White Belt Poker

Like many people, I began playing card games when I was a kid (although I was never shown how to play poker) and the more I think about it now, the more I think that the game had been calling to me for a while before I began to take a real interest in learning to play. There were a series of random events that led me to where I am now. I can remember picking up a copy of a book written by Amarillo Slim at my local library when I was probably only about 14 years old. I must’ve liked the cover or something. I read about half of it and then skipped to the end because the poker terms and the texan vernacular combined to make the text almost incomprehensible to me. In my teens I played poker video games on my computer – without really even knowing the rank of cards. I saw the famous poker film Rounders when I was in New York in 2000 visiting a friends apartment – most of it went straight over my head, but it convinced me that poker was a quick way to lose money and not something that a pretty cautious boy like me should get involved with.

However, around about this time, Channel 4 (a British TV channel) began showing a series called ‘Late Night Poker’ and I gradually felt myself being drawn in. The format was the now standard six-player no-limit tournament heat, and it featured many prominent British and European pros (Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Dave Colclough, Joe Beevers, Barney Boatman, Liam Flood, Noel Furlong, Simon Trumper) and a few American pros too (notably Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu). Although I had almost no understanding of the strategy, the combination of commentator Jesse May’s enthusiasm and the novelty value of being able to see each player’s cards from the cameras under the table was pretty intoxicating. There was something fascinating going on. These players were involved in something infinitely more subtle and brutal than I thought a card game could be and I got the feeling I could only see the tip of the iceberg. Slowly, I began to separate the Hollywood interpretation of the game from this new version that I was being presented with.

Pretty soon I downloaded and installed the poker software from a couple of online poker rooms and played on the play money tables, but I always drew a line in the sand when it came to playing for money. I was still convinced that the online game was full of people who would happily escort me along the path towards bankrupcy – (clearly I missed the microlimit tables at that point).

But then a few more events pushed me further towards the game. I remember my brother telling me a story about a friend of a friend who had helped put himself through college a few years ago by playing poker. That sounded pretty glamorous and risky (like Matt Damon’s character in Rounders), but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard of someone who had apparently done it. It was probably a myth, but anyway… I decided to look for that Amarillo Slim book that I never finished when I was a kid. Instead of that, I found literally hundreds of books and websites devoted to the many different facets of poker strategy. I read a review of one particular book on Amazon that was along the lines of “anyone who plays poker for one big bet an hour is playing purely for the money and not for enjoyment”. And that’s when it struck me that that was how people managed to pay their way through college. You just sat there for hours and slowly earned a certain amount per hour – just like a regular job. You didn’t have to go to Vegas and make the big score. So why couldn’t I do the same?

I bought Lee Jones’s book “Winning Low-limit Hold’em” and Phil Hellmuth’s “Play Poker Like the Pros”. Jones’ book was much clearer and more straightforward. I started reading chunks of it in my lunch hours. I felt overwhelmed at first by the amount of information that was in the book. I was staggered by the breadth of possible strategies. The thought of playing for money was intriguing me, although I wasn’t convinced that I could keep all of this stuff in my head at the same time. I took things slowly, re-reading particular sections until I was convinced that I understood them. I grinned to myself as I learned about how to work out odds, about check-raising, and about free cards. I could see how this would give me an edge over someone without this knowledge. It was all so devious! At this point I didn’t know anyone else who played poker and that heightened the feeling that I’d found this fantastic underground world. This was 2004… and I didn’t know any better at the time.

Inevitably, I wanted to play for real money now – otherwise what was the point? I wanted to prove to myself that I could put this knowledge into action. I made my first official money deposit at a poker room on 14th November 2004 and I’ve decided to make that the official anniversary of what I believe is going to be a lifelong involvement with the game. Thousands of hands later, I can still remember the way my heart pounded when I first joined a real money table and started betting.