At about the same time, my thoughtful mother noticed my interest in poker television shows. Following the very sound logic that if a TV program was good, a book would be even better, she bought me "Positively Fifth Street", professional writer James McManus' account of the 2000 WSOP championship event and the concurrent murder trial for the murder of WSOP founder Ted Binion. Harpers magazine forwarded McManus $4,000 to write an article about the trial, the rise of women on the professional poker circuit, and the effect on the tournament of computer games dedicated to teaching poker. McManus took his essay money and used it to win a seat into the championship event, and then described his 5 day odyssey of bad beats, wonderful plays, and genuine luck as he wove his way to the final table. McManus eventually finished in 5th place, netting over $240,000 dollars for his effort, and simultaneously he starred in a thrilling nonfiction that most novelists would never dream of. The book captures all of the best and worst elements of Las Vegas and poker: high stakes, skill, good luck, bad luck, a scandalous murder trial, and the magic of a game that allows a novelist to compete and defeat the very best players in the world. After such an account, how could I not try to find a way into that world?
My first real foray into Texas Hold'em began with the website that provided Chris Moneymaker with his now-famous $40 WSOP satellite: Pokerstars. As a 17 year old, playing online for real money was out of the question. Playing with free "play money", however, was certainly ok. The site gave players 1000 chips to start with; if you busted, you could "rebuy" to get 1000 more chips, up to 3 times an hour(the rebuy limit encouraged players to at least attempt not to lose all their chips every single hand).
My buddy Mike started playing at around the same time, and tacitly the competition was on - first to reach 100,000 chips wins! I clicked to receive my 1000 chips and promptly lost them all. Rebuy, bust. Rebuy, bust. Rebuy, bust. Damnit, gotta wait an hour!
Slowly, though, I got the hang of the game. I played a conservative strategy and tried to minimize my losses while maximizing my gains, mostly due to a loathing of losing. Only later did I learn that, in the crazy hyperaggressive world that is play money internet poker, such a strategy is nearly ideal. I started winning chips. 2,000. 5,000. 10,000. 50,000. 200,000. 1,000,000. The (albeit fake)stakes got higher and higher, and I learned more and more about the game.
I started playing in free money poker tournaments - 10,000 entrants, top 9(!) win a seat into a second tournament on the weekend where real money would be awarded. In those I excelled, managing to finish in the top 9 with mathematically unlikely regularity, and even winning a pair of them. Despite the fact that it wasn't real money, and despite the fact that I never managed to win anything in the weekend second round tournaments, I nonetheless felt a sense of pride; it's not every day you get to beat ten thousand people in anything, after all.
Online play money poker was fun, but I needed a new challenge. Poker, after all, is played with money. The risk/reward factors that are subtle in some games are made blatantly obvious in poker - win and get paid, lose and go back to your wallet.
I needed to play "real" poker. I needed to play for money.
(Part III to follow)
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