Jim 'Cincinnati Kid' Lester Takes Off Big-Time on the Tournament Trail

Although he isn't the new kid on the block in high-stakes side games – he's been playing high-limit poker since he was a teenager – 42-year-old Jim Lester is a newcomer on the tournament circuit, where he has achieved amazing success in his first two years as a tournament competitor. During the 2001 World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi, "The Kid" placed fourth in the $500 limit hold'em event and sixth in the $500 pot-limit Omaha tournament. Lester's money finishes down South foreshadowed the success that came his way barely a month later at the World Series of Poker, where he made the final table a whopping four times. First, he "warmed up" by placing ninth in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event. Two days later, he won the $3,000 limit hold'em tournament, $223,490, and his first, but probably not his last, gold bracelet. A few days after that, he again proved his mettle by placing second to former World Champion Scotty Nguyen in the $2,500 pot-limit Omaha event, then capped off his success by taking seventh place in the $3,000 no-limit hold'em tournament.

Lester is a building contractor from Cincinnati, where he lives with his wife, Cathy, a kindergarten teacher, and their two sons, Chris (18) and Adam (15). His company employs about 70 employees and specializes in commercial building, mostly high-rise hotels like the Marriotts. The energetic, confident, and handsome bracelet winner counts among his hometown friends Jeri and Harry Thomas, both of whom also sport WSOP bracelets; "Broadway Rick" Steiner, another bracelet guy; and Steve Kaufman, who placed third in the 2000 WSOP championship event as a dark horse in the race for the gold. I caught up with the whirlwind during a lull in his WSOP tournament adventures, on the third day of the championship event, when we met in the tournament area as spectators, me by choice and the Cincinnati tornado by the fickle finger of fate.

Dana Smith: What is it back there in Cincinnati that cultivates such a fine breed of poker players? The air, the water, what?

Jim Lester: It's the vegetables.

DS: You folks get together at veggie restaurants to discuss your strategies for conquering the poker world?

JL: Actually, we used to play cards together once in a while, but we haven't done that for a while. We're all too busy with work and trying to fit a few tournaments into our schedules.

DS: Among your friends, you're the new kid on the tournament block.

JL: Right. I've been playing tournaments for only about a year now. The very first one that I played was the big Commerce limit hold'em event in 2000. I went there to play the side action, but one of my friends suggested that I try playing a tournament, so I did. There were around 650 players in the event, a huge field. I got to the final table, and when four of us were left, we made a money deal. It was the most fun I'd ever had in poker – I was pumped – and I absolutely loved it. So, I flew back home and decided to fly back later to play another event. I finished ninth in it. "Boy, I really like this stuff!" I thought.

Then, I went to Tunica in March of 2000, played nine events, and made five final tables. I came here to Vegas in 2000 and played three World Series events: I made the final table in pot-limit Omaha, came in about 18th in stud, and got knocked out early in limit hold'em. In July, I returned to Vegas for the Tournament of Champions, but I went out the second day. Then, I played a no-limit hold'em event in Atlantic City and finished seventh in it. I was excited about my results in that first year of tournament play, and went to Tunica in 2001 mainly to play the side action, but also to get warmed up for the Series. I did pretty well, finishing fourth in the $500 limit hold'em tournament.

DS: You must've taken a beat that you didn't deserve.

JL: Of course! But in the limit hold'em tournament here at the Series, things went along quite well for me. Once I eliminated Phil Hellmuth from the game, I felt real confident. I noticed how solid he played and what a great desire he had to win. He's really a great player and a tough opponent.

DS: Had you played against Hellmuth before?

JL: No, although I had watched him and observed his play. John Bonetti and a few others gave me some pointers on how he played, and I came up with a few strategies on how to beat him. I got lucky and a couple of them worked.

DS: But that wasn't your only finish in the money at this Series, was it?

JL: Right, I've had four final-table finishes. I've played nine pot-limit Omaha tournaments overall and have made the final table eight times out of the nine. I didn't make it at Foxwoods, a tournament with 43 players in it that I thought I would win for sure. I made both pot-limit Omaha final tables here, but I've never won a pot-limit Omaha tournament.

DS: Sounds as though pot-limit Omaha is your favorite game.

