Looking back....the road to WSOP July 7th 2007

I have played poker for about 10 years, but never took it very serious until about 4 years ago when I started playing in an underground cash game in Boston. The room was a loft apartment that got converted to a poker den twice a week. The "host" took a 5% rake and paid his rent (and then some) this way. The average night was two to three tables of NL $100 1/1 and $200 1/2 games. The neighborhood was seedy and crowd was full of mafioso types. Had the feeling that I would either lose my wad or they'd just mug me upon exit.

Not being the wisest Irishman, I picked a table argument with some Gibroni, a 240 lbs guy with a crusted smear of remnant marinara sauce on his face from the meatball sub he had for dinner. He started critiquing my play, and yes, he was right, I did over play my QQ when the board came K23 rainbow. But, I wouldn't admit it. After I re-rasied him pre-flop, he led with a pot bet and I carelessly went all-in. Still young in my poker training, I thought bravado and courage were the traits of a great player. He of course called with his AK and was understandably irate with the turn and river came Q....and then Q. Stupidly, I stoked the fire of his frustration by mentioning I didn't need the quads and lamented that it should have come when it counted. For the rest of the night, he played when I played, waiting to catch me in a moment of weakness and get his money back. Instead, the run of cards that followed was epic, although I didn't realize it at the time. Walking out of that poker lair with a gangsta bankroll, I wondered if I'd make it to my car without a tire iron to the back of the head. As I drove off feeling like Matt Damon when he took down Teddy KGB for $60k, I planned my next visit and started calculating how easy it would be to play poker for a living. $1,400/week, yeah, I could live off that, I thought...or at least it sounded sexy: "Professional Poker Player". I'm not crazy, so I didn't quit my job, but that experience warped me for years, as I tried to replicate that streak of amazing luck.

In the ensuing years, my poker game was good, but not great. I kept a decent tally of my profit/loss and thanks to my weekly game and some really bad work colleagues, was solidly in the black. But, it was that bravado, built playing against weak players that set me up for an eye opening experience when I started driving 2 1/2 hours down to Foxwoods Casino with a buddy of mine, V. Foxwoods is one of the biggest poker halls in the world, a sea of green felt and clicking chips. It's filled with people from NYC and Boston and about 20% leather-asses. They are typically 20/30/40-somethings that want the title "Professional Poker Player", but by the looks of them, they aren't enjoying the "grind". V and I would go down every couple of weeks and spend 10-12 hours playing the $2/$4 and I would consistently lose $300-500 per trip. No, these weren't big stakes, but I was concerned by the routine bleeding of cash, and frustrated by my apparent lack of skills. What happened to me? I always win!, I thought. Well, after a couple of months and about $2k less in my bank account, I came to the conclusion that I just wasn't very good. So, I bought every book on poker that Amazon had, and each night would read for an hour before bed. Every single night, the text would expose some facet of my game that I began to realize another players were taking advantage of me. Over the next month, that reading gave me perspective. It honestly embarrassed me that I had played for so many years with the equivalent of a kindergarten degree in poker. Thank you, Mr. Sklansky, Malmuth, Brunson....etc....for saving me from a life of losing.

As I emerged from a short, but intense month of poker study, I started playing online to test the theories. What I realized was that most of these guys online were REALLY SKILLED players. The same patterns I had studied were being demonstrated hand after hand online. Even the $1/$2 games were about 60% sharks. It took me quite a while to digest this, and for the next few months, I played very little poker. But, when the opportunity to go out to Vegas for work came, I dusted off the books and revived my training. I spent three days in the hallowed poker halls of the Mirage, Binon's, and Bellagio, and made about $5k playing $2/$5, $500 buy-in NL games. The fire was lit.

My friend V and I began going down to Foxwoods more regularly and that's where I started feeling a lot more comfortable that I had a winning strategy. It is also when I started getting the WSOP fever. Although I'm sure 75% of the players there are better than me, I think it's the only way to take the next step to becoming a truly great poker player. To see them in action, to see the plays, and more importantly the laydowns they make will be truly worth the $10k entry fee. Hey, and if I surprise myself, catch a good run of cards, and don't blow-up, maybe I'll even cash. Wait wait wait....there's that bravado again. July 7th is only 5 weeks away, need to work on that....