finish seventh. He pocketed more than $68,000, along with a royal flush of praise from many better known players, who were surprised to learn this was Wong's first World Series appearance.

Asked in Nevada why it took him so long to get to the Big Show, Suey recalled something the Robert Redford character said in "The Natural" about why he made it so late to the major leagues: "I was delayed."

Redford's character had been shot by a mysterious woman. There was a time in his colorful life when that wouldn't have been out of the question for Suey, but the real reason the Madison West graduate has stayed below the big time poker radar is he's been busy here in Madison.

For years, Wong was the ringmaster at a popular Chinese restaurant and bar, one of the city's first, the Golden Dragon, on East Mifflin just off the Capitol Square. His family owned it. The food was good, but for some of us the real attraction was the lively crowd that came to swap stories with Suey. Journalists like the late Jim Selk, pols like Paul Soglin, lawyers, lobbyists and all forms of downtown wildlife congregated at the Dragon. Suey's mother, a wonderful woman whom we all called "Bot Mo" -- honorable mother -- tried to make sure this wild bunch at least got an egg roll between every third drink.

When the restaurant closed in 1999, Suey began studying acupuncture, and he now runs a business, Wong's Acupuncture, on the northeast side.

But poker remains one of his passions. After his seventh-place performance in Las Vegas, Wong told a reporter for the Casino City Times that the Madison poker scene is "very tough." World champ Phil Hellmuth came right out of the Madison games, and another regular, Monona resident Dewey Weum,once won $250,000 at the World Series.

At this year's Series, Wong sat at and advanced from tables that included legends like Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and J.C. Tran, this year's hottest player. At one point Wong raised Ferguson, and as the former world champion was giving his famous "should I or shouldn't I" stare, Suey said, "Chris, I don't know if you're aware of this, but Chinese guys are really lucky." The stoic Ferguson cracked up -- and folded.

Wong flew out to Las Vegas with his good buddy Dan Waisman, the longtime, and recently retired, State Street businessman. The two have made numerous road trips together and can push each other's buttons. Several years ago, they were driving to the Miss Marquette riverboat casino near Prairie du Chien when, near Fennimore, Waisman suddenly exited at high speed. Wong wound up with a lap full of doughnuts and coffee. "We're on the way to the boat," Wong muttered later, "and he decides he needs to wash his car. What is that?"

On the recent flight to Vegas, Waisman gave a candid assessment of his friend's chances in the World Series. "You're a good player, Suey. But you're not a tournament player."

This time Wong proved Waisman wrong. The event covered three grueling days, the first two lasting longer than 12 hours as players were gradually eliminated. By the third day, the original field of 2,790 was cut to a final table of nine.

Once play at the final table started, Wong was recalling this week, "it was like jury duty. We were sequestered." Officials didn't want the players getting cell phone calls analyzing their opponents' strategy, which would have been possible since several Web sites were showing the tournament (and hole cards unseen except on the Webcast) on a one-hour delay.

Wong felt he could win -- first place was more than $670,000 -- but his luck deserted him. "I went card dead at the end," he said.

After he busted out of the tournament, Wong went to another room in the hotel where he was able to watch himself play for the last hour on the delayed Webcast. He found himself yelling at one of his opponents to call his raise, even though it had all already happened, and Suey knew that the other player, Erica Shoenberg, had folded the hand. "How can she not call?" Wong fumed at the Web screen.

Yelling at a player on a screen to make a play on a hand that had already happened 45 minutes earlier? Losing stories are still the best.

Heard something Moe should know? Call 252-6446, write PO Box 8060, Madison, WI 53708, or e-mail dmoe@madison.com

Doug Moe  —  7/04/2007 8:15 am