Introduction
“If you can't spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table, then you are the
sucker.” This is a common poker saying spoken by Matt Damon in the classic poker
movie Rounders. I used to play in a tournament every Sunday night in Costa Rica
with some of the best players in the world. Unfortunately, I had no idea at the time
who those players were. Hopefully this book will help you spot the sucker rather
than be the sucker.
It takes a lot of experience and study of the game before one realizes what it takes
to play at an advanced level. Everyone needs to start somewhere. This book should
increase your learning curve, but there is no substitute for experience. The Internet
is an excellent vehicle to develop your game, no matter if you just play low limits a
few hours a week or strive to develop into a world-class player. The following story
gives you a glimpse into my poker life and the struggles I went through before I
started playing on the Internet.
My first memory of poker is sneaking out into the woods when I was about eight or
nine years old to play penny poker with my friends. In middle school, I remember
getting sent to the principal's office for playing craps in the bathroom. In high
school, I was assistant manager at a local movie theater and one night my friends
and I played poker in the projectionist booth while the movies were playing. To my
dismay, the manager decided to show up that night to check up on things.
Fortunately, the concession girl quickly alerted us. My friends were going down one
staircase as my boss was going up the other one. I had no idea that someday this
passion would become my profession.
I played very little poker during college except the occasional game with my old
high school friends. During my first real job with Andersen Consulting, I worked on
projects that lasted months at a time, and we soon found a way to get a weekly
poker game going playing the typical wild home games.
After a few years with Andersen, I decided to move to Phoenix to get Master's
degree in International Business. I soon discovered the local India reservations
where I first played Texas Hold'em. I would go and play $4-$8 Hold'em every few
weeks and managed a small profit. After graduating, went to work for Chiquita
Brands International at their headquarters in Cincinnati and my poker life was again
put on hold.
After a year and a half, Chiquita transferred me to Costa Rica. This is where I
discovered the thrill of poker tournaments and no-limit Hold'em. They had small
poker tournaments every Tuesday and Thursday night. I had no idea how to play
tournaments and especially no idea how to play no-limit Hold'em but I soon learned.
I then discovered a Hold'em club that had a tournament every Sunday night. These
players were a little more serious and the tournament was a little more expensive.
The buy-in was cheap, but Costa Rica has made a name for itself in the poker
community with its crazy rebuy tournaments (some players would rebuy over 20
times).
I slowly improved each and every month. Fortunately, I did not lose so much the
first six months to make me want to quit. Suddenly, I got on a nice streak and won
three of the small Tuesday/Thursday night tournaments in a row. These
tournaments only had between 16 and 24 players, but winning three in a row gave
me a lot of confidence.