The Days Before the Poker Boom
Posted: 2007-09-06 10:19:18By: Shawn Rice
It's kinda funny when people want to come up to you and talk to you about poker cause they have seen you on TV, when it was only a few years ago if you told someone you played poker for a living they would look at you as if you was a pure outlaw.
When I was 22 years old, 18 years ago, I would play in the daily home game. We played pot limit Omaha (PLO) 5 days a week and sometimes we would have a weekend game.
There where many good players in the game , One of which was Amarillo Slim who won the World series of Poker back in '72, he also won 3 other bracelets, Two of which were in PLO.
I would often look around and notice that everyone I played cards with was in the 50's or older and thought I might be wasting my time by spending so many hours learning a game that when I get much older I will not have anyone to play poker with.
The first year or so I was at best a break even player, But I noticed that some of the players would usually always win and some of them would usually always lose. Me, I HATE to lose at anything, I think that's why I had the passion to learn the game as quick as I could and still to this day I am always trying to learn something to improve my game.
Years ago when you would go to Vegas and go to the major tourneys like the Four Queens and WSOP tourneys the big cash game would always be PLO. Slim would always play the tourneys and I would take half his action and when the PLO game started up I would play and Slim would always take half my action. It sure game me all the confidence in the world when a world champion would want to go partners with you in a monster poker game.
Over the years we both did very well traveling all over and letting him play the tourneys or the heads up matches ( that's his best game)., and me playing the PLO cash games.
If you was know back in the day as a professional poker player you would not really be invited to many of the juicy cash games, That's why I always tried to say away from playing tourneys and stuck to the cash games, Plus trying to learn how to play tourneys would be silly as they were filled with 90% pros and not many fish is that pond.
Today poker has been very popular for about 4 years now and we can all give credit to many things like Chris Moneymaker taking $40 online and winning $2.5 million, NHL for having their strike and ESPN giving Chris more airtime. The World Poker Tour for taking poker to a whole new level and the use of pocket cams in the tables allowing people at home to see the cards before the action starts.
Amarillo Slim used to be the biggest name in poker before Chris came along. He promoted the game for many years on numerous talk shows like Diana Shore, Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, The Mike Douglas Show and many times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Today players of all ages are playing and winning at poker has never been easier with all the information out there in books and videos and private lessons from top pros.
You can now become a very good, winning player in about a years time or even less with the right desire and passion and doing what it takes to better your game. There will always be enough bad players playing poker to make it a good game to learn.
There are online players out there that have played more hands than Doyle Brunson has ever thought about playing and they learned the game a whole lot faster. I am in no way saying they are as smart as him when it comes to this game but they are sure off to a better start by not having to learn the hard way as many of the old pros did.
Other things that are better now are some of the rules, the no throwing the cards is a really good one that some of your oldtimers would abuse the dealers in the past and that is not tolerated. One rule I would like to see come back is that you can show your cards or a card if its heads up and no other action by other players can take place; I think it would even be better for television. Poker is not a sweet game by its nature, quit trying to make it that way and make it more fun to watch on television.
I am glad to see poker grow and be shown to the world what I have known for many years. Mike Sexton says it best when it takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.
Good Luck and Flop'em Dead
Shawn Rice
