The Making of a Poker Player

Author: Matt Matros
Publisher: High Stakes
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xiv Introduction

lost. I was supposed to forget the money. The only thing that mattered was whether to bet, call, raise, or fold.

I had bet my hand aggressively, the correct play according to the book. I was betting chips, not money-a red chip and a white chip, not six bucks, I told myself. But my opponent, a quiet blond lady, wouldn't fold her hand. Did she think I was just a young punk and probably bluffing? Or did she have a four in the hole, meaning my two pair would lose to her three of a kind? I didn't think she had a four, but then I had no idea how much to trust my instincts. I was playing this game for the first time.

The betting finished and, since neither of us had folded, it was time to show the hands. I exposed my ace-queen. The blond woman reached for her cards to turn them over. Despite my newness to Hold'em, I knew from my other poker experience that this gesture meant trouble. Most players don't show their hands unless they hold a winner. I was still wondering how she had managed to beat me when the woman flipped up her cards. An ace... and a queen. We had the same hand, and we would each get half the pot. Although this was an unlikely result-the odds against someone else at the table having ace-queen, given the queen on board, were 17.7 to 1-it fit perfectly with my assessment of her hand: strong, but not too strong.

The woman and I smiled at each other as the dealer split the chips into equal-sized stacks and gave me my share.

"I thought one of you had the four!" said an obnoxious player at the end of the table, looking sketchy in his mostly unbuttoned shirt. It was the fall of 1998, and for the first time in my life, someone was pushing me chips after a hand of Texas Hold'em poker.

I somehow did leave the Mohegan Sun a winner that night. More important, I left feeling this victory was something I could repeat. I had won money in casinos before, from slot machines, but I knew I couldn't play slot machines forever and expect similar results. I thought I had a shot to win at poker.

Amid school, a job, and now more school, poker has been the one constant in my adult life. Most of the friends I've met since my days as a Yale undergrad I've met through poker. I've used poker to get through failed relationships and bad situations at work, and I've used it to celebrate my minor and major successes. It's an all-purpose