It wasn't a popular thing to be a professional poker player in the '80s.
I play quite an old-fashioned game of poker. It's a lot about getting a sense of people at the table rather than the maths of the thing.
Look, most players can't stand to be outplayed by an opponent's bluff. Quite honestly, though, it doesn't bother me that much.
My biggest problem in live games is that I love the game so much and I don't think I ever met a poker player I didn't fundamentally like - even if they're screaming and they're acting like real jerks.
Not having the online game has made it more difficult. There are a lot of young and upcoming players in poker. But you don't get to see them because TV has sort of been taken away.
Writing about poker is one of my passions.
I've got quite a good poker face. I'm known for being able to keep my emotions very much in check: no one knows how I'm feeling. I can be winning or losing but keep it very much the same.
I think one of the interesting things about poker is that once you let your ego in, you're done for.
You're not supposed to get rattled in poker; you're supposed to remain poker-faced!
Whenever somebody folds, say, 'Good laydown.' It encourages them to fold on a later hand because it makes them feel like you had the best hand even if you were bluffing. It's an odd form of flattery that seems to work at the poker table.
I've been an idiot at the poker table for a long time.
What I know about poker, you can fit into a thimble with room left over, but I'm learning.
Always cut the cards...and smile when you lose.
To the untrained eye, poker seems deceptively easy.
Before I found out what poker really was I had this picture in my mind of men smoking cigars and having all these chips and like going all macho and crazy. I don't think there's been that much done in the mainstream community to change that perspective.
You're not allowed to give yourself a nickname. This holds true in life as well as in poker.
One of the downsides of being a poker pro is that people see exactly how you play.
For five or six years, I didn't play in some of the good games leading up to the World Series of Poker, because with so many below-average players there, I reasoned it messed up my game.
The hope that people walk into poker halls with and the despair they leave with was something I researched by actually visiting these poker halls.
If you're a poker player and you show up at a casino at 8 a.m., you're going to be by yourself or with some people that are rocks and just don't give you any action.
