Magic Discovered at the Springtime Poker Circus

Hi. Come on in. Let's go out to the back lot and burn some hot dogs over a campfire as we contemplate our beloved game.

The granddaddy of all poker tournaments, the World Series of Poker, is showing lots of high-stakes action, in both live games and tournament events, even as we speak. It's reunion time for most of the world's best players (with a few novices attempting to scratch their way to the top). Such tournaments as the WSOP have a quality of magic about them.

You do like magic, don't you? Poker magic? That's what many players have discovered over the years during the WSOP. Maybe you can find some for yourself.

This isn't rabbits out of hats or elaborate card tricks. This is something much better. This is a sparkling, shimmering kind of magic. It's the magic of turning your game around and winning again after a long, dry spell, when you couldn't seem to pick up a starting hand. Or, it's when a fair starting hand receives no help, and yet another promise of a good-size win fades and dies faster than the cut-rate flowers you bought from the guy at the stoplight.

Over the years I have heard a dozen or so stories about players who turned their games around at a major tournament. Several years ago I decided to do some research. (Research is defined as bugging people with questions.) What I learned was fascinating, and it deserves to be told around a campfire on a chilly spring night.

As far as I've been able to determine, the WSOP alone has been the turning point for at least a half-dozen poker players. Their stories are so similar, you'd easily think they were all the same story.

I'll roll all of their stories into one fabled character. We'll call our composite player Sterling Watson. (That has a nice heroic ring, to it, doesn't it?)

Sterling, a solid, skillful player, has been augmenting his income by playing poker for several years, and has done quite well. But during a given two-week period, Sterling's win rate begins to drop noticeably. Then, he books five losing sessions in a row.

At the end of the month, Sterling finds that he has had the first losing month in his poker career. He takes a few days off from playing poker. He writes some letters, sees a couple of movies, and hangs around the pool, noticing the young lovelies who live in his building. Then, Sterling returns to playing poker.

No change. Lady Luck flirts with him, but always leaves with another guy. Good cards fall all around him, but never directly into his hands. A player who has been getting an abundance of good cards leaves the game, and when our Sterling moves into that seat, the cards stop coming.

As he tries shaking off the bad-card "jinx," Sterling tries everything. He steps down and plays in the next lowest limit. There, he finds that the players aren't as tough - but they're beating him, anyway. He reviews his game, rereads his poker books, and stops playing for weeks, but nothing helps.

The cards he is getting enable him to play in very few pots. The other players notice, and comment on what a "tight" player Sterling is. Each time he hears this, he cringes, for he has grown very weary of discussing his incredible bad run of cards. And no one believes him, anyway.

But then - then - on a bright, sunny day in May, Sterling, who has not touched a card for many days, wanders into Binion's Horseshoe just to look around at the World Series of Poker. The desire to play returns - with a very positive quality about it. Sterling decides to go with the feeling. He buys in to a side-action game, and suddenly - magic - winning returns. Our hero, who hasn't been able to win his hat size for weeks, now has about four pounds of green chips in front of him.

Sterling decides to go for it. He invests $1,500 in a buy-in to one of the WSOP events - and wins it! He has gone from Slim Pickins to Fat City. (Remember, this story is true. Only the names have been changed to protect those with ugly names.)

These are well-charred hot dogs. But now the fire's embers fade and darkness comes upon us. I think I'll nap out here. Take those last two hot dogs, but leave the fire glow on your way out.

Editor's note: Roy West, author of the bestseller 7 Card Stud, the Complete Course in Winning (available from Card Player), continues to give his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas to both tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome. Get his toll-free 800 number from his ad on Page 114.