Stephen John - Deal Me In: Twenty of the WorldsTop Poker Players Share the Heartbreaking and Inspiring Stories of How They Turned Pro

DEAL ME IN

Twenty of the Worlds Top Poker Players
Share The Heartbreaking and Inspiring Stories
of How They Turned Pro

Marvin Karlins and Stephen John

Deal Me In. Copyright 2009 Phils House Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Phils House Publishing, Inc.,
3910 Pecos McLeod, I.C., Suite C-100
Las Vegas, NV 89121

www.philshousepublishing.com
www.pokerbrat.com

Printed and bound in China by Global PSD

Book design by Kimberly Welch, I Design
www.idcreativegroup.com

Edited by William Carver

Photo credits on page 287

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009904081

ISBN: 978-0-9824558-0-7

In Fond Memory of

Stu Ungar, David Chip Reese, Benny Binion,
Walter Puggy Pearson, and Johnny Moss

Any list of the greatest poker players in the world would certainly include, in addition to the players profiled in this book, T. J. Cloutier, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, David Oppenheim, John Hennigan, Patrick Antonius, David Benjamine, Ted Forrest, Amarillo Slim Preston, Huck Seed, Mike Matusow, David Chiu, and Barry Greenstein.

Within the pages of Deal Me In are twenty amazing stories from all over the globe, filled with inspiration, hope, failure, and the will to succeed. Sometimes the player found the game, and sometimes the game found the player.

From the beginning, this book has been a passion project shared amongst a small group of people committed to gathering and presenting the personal and inspirational stories of many of the worlds best poker players.

Both writers, Marvin Karlins and Stephen John, have captured the color and passion of the worlds best, and both went to great lengths to secure interviews, even if it meant, for example, Steve waking up at 2 a.m. to catch Johnny Chan outside the poker room at the Bellagio! Bill Carver contributed meticulous edits, and Chris Jodry provided general support in a thousand different ways.

Shannon Reiter, the president of Phils House Publishing, has overseen everyone and everything in Deal Me In, from initial concept to final printing. Shannon, your commitment and enthusiasm are nothing short of awesome.

Kimberly Welch of I Design, continues to amaze us with her creativity, which is on full display in the brilliant cover and chapter layouts; its astonishing that this is her first full color book! And Aric Meidl, as always, has provided solid support by managing our online presence and web stores.

Steven Goffs team at Global PSD has been quick and resourceful in getting the book printed, under pressures of time and in an efficient and environmentally friendly fashion.

The advisers, Elliott Wolf of Peanut Butter Publishing, and Dan Friedberg and Ryan Straus of Crest Law Group, have all been remarkably useful, positive and always forward thinking.

Steve Banks and Darren Weis of S and S Enterprises are great poker fans and industrious managers of the warehouse and shipping. Steve, we know youll get that Omaha bracelet one of these days!

Justin Marchand and Mary Hurbi and the entire team at CardPlayer have been nothing short of fabulous enriching this project with beautiful photos and marketing expertise. And Larry Grossman was more than generous to share with us some very special, personal photos from the earlier days of the game.

A special thanks goes, of course, to all of the poker players gathered in this book. Your patience, often through multiple interviews and drafts, is deeply appreciated. Your stories are inspiring, and your accomplishments are mighty indeed.

Phil Hellmuth deserves special recognition for his unwavering commitment, financial support and endless enthusiasm for bringing this project to fruition. Phil, we are all so lucky to have you as a colleague and a friend.

Finally, everyone involved wants to thank Bob Soderstrom for coming up with the idea of writing this book, and for his tireless energy and iron will when it comes to Getting Stuff Done!

Global Printing, Sourcing & Development (Global PSD), in association with American Forests and the Global ReLeaf programs, will plant two trees for each tree used in the manufacturing of this book. GlobalReLeaf is an international campaign by American Forests, the nations oldest nonprofit conservation organization and a world leader in planting trees for environmental restoration.

Introduction

Jack MccLeLLanD

Poker tournaments are my life as well as my career. In the early 80s I was playing hundreds of small tournaments a year in Las Vegas. I constantly complained to my late wife Alma about how poorly the tournaments were conducted. Alma, who was a very sharp lady (and sometimes sharp-tongued), said to me, If youre such a genius, why dont you go and run them yourself.

Along the way I have seen many great players pass by. I will never forget the steely stare of Johnny Moss, or the beautiful grin of David Chip Reese as he happily stacked your chips in front of him. And who could forget the meteoric rise and fall and amazing comeback of Stu Ungar?

Twenty-six years and thousands of tournaments later, I still love my job.

While reading the first-person accounts in Deal Me In, Im struck by the distance that many of the great players have traveled to find the game of poker. For most of the players in this book, poker on the nearest laptop simply did not exist when they first became intrigued by the game. Finding a game in those days meant traveling long distances and subjecting yourself to colorful and sometimes dishonest and dangerous players. Today, the game comes into your living room and finds you. In earlier years, you went out into the world and found a game.

In his account, the great Johnny Chan talks about traveling in the late 70s as a 16-year-old from Houston to Las Vegas, Phil Hellmuth shares stories of how he traveled the State of Wisconsin in search of bigger games, and recalls the number of times he traveled to Vegas (ten) before he had a single winning trip. Howard Lederer slept on a cot in the Chess Club of New York, cleaned the poker room there, and delivered sandwiches to the playersall so he could be close to the game and afford the nightly buy-ins!

Many of these journeys were made in the face of relentless family pressure, which was focused on the gambling aspect of the game. And then there were the social stigmas too, all swirling around the sophisticated, rigorous, and elegant game we love called poker.

Its also interesting to see in these accounts so many similar themes and tips for the player with pro aspirations. Money management, a critical theme, is addressed by players like Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, and Chris Ferguson, as is the ability to step down in limits when you need to get your game back on track. And, of course, to avoid leaking your winnings from a skill game like poker into non-skill house games like roulette.