Comedian Rick Moranis offered apologies but not excuses Monday, saying his last-place finish in last weekend’s Aces Go All-In For Children Texas Hold-‘Em Poker Tournament at the Luxor Hotel & Casino was due to his inability to stay calm during the high-stakes game, a condition reflected by his almost-constantly spinning bow tie.
“It’s not that I wasn’t getting good cards,” said the 53-year-old comic and country-and-western novelty-song writer, who was playing at a table alongside singer Meat Loaf, actors John C. Reilly and Brad Garrett, and former quarterback Dan Fouts while representing his own Honey, I Drastically Shrunk The Odds Of The Kids Contracting Childhood Leukemia Foundation. “My cards were no better or worse than anyone else’s. But every time they were worth betting, that bow tie would start going again.”
Scrutiny of videotapes made of the mere 36 hands in which Moranis took part before losing his entire $50,000 stack of chips reveals bow-tie-rotation incidents on nine viewings of his pocket cards, including three instances of paired face cards; 11 incidents of bow-tie rotation on Moranis’ inspection of favorable “flop” or community cards; and two especially strong bow-tie rotations—one of which blew Moranis’ lucky beanie straight up in the air, where it rotated independently for several seconds—which occurred when the former SCTV star realized he had built strong inside straights.
