A Day At The Series

I love this game. I’ve been involved with poker in one capacity or another for twenty years; it’s in my blood. I have been a professional poker dealer and a professional player; an avid reader of poker literature as well as a writer. Through the years and the changing of hats however, I have remained, first and foremost, a loyal poker fan. As I sat down to deal the $5000 No-Limit Deuce to Seven event at the 2004 WSOP, it was impossible not to have my 'fan' hat on. Here, sitting around me, are the greatest of the great. Over half of all the living Poker Hall of Famers are huddled in these few tables and scarcely a name could be mentioned that isn't immediately recognizable to poker fans the world over. My normal working day brings me to the poker table to play but today I show up prepared to deal to a group of legends.

On time, precisely at 12:00 noon, school began. 46 players with nearly 100 bracelets between them. My first table had me sitting down to a 6-handed line-up of Chris Bjorn, O'Neil Longson, Freddie Deeb, Bobby Baldwin, Scotty Nguyen and Jennifer Harman. The other tables didn't offer much solace if you were looking for an easy table - how about Howard Lederer, Johnny Chan, Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth Jr. on the table beside me? Or perhaps Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, Mickey Appleman and Barry Greenstein on the table behind me? You still think there's got to be an easier table? How about this lineup then: Chip Reese, John Juanda, Men the Master and Mohamed Ibrahim? Or Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Steve Z, Erik Seidel and Carlos Morteson. Still not to your liking? No problem, I have a table left for you right between Doyle Brunson and Lyle Berman.

The fact that this is a $5000 event and that the game is the relatively obscure deuce to seven draw makes for a small field and everyone knows everyone. There is a camaraderie inside the rail and an excited buzz from the throngs of onlookers on the outside. They’re playing today for fun, honor and glory rather than the money. With a near $300,000 first place prize hovering, friendly side bets were waged amongst the combatants. Doyle and Lyle Berman had a prop bet running which had Doyle owing $75,000 within an hour – it was a long tournament, one has to do something to wile away the time. Bobby Baldwin made a bet in 1976 with Doyle Brunson that he called the worst bet he ever made. He made a $2000 ‘last longer’ bet with Doyle in the 1976 Championship event which Doyle won. In 1977 he made what he calls the second worst bet of his life when he bet another $2000 getting 2:1 odds; Doyle won again. In 1978, Bobby said he made the worst lay down of his life when he refused the $2000 bet, this time winning it himself. Apparently he has given up the $2000 bet forever; today the last longer wager was a million.

I’ve shared with you before that my reason for coming to deal this tournament was primarily to learn; to not be so proud that I would squander the opportunity to sit with the very best in the world and study. Doyle Brunson offered one of my favorite lessons during this event. His prop bet with Lyle was getting expensive, the clock was running down and there was time for just one more hand before the players went on a short break prior to the limits being raised. Doyle lost yet another prop bet and then suffered a bad beat at the hands of a two-outer. As the players slipped off to take their break, a young player snuck under the rail clutching a copy of SuperSystem and made his way over to the table. When he asked for an autograph, Doyle shook himself from whatever he was thinking and feeling at the moment, smiled and reached for a pen that our young fan had forgotten to bring with him in his excitement. One can only learn so much from studying starting requirements in holdem or examples of how to play 5th street in stud but an example of a great poker player behaving like a great man is still one of my favorites.

I make a living playing poker; it’s my primary source of income. It’s probably fair to say that I’m a very good player. At any time though, there’s an awful lot of very good players out there, very few stand the test of time and are amongst the greatest over time. Playing poker for a living takes a lot of skills but heading the list is stamina. Playing your ‘A’ game every day, day in day out – year after year is hard. The players who surrounded me had achieved that – they are the masters of their art.

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