How it All Began

I am honored to have the opportunity to write for Card Player and join the rest of the magazine's fabulous staff. In this my introductory column, I would like to tell you a little about myself and my background. In future columns, I want to reveal the world of poker as experienced and seen through the eyes of a young professional player who has just begun dipping his toes into the burgeoning sea of tournament poker.

I was born in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and raised during the first half of my life in Somers Point, New Jersey, a small beach city about 20 minutes outside of Atlantic City, and the other half in the gambling mecca of the world, Las Vegas. I still reside in Las Vegas, and I can't imagine living anywhere else. After high school, I headed off to college, first at UNLV for a year and then back to South Jersey for a year at Richard Stockton State College. School quickly fell by the wayside as my love of poker increased. I credit my initial introduction to poker to my high school pal and former roommate Jordan Salmon. Jordan's grandparents were avid poker players, and his grandfather, owner of a World Series bracelet, passed his poker knowledge on to Jordan who in turn passed it on to me.

While working various jobs after high school, mostly as a valet, parking cars at Vegas casinos, I often spent all of my free time, as well as all of my hard-earned money, playing poker. I played a lot of online poker, and when I finally reached legal gambling age, I decided it was time to take a job as a poker dealer. This new job invigorated me and was a great tool in molding me as a poker player. After working just less than two years as a dealer at The Mirage in Las Vegas, I resigned my position and tossed myself to the sharks. I officially became a full-time poker player.

It didn't take me too long to notice some big improvements in my game, and after building my bankroll, I decided I was ready to start playing live tournaments. My first stop was Tunica, Mississippi, in January of this year. While stranded in Mississippi for a month with very little to do but play poker, I had plenty of time to become close friends with Brett Jungblut and Dutch Boyd. It seemed like we had a monthlong discussion on poker theory. Toward the end of my trip, I was involved in a four-way chop deal in a no-limit hold'em tournament at the Grand Casino that resulted in my first score of 10K. That same week, Brett, Dutch, and I met some important New Yorkers who decided that a few young, up-and-coming poker players would be a lucrative investment, and that ended up changing our lives. As "The Crew," we began playing big buy-in tournaments.

Now that I had been given the means and the opportunity to play in virtually any tournament I chose, I had some of the necessary tools to become a successful poker player. I started out relatively slowly, just getting the feel of things. It became obvious that I still had a lot of tuning up to do. After each tournament, I evaluated my performance with fellow "Crew" mates, and adjusted and adapted. I started to become very comfortable with my game, and it began to feel as if I was cutting through all of the tournaments like a hot knife through butter. I was consistently making the money and occasionally making a final table. Meshing the new experiences of big buy-in tournaments with the support I had from "The Crew," I was quickly becoming quite the player. Luckily, I peaked at exactly the right time. As April rolled around, I had some enormous confidence built up going into my debut World Series of Poker appearance. In a future column, I will fill you in on all of my amazing experiences at the 2004 WSOP.

My newly found money and fame has been very overwhelming. I am only 24 years of age, and I'm not quite sure how to handle it all. As a young poker player at the beginning of my professional career, I am honored to share all of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences with the public. I think, and hope, that as well as being a little entertaining and informative to you, it will be somewhat therapeutic for me and help me stay focused on my game and my future.