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- Shuffle Up and Deal
A Mindless Thought
- By David Miller
 I used to play poker
in high school. The kind of poker where a group of guys would
get together on a Saturday night, drink beer and smoke cigarettes,
listen to music, tell tall tales, talk about women, and socialize
till daybreak, all while playing games with names like Dr. Pepper,
Follow the Bitch, Mexican Sweat, and Guts. Mix in a little 7-Card
Stud and Draw poker and you've got a fairly good idea of any
home poker game back then. I can't say I was a fan of poker.
I was more excited by the fact that we were all together having
fun. If I won $10 or $15 bucks or lost twice that, it didn't
really matter. I couldn't wait for the next poker night.
Years later I found myself at a buddy's house watching an
ESPN presentation of the World Series of Poker. This was No-Limit
Hold'em, a game I wasn't familiar with, but seemed easy enough
while watching it. Over the course of seven episodes we watched
as a modern day David vs. Goliath played out when an unlikely
hero named Chris Moneymaker fought through the largest field
(839 players) in poker tournament history to win the 2003 World
Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event and earn $2.5 Million. An
accountant from Tennessee who had been playing online poker for
less than two years had won the most prestigious event in poker.
Around the same time I became aware of the World Poker Tour,
a series of poker tournaments held around the world, and shown
weekly on the Travel Channel. Poker on the Travel Channel seemed
odd, but hey, who am I to judge? I began watching all the poker
I could. It was exciting. Millions of dollars won or lost on
the turn of a card. And the fact that anyone with enough money
can sit down at their chance to the same fame and fortune intrigued
me.
 So one cold, lonely night in December
2003 I sat down at my computer with nothing to do. I did a Google
search for "Online Poker" and came up with a bazillion
hits. I did the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life.
I downloaded the free software from one of the major poker sites.
I was hooked instantly. You can play for free against thousands
of people, in "cash" games for "play" money,
in freeroll tournaments where the entry fee is waived and the
house puts up the prize pool, or you can, like so many others
before you, make a deposit and play for real money.
After a few weeks of the play money games, I placed in the
money in a freeroll tournament (usually the top 10 people in
a tournament that can start with thousands) that credited $100
of real money to me. WOW! I had made money! I was on my way
to the big time. I was going to take the poker world by storm.
Watch out, Moneymaker. Here I come to take the crown and spoils
of war for myself. Hmmm...if only it had been that easy. That
$100 was gone quickly when I found myself in over my head playing
cash games at levels too high for my skill. But, it didn't dampen
the fire that had started in my heart. Over the course of the
past year and half I have won and lost thousands of dollars playing
poker online and in private tournaments locally. I estimate
that I am about even in that time, but anybody familiar with
poker will tell you I'm lying, either to you or myself. Why
don't we just let my illusions remain, shall we?
One of the big things players do when they get together is
talk about the "bad beats" they've suffered. Why we
think we're the only ones to have experienced the highs and lows
of this thing called poker I don't know. But you'll probably
always here things like, "I had my aces cracked when a 10-7
off-suit in the big blind caught runner-runner to hit a flush.
Two hands later I flopped the nut straight, but got sent packing
when some guy called me to the river with two pair and hit his
boat". I feel like I've done it all and seen it all in
poker, and I've only been playing for a short amount of time.
Can you imagine what it's like for guys like Doyle Brunson,
the renowned two-time World Champion, who has been sitting at
the felt for the past forty years earning an easy living the
hard way? I would think that the pain and heartache that come
when your mortal lock of a victory is snatched from you like
so much candy from a baby becomes easier to take with time.
I would hope anyway.
Poker has evolved since my days with the boys in high school.
I no longer disregard the sums won or lost while playing, for
that is the barometer by which we as poker players are judged.
They say poker success cannot be measured in terms won or lost
in just one session, tournament, or even year. It must be measured
over the course of a player's life. Whether you are a winner
or loser will not be decided until you are done playing for good.
I'm not done playing, yet, so maybe there is still hope for
me.
Contact David Miller at: millerman-at-rockzilla.net
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