JL: Yes, it's the game that I play in side action and when I fly to Tunica on the weekends.

DS:You've gotten to the final table with some heavy hitters – Erik Seidel, Johnny Chan, Bob Feduniak, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth, and Alex Brenes, among others.

JL: They're all great players. It seems that every time I get around top players, I learn something. I take mental notes and then write them down after the tournament. For example, I was playing an Omaha eight-or-better event the first time I'd ever played the game. Phil Hellmuth was at the table and made a comment about my hand: "All great players always play 2-3 in certain positions," he told me. I thought about it and decided that he was right, because if an ace hits the flop, you've got the nut low. "Thanks for the advice," I told Phil. "I'm gonna learn to keep my mouth shut," he joked. "You're a fast learner."

DS: However, playing Q-4-3-2 didn't work too well for my publishing partner, T.J. Cloutier, when he played it against Hellmuth at the final table of the Omaha high-low event here and lost to Phil, who high-carded him with Q-7 against T.J.'s Q-4. But, back to the chase – how did you rise so fast in the tournament ranks?

JL: Well, I've been playing cards my whole life. I actually played poker for a living for a couple of years when I was in my early 20s, but my wife asked me to get out of it because it took so much of my time.

DS: That's when you became a contractor?

JL: Actually, I became a contractor when I was 17 years old and had built up a nice business. I also played cards four days a week, so when I was 22, I thought that I wanted to pursue it full time. But I was always gone; I'd come out to Vegas or travel to another city and be gone for a week or two at a time.

DS: Home games or casino poker?

JL: A combination, but mostly home games. High-stakes games in Ohio and surrounding states. Back in the '70s and early '80s, we used to play $10-$20 blinds in pot-limit Omaha, but we also would play $100-$200 or $200-$400 seven-card stud, which were pretty hefty stakes back then.

DS: You needed some kind of bankroll to play those stakes, so did you inherit the money or make it from contracting?

JL: Remember that I was in business for myself from the age of 17. A friend of mine, Ray Murray, hired me when I was 12 years old and began teaching me how to become a general contractor. He also introduced me to poker. With my first paycheck, I played my first poker game. Then, he sat me down one weekend and explained exactly how to play the game; he wouldn't let me leave for three days. Every Friday night they had a poker game that started at around 7 o'clock, so I started sitting in with them. At first they just let me play, and whatever money I started with, they returned it to me at the end of the night. But after two months, I told them, "I don't want my money back; I want to play." I started winning, and by the time I was 15 years old, I was winning consistently and almost never lost. Then, some of the guys started staking me in bigger games, $100-$200 stud.

I worked real hard at my contracting business until I was about 22 years old, but I was getting burned out on it and wanted to play cards full time. Then, after my wife suggested that I get out of poker full time, I went back to contracting and played poker only on Friday and Saturday nights, and took an occasional trip to Vegas. Truthfully, I'd never been too excited about tournament play until this tournament. Now, I understand the mental competition that's involved, and I'm really driven to focus on tournaments.

DS: The higher the level of competition, the more it stimulates your interest?

JL: Exactly. That gets my adrenaline flowing. It's like last night, Phil came by and asked, "Hey, Jim, how ya doing?" I answered, "Phil, I'm doin' terrible. It's killin' me watching you guys in here playing (the championship event) and I'm on the outside looking in." I've never had anything bother me like that did. So, now, I have this burning desire for tournament poker. I've had it for only one other thing in my life, baseball.

DS: Baseball? You're a player, a fan, what?

JL: I'm a big baseball fan, particularly of the Cincinnati Reds, and I played the game until I graduated from high school.

DS: Do you bet baseball, shoot craps, play blackjack, that sort of stuff?

JL: I never bet sports. Occasionally I might shoot a little craps or play some roulette.

DS: But it's not a major thing for you?

JL: No. It used to be, but I've learned.

DS: You plugged your leaks?

JL: Yes. I just focus on poker these days.

DS: You had monetary interests in several players here at the Series, didn't you?

JL: Yes, I had a piece of Mike Sexton, Scotty Nguyen, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Syracuse Chris.

DS: I imagine that with your business and tournament success, you probably have people standing in line for your backing. Is putting people in tournaments fun for you?

