'If You Want to Blow Five Million Dollars in a Hurry … '

The title of this column is the beginning of something Daniel Negreanu told me last summer when I had known him for less than an hour. Poker players, despite the professional requirement of hiding their emotions and thinking, are the most open people I have ever encountered.



While researching my book, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time, I was privy to fascinating stories and opinions, often on the subject of the pros' chosen career. It was a shame that I couldn't use all that material, so I thought I would share it now.



For some reason, there have been persistent rumors that several top players got their money from someplace other than poker (and therefore aren't winning players) or have a huge non-poker bankroll to fall back on (and therefore are immune from financial pressure). Some of the top players actually spread these rumors about each other.



Jennifer Harman: (Rumor: Jennifer received millions as an inheritance, an advance on an inheritance, or from some sort of family business or trust, and therefore can play the biggest games without worry.) "My dad disowned me when I was 19. It was only seven years ago that he warmed up to it. Now, he's real supportive. But on the Internet, I've read that I'm worth $80 million and I'm the richest person in the big game. I'd love to have $80 million and be the richest person in that game. I'm probably one of the poorest people in that game, if I had to think about it."



Barry Greenstein: (Rumor: Barry, as one of the first employees of Symantec, earned a software fortune that makes it possible for him to play the biggest games and give his tournament winnings – now around $4 million – to charity.) "Even though I had assets and things like that, I lost a bunch of money in Chinese poker to Ted Forrest in 2000 or 2001, and was a million dollars in the red. It's not like I'm worth a hundred million dollars and I'm giving away this money. I've had a couple good years, that's all. So, I thought I was in a position to start giving money away."



In fact, based on the many references to – and occasional regrets about – abandoning their education, I don't know if many top pros would have become recreational high-stakes players if they actually had those dynastic fortunes.



Todd Brunson: "I was going to be a lawyer. I think I would have been the best litigator in the world."



Howard Lederer: "In some ways I do regret that I didn't complete college. In particular, I did really well in computer science. You think, 1985, computer science major, with my kind of drive. Who knows? Maybe it cost me money going down the poker road."



A poker player's life is harder than it looks when you see only ESPN or Travel Channel final tables or peer through the glass of Bobby's Room at the $4,000-$8,000 game at Bellagio. Every top pro I interviewed told me some gut-wrenching tales of ruin.



Howard Lederer: "I was 18, just young and stupid, and all I wanted to do was play poker. I spent two years just losing at the $1-$2 limit. I was just a crazy gambler. I estranged myself from my family. I was completely broke. For about 10 days, I was homeless. I would hang out at the game, running errands at night, making a few dollars. During the day, I would go down to Washington Square Park and take a nap on the lawn. I was pretty determined not to go home."



Jennifer Harman: "I'd play $75-$150, $100-$200. And I'd take shots at $200-$400 and $300-$600, and I would lose. Then I'd go back down and grind that money back that I lost. When I had that money back, I'd take another shot, and lose. I probably did that eight times."



Going broke doesn't happen only on the way up. Barry Greenstein was in the red just five or six years ago. Daniel Negreanu enjoyed great success in the late '90s, at one time being the youngest player ever to win a World Series bracelet. He backed that up with other tournament successes and winning cash-game play. But there were several bad years between that time and his phenomenal year of 2004.



Daniel Negreanu: "I was very young. I had a big score. I was free to do whatever I wanted, but I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't need to play, so I golfed all day, and had a few beers. I'd have dinner, we'd have a few drinks, have a bottle of wine or two, and before you knew it, I'd be smashed drunk. And, don't you know it, that's when I decided I wanted to play."



As long as you make your living at the poker table, the risk of going broke is always part of your life. Howard Lederer and Daniel Negreanu probably don't agree on much, but they described this in similar terms.



Howard Lederer: "There are a lot of poker players who aren't gamblers. Those kinds of players tend to find that $20-$40, $30-$60, or maybe even $80-$160 level where they can win and they're comfortable, and they make their living. But if you don't have that need for action in you, you don't push yourself to move higher up. It takes a certain amount of risk-taking mentality and gambling mentality to keep pushing yourself to go beyond. The guys who end up in the biggest games are the ones who have a little too much gamble in them, but they've managed to figure out how to use it to their advantage."



Daniel Negreanu: "It takes a special kind of person to make it to the top, and not necessarily talent-wise. It takes the type of person who actually enjoys the fear of losing and going broke. I can tell you, my adrenaline flows when I know there's a chance I could lose a big number. If it doesn't hurt, it's sort of mundane and boring. If you told me I would play $80-$160 the rest of my life and I'd make a great living, I couldn't do it."



So, then, why do it? Why choose a career that is so difficult on the way up and so difficult to stay up? I have never asked because I know what they would say: If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand the answer.