What Ever Happened to Kenny Buntjer?

During the last few months, I have on numerous occasions wondered what ever happened to one of my friends on the poker tournament circuit – Kenny Buntjer. I had not seen him at any of the tournaments in about a year. A few weeks ago, I ran into one of our mutual friends, Tex "TEARS" Morgan. I asked him about Kenny, and he told me that he had quit the tournament circuit. I wondered why a top player like Kenny had done that. I finally got his E-mail address and wrote to him. I asked how he is doing, and then asked if he would care to share why he had stopped following the tournament circuit.

I think it is interesting to know what motivates people who are on or near the top of a profession to quit. After all, the day will probably come for most of us who travel and play in poker tournaments to think about making the same type of decision.

I received the following E-mail from Kenny and thought others would be as interested as I was in hearing from an old friend. After I read the E-mail a couple of times, I realized that Kenny had received a tremendous amount more out of playing on the tournament trail than he had given up. Believe it or not, it made me want to go play a poker tournament. Here's the E-mail as I received it:

Hi, Vince:

Thanks for your E-mail and the kind words.

I am doing just fine. My health is good and I have been enjoying my year of retirement from poker.

Although I think quite often about my many poker friendships and my personal struggle with tournament poker, I have never considered myself to be a real significant person in the poker world, or that most players would really care about why I stopped playing. But, since you are considerate enough to ask, I'm happy to respond.

For a long time, I had been considering quitting (retiring), or at least cutting back from the active tournament poker scene. I had been playing poker quite continuously since 1984, mostly in the minor leagues (buy-ins of $200 and less). Although I was getting a little tired of playing, I refused to quit until I had a chance to play with the big boys in the major leagues. I wanted to find out just how good I was.

I was unable to accumulate enough money on my own to comfortably play with these fellows in the majors. So, when I had an opportunity to pick up a backer in June of 1996, I took it, and played big league poker for the next four years.

During this four-year period, I had three backers, went on 32 tournament trips, played 446 tournaments, spent approximately 510 days away from home living in hotels, and made a reasonable profit for my efforts.

I had a chance to test my ability, and found that I was pretty good. Among my accomplishments, I list the following:

1. Each of my three backers made a nice profit.

2. I won the Northwest Poker Championship.

3. I won the California Poker Championship.

4. I won a world championship (World Series of Poker, $3,000 no-limit hold'em, 1998).

5. I am still the only poker player in history to win three major poker tournaments in three consecutive days (back-to-back-to-back at the Gold Coast Open).

6. The book that I wrote, The Secret to Winning Big in Tournament Poker, is still a big seller and provides many players with a good understanding of tournament poker strategy.

7. Poker has taught me a lot about myself and advanced my personal growth in self-discipline and control.

8. I have made many friends among the very best poker players from literally all over the world.

I believed that I had reached a point in my development where I was playing at nearly 100 percent of my ability. Thanks to my backers, I was given the opportunity to find out just how good I was, and I found out that I was close to the best. I also found out how good I wasn't. I'm not a Tiger Woods or a Michael Jordan. I don't believe there are any existing players in poker in that category. When a group of players reaches the point where I was, luck and errors become the determining factor in who wins. My error rate began increasing. I couldn't seem to be able to hold my concentration as well as I had in the past. I think this might be called "burnout." I had gotten to the point where I really dreaded going on each trip. I had reached a constant state of depression. I love my home and family, and was tired of being gone so often. I believed that I had accomplished my poker objectives. It was time to quit.

So, where does all this leave me? Well, I still love poker. I have had many great memorable moments in poker. I try to keep up on what's happening in poker via the Internet chat rooms, Card Player, and some special poker friends. I get my poker fix twice a week at my local Elks lodge, where we play crazy low-limit games and spend most of our time laughing and having a good time.

Vince, I hope this answers your questions. If any of my friends would like to contact me, feel free to give out my E-mail address. I would enjoy hearing from nearly anyone and talking poker.

Thanks for your interest.

Your friend, [email protected].

For what it's worth …