JL: Yes, it's fun, and yes, a few too many ask me for help. If they're good, solid players and I know that they won't just throw away their chips, I enjoy backing them. I've observed a lot of players in their games – how they play and what they're good at. I like Men "The Master" in stud games, and I like Scotty in Omaha – in fact, all the games, because he's a conservative player and I like that about him. With Sexton, I had a premonition that he would do well. In fact, I had a dream that he came to me wearing a red jacket and asked me to put him in a tournament, but when I reached in my pocket, I didn't have any money. When I told Cathy about the dream, she started laughing. "I've known you for 20 years, Jimmy, and you've never ever had no money in your pocket." She knows that I usually have a poker bankroll with me

On Monday when Sexton asked if I wanted to buy a little piece of him, I said, "Sure, Mike, I'd love to." Sure enough, when I reached into my pocket, it was empty, just like it was in my dream! "Don't move, Mike," I said. "I'll be right back." I looked around and found a friend who gave me some money, and I went back to Mike. In the second part of my dream, Mike made a lot of money in the tournament, and the dream story that followed is that we flew to Europe and I won a tournament and he came in second.

DS: I recall from interviewing Sexton that he attended college in Ohio on a gymnastics scholarship. Did you know Mike from those days?

JL: I knew him way back – he and his brother, Tom, used to play in a game in Newport, Kentucky, about five minutes from Cincinnati. Danny Robison was in the game, too. I was a little 16-year-old who used to play with them back in the mid-'70s.

DS: Was there anything special at the limit hold'em final table, your "bracelet" event, that you want to discuss?

JL: I had played with a lot of them in high-limit hold'em side games at Commerce Casino, and I knew that any one of the nine players at the table was capable of winning it. I felt stronger once Phil went out and we were threehanded. My plan was to attack and do some aggressive betting.

DS: Little ol' timid, meek you pulled it off, huh?

JL: Yes, it was just raise, raise, raise. And anytime they raised, I reraised. Occasionally, if I thought they had a better hand, I'd throw my hand away and go on to the next deal. They tried to tighten up their games threehanded, and that's where I think they made a mistake, trying to play just A-K or better. I just kept firing and took control.

DS: What did you do to learn tournament strategy?

JL: I've watched the final tables to see how they do it. And anytime I've sat down to dinner with Bonetti, Syracuse Chris, Scotty, or Men, I've always asked questions. Chris has been very helpful to me; he's a great guy and has taught me a lot of tournament strategies vs. the side games.

DS: After playing tournaments, are side games less interesting to you?

JL: You can be successful at both, but there's a lot of difference between them. And, yes, side games are less interesting to me now, although in Tunica I played pot-limit Omaha in a side game for 80 hours straight.

DS: That had to be one heckuva game!

JL:It sure was. It was a very high-stakes game – we played $200-$400 blinds and lots of good customers kept coming in, so nobody wanted to go to bed. That's why I played only two tournaments in Tunica. We ate at the table and never went to bed – I was really getting tired. Here in Vegas, it's been just the opposite; I've played nine tournaments, and side games only five or six times.

DS: When you're out of town, who handles the business for you?

JL: I have several people who do that for me, and I pick a day and stay on the phone to catch up with everything.

DS: How do you balance it all?

JL: It's just timing. Last year, I came to Vegas for a day, had to fly back home, came back out for two or three days, and had to fly back again. That made it harder for me to focus on my poker. But this year, things have worked out well for me.

DS: Your E-mail address has the words "no fear" in it. What's that about?

JL: My 15-year-old came up with it a few years ago. He's a motocross racer, and that's his motto.

DS: Do you have a message for the poker world, something that you want to say?

JL: It seems that, overall, a lot of great people are in the poker industry, and a lot of them have helped me with my game. Of course, nobody wants to tell you all the fine points. I've asked Scotty and T.J., "Why won't you give me all the answers?" Their common answer is, "Because we're a little afraid that you're going to use it on us!"

DS: I don't think you're having much trouble discovering those fine points for yourself. It's just that you haven't paid all of your dues yet.

JL:Exactly, that's what they really mean.

Editor's note: Dana Smith is the owner of Cardsmith Publishing and the author of Omaha Hi-Lo Poker and Poker Tournament Tips From the Pros. Visit www.pokerbooks.com for complete details.