I can’t lie. When it comes to playing the kind of high-stakes, high-skill poker that Card Player covers, I suck.
I am a serious dog. Put me in a low buy-in tournament, loaded with tourists, recreational players or my fellow journalists, and I might have a shot at the money. (I did once win the media event at the World Series of Poker.)
Amateurs Are Outclassed, But…
That’s why it does my heart good to read about guys like Minwoong Jeong. He’s the South Korean physician who recently crushed the final table of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Manila Championship.
He outplayed the pros and took down $202,070 in his first big tournament win.
…They Are There For The Right Reason
And in classic form of a recreational player, Jeong pointed out that the giant smile on his face had more to do with beating the competition than with taking home the money.
As reported in Card Player, he juggled duties in the emergency room while maintaining focus on the game he was playing. Good on Minwoong!
Fish At The Table, But Not A Fish In Life
And good on all the others who come from their day jobs to show the pros that you don’t need to play for a living to look like you do. I remember having a conversation with a pro in which I referred to a so-called businessman player as a fish.
He looked at me and said, “He’s not that much of a fish. He’s so successful outside of the poker world that he can casually put six figure sums into the poker economy. He’s doing something right in life and is worth more than anyone else at the table. If he wanted to put in the time, he’d be able to get good.”
A few weeks ago, I chatted up a successful Wall Street guy who plays high stakes with professionals. He put it to me succinctly.
“I know my way around the block, and I know my way around the poker table.”
Maybe, I thought, one would not exist without the other.
Having Money And A Love For The Game Changes Everything
There’s also something to be said for having the kind of bankroll that makes winning or losing less of a financial concern than it is for the pros.
I happened to be covering the $250,000 Super High Roller at the 2024 World Series of Poker. That was the tournament that was won by Santhosh Suvarna, a casino owner from India. He came from a crippled short stack position to emerge as the unlikely champion.
I’m guessing that the luxury of not worrying about the cash that would be left behind if he didn’t win the first-place prize of $5,415,152 contributed to his success. He had the ability to play pure poker. As he told Card Player in the wake of winning, “My dream has come true.”
Those are the words of a poker lover, not a poker professional who’s in it for his livelihood.
The Fish Who Turned Hellmuth Bald
It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally, the supposed fish show their teeth.
Consider the miraculous Chris Moneymaker, the pill-popping Hal Fowler, southern oddball Darvin Moon, and the nerdy investor Robert Varkonyi. In that case, Phil Hellmuth was so convinced that a pro would win, that he vowed to shave his head if Varkonyi somehow emerged victorious.
Varkonyi pulled it off, and Hellmuth razored it off.
Also, Varkonyi was kind enough to let us photograph his bracelet ladened wrist for the cover of Aces and Kings, a book I cowrote with Brad Reagan.
So next time you see a seemingly hopeless amateur at the table – even me; I’m pretty good at extracting information out of people – remember this: They might have skills that the seasoned pros have not fully considered.
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of six books including Advantage Players, and has worked for publications that include Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on technology, gambling, and business — with a particular interest in spots where all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is currently in development as a feature film.
- Photos – PokerStars and Phil Hellmuth (@philhellmuthpositivity)
