Dude lived a heck of a life. 2 Bracelets, good online mixed game grinder and just so happened to produce some absolutely iconic albums.
Met him a few times. Interesting guy. RIP
I guess I am writing this more for myself than I am for Steve, who never partial to self-publicity and would likely hate this.
Steve was one of the first people I met when I moved from LA to Chicago in early 2009. We were introduced through a mutual 2+2 acquaintance and Steve of course immediately gave me his phone number and invited me to the Tuesday game. He’s still in my phone as “electrical” which was his 2+2 handle. Had no ideal for many years that was also the name of his recording studio.
The Tuesday game took place at his recording studio, which was where he lived at the time. I know virtually nothing about music, had no idea he recorded Nirvana, and like 90 percent of the bands in his AMA thread go right over my head. Apparently I’ve been on a mutual text thread with one of the headliners of Silkworm and have never known he is in Silkworm until yesterday when I re-read the AMA thread. Very nice guy. As Steve once said to me, I like pussy ass **** so he told me to listen to more of Glenn Hansard and introduced me to Jason Molina. So that’s basically all the music for this rant.
The Tuesday game ran (at least for me) fairly regularly from whenever I got there until the pandemic, when it partially moved online. I think I played with some important people in the music industry once or twice or something, but you would ever know it from the atmosphere.
The Chicago crew has a few bracelets under their belt and with some out of town guests, I think this 25-50 cent game once had something like 12 bracelets at the table at the time. It was basically 25-50 cent, one round NLHE and one round dealer’s choice (casino games plus swingo). There’s lots of straddles and short-handed nonsense. I was up $500 (which is a big number in that game generally) the first time I played until Swingo was called toward the end of the night. First time playing this masterful game, and Steve and I got it all in with one card to come and I thought I had a board lock. I did not. I did have 2 outs that did not hit.
I met a lot of great people through that game and through Steve, many of whom I am close to today.
Steve was prolific in the Chicago poker community. He regularly played the 40-80 HORSE when that was the mixed game at the boat and has learned all the new games as they came out, nowadays playing 50-100 or higher multi-game mixes with all of those split pot draw games the new kids like. He was kind enough to back me in the HORSE back in the day and I will forever be appreciative of that.
Some other random things in no particular order.
Steve was a rabid baseball fan, particularly of the White Sox. Encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and a game was almost always on TV on Tuesdays.
He was a fantastic cook and a good gardener. He often made snacks for the Tuesday game and I was the beneficiary of many of his dinner pictures. He once gave be a bottle of olive oil infused with “alley herbs,” which was literally a bottle of good olive oil infused with herbs he grew in the alley next to the studio. It was fantastic.
He was always super generous with both this time and money. Have someone with a kid who wants to be a drummer? Friend who is a fanboy? Always would be willing to have them over to the studio and show them around.
Chuck talked about Steve and his wife’s charity above. It was called Letters to Santa. My understanding of it was that he used to collect letters mailed to Santa from some of the poorer neighborhoods in the city and then buy them the things they asked for on the list, plus a winter coat. He did this with no fanfare or request for accolades. He dropped the stuff off on Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning and he drove away in his purple PT Cruiser. After some bureaucracy prevented him from getting dead letters from the post office, he partnered with local charities to get letters or with lists from local families. More recently, it has become an actual 501c3 and they do coats and computers as well as gifts. Again with no fanfare or requests of any kind.
He never really solicited money for the charity. That was not his nature. Through Second City, he and his wife put on a 24-hour donation type thing around Christmas of every year to help subsidize it, but that was it. I imagine it would mean the world to him if anyone would use the link to donate in his memory.
He was a collector of strays of sorts. Maybe I was one of them at first. There was always someone on his couch. He always answered his phone. Especially for a friend in need. He had a rule that someone had to call him before offing themselves so he could talk them out of it.
He was one hell of a good one pocket player and knew everyone in the Chicago scene that used to make a living in pool halls.
He was a huge liberal and had some borderline socialistic tendencies, and as a staunch advocate for the massive swath of working poor in this country. Any sort of bigotry, especially toward the LGTBQ community, drove him nuts. Yet, at the same time, he did not really harbor any hatred in his heart. One of his close friends is a moderately evil Republican. He enjoyed getting into political debates or poker debates or any sort of debates. He liked arguing. Never admitted he was wrong. He mostly wasn’t.
He and I were once were in a local $1-2 no limit game (neither of our preferred games by any stretch of the imagination) with a very with a large woman that he referred to as a strumpet. She was very insistent that I first come smoke pot with her and later come do some coke with her on the balcony (I politely declined both offers). This was maybe in 2010 or so. Based on what she thought I did for a living, she started calling me prisonrape. Steve made damn sure that name stuck for the next 15 years or so. He was a ball buster extraordinaire.
He wasn’t a huge fan of Vegas and said he’s rather have the WSOP played in a warehouse in Cincinnati. Amen.
He really liked cats.
The thing I will miss most about him is his sense of humor.
Chuck BassMan, I'm absolutely gutted.
I collaborated with Steve (and by this I mean: He helped me create something being incredibly generous with his time) on a couple of projects, most notably the docuseries linked in post #7. We spent a few days filming at his studio, then went to a home game with Steve and his buddies. So many great stories. He was one of a kind, and I don't say that lightly.
A few months later, we flew to Chicago again to film something for a charity Steve helped run. When we were there, they did a 24-hour charity stream where Steve stayed up the whole time, played a live gig at like 5 in the morning, hosted the whole thing, and when he wasn't needed in front of a microphone, he went home and cooked for everybody. I, then 35, passed out before the sun even came up, and when I woke up a few hours later, a 59-year-old Steve was serving everyone breakfast, probably not having even considered taking a nap. When Steve believed in a cause or thought he could help someone, he was tireless. Seemingly everyone we interviewed in Chicago had a story about Steve where he had practically saved someone off the street, accommodated strangers in his house, or whatever it took to help. People know how Steve refused to take royalties, and he charged everyone he worked with the same minimal fee so that everyone could afford him (bands from my town in Finland I had never even heard have recorded albums with Steve!), but most of his charitable contributions aren't even known to the public.
[B]This[/B] is their charity. I know the home page isn't flashy - this is a very home-grown organization - but I know for a fact this meant the world to Steve (his wife is the president of the organization). To my knowledge, the Albinis spent every Christmas for 20 years delivering presents to kids in shady neighborhoods from morning until night after spending a good part of the year fundraising. Why would you spend your Christmas at home when you can spend the day saving someone else's Christmas? That was Steve.
I spoke with someone from the charity today, and they are obviously devastated. Let's show them some love, 2+2.
Really wish I was able to write a proper eulogy and do Steve justice, but I'm too gutted right now -- and I barely knew him. Some people just have that aura where you instantly know the world would be a much worse place without them.
For everyone on 2+2 who knew Steve: I'm so sorry for your loss :(
PS. Legendary life advice:
oscillatorMan I'm so ****ed up over all of this, I've been trying to avoid all of this stuff, so I guess I'm taking a small step by posting in this stupid ****ing thread that I can't believe exists right now. I'll appreciate it later
Thanks Chris, Tim , and Miikka. Thanks anyone who has anything to say. I ****ing really miss my best friend. This guy carried so many people on his back, and he gave and gave and gave. I'll post thoughts and stories sporadically in this thing at some point but cant now. Sorry for the useless post **** this
