"I believe in America. America has made my fortune."
- Bonasera
For 17 consecutive months between April 2005 and September 2006, the screen name JohnnyBax sat unmoving atop one of the Internet's most prestigious ranking sites, and people noticed. Also during that time, JohnnyBax was named the PokerStars 2005 tournament leader board winner, meaning he had consistently outplayed tens of thousands of other players on the site over the course of a year - a huge feat. Because of his accomplishments, he became one of the original legends of online poker, and fanboys dubbed him "The Godfather of Online Poker."
But the most intriguing thing was that, for a man who'd obviously had such outstanding success in online tournaments to have been able to retain his No. 1 spots, almost no one actually knew his real name for quite some time.
Then, CardPlayer.com started posting live updates of hands played by a man calling himself Johnny Bax in big buy-in live tournaments. Had the mystery man actually ventured into the brick-and-mortar world and still avoided giving his real name? Or, was Johnny Bax his real name?
Trying to keep your identity secret while playing in live tournaments is an act of folly, as JohnnyBax found when his identity was finally divulged during the 2005
World Series of Poker. Winning a
WSOP bracelet is known to have that side effect.
The Man Behind the Name
"That kid's name was Moe Greene - and the city he invented was Las Vegas."
- Hyman Roth
Since the kibosh was put on Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy's real-name shell game, he's gone on to make some incredible cashes in major live tournaments. While he doesn't play live poker as often as some pros, he's made five final tables since he started gearing himself toward live play, each time finishing in one of the top-four places. His biggest cash to date was for $447,000 when he finished in second place in the UltimateBet
Aruba Poker Classic, in September 2006.
Card Player was lucky enough to snag Josephy for an interview, hot off a recent live-tournament cash at Bellagio. In fact, and unfortunately, it was right after he'd busted out of the tournament.
Josephy shook his head as he sullenly slogged to the cashier's cage and collected his $68,000 prize for a 20th-place finish. He mumbled regrets under his breath and made phone calls to family and friends expressing his disappointment. You wouldn't hear most people grumbling as they pocketed that kind of money, but then, Josephy isn't most people.
"Either I'm not cashing or I'm going to cash for a lot," Josephy said. "If you look at my cashes, you don't see me just sliding into the money. I either come really close to the final table, make the final table, or bust out, because I'm not interested in simply making the money."
The Origin of the Name
"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
- Don Corleone
Josephy hesitated. "I have to put this in print, huh?" he asked, laughing. "OK, fine."
To get to the origin of his screen name, he started with a tale from his days as a stockbroker, before he got into poker. He and his partner used to analyze companies. With one of the companies that he came across, he got in on a quarterly conference call with company representatives after the company had reported its earnings. He got in on the call as Cliff Josephy, and asked some very pointed and nasty questions because he thought that they had made some errors in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which Josephy says is a "no-no."
The next quarter came around and he tried to get in on the phone call as Cliff Josephy again, and they immediately hung up. His partner then called back and made up a name to get him in on the call; his new name was Johnny Baxter.
When it came time to give himself an alias for online poker, the name naturally came to mind.
The 'Tough' Switch From Investments to Investments
"… if you put up a three to four thousand dollar investment, you can make fifty thousand … then there is no way to resist it. I want to keep it respectable."
- Don Zaluchi
What was hard in the beginning for Josephy was a lot of people saying to his wife, "Your husband gambles for a living?" or, "Your husband's doing what?" when all of the other people in the neighborhood had "respectable" professions. It was especially tough because Josephy did have a "respectable" profession before, as a stockbroker, and was doing well and making good money at it.
However, his then business acquaintance Eric "sheets" Haber turned him on to online poker and helped him get started, both by setting up and funding accounts on poker sites and by giving him a crash course in the game itself. The seed was planted, and Josephy's life would change forever.
"Right away I noticed that no-limit hold'em is a brilliant game," he said. "There are so many aspects to it and there is so much to learn, so there was a gigantic challenge ahead of me. I always like a good challenge."
Josephy gradually made the transition, whereby he'd spend more and more of his days concentrating on poker and less on the stock market. Once he started making enough money playing poker to comfortably support his family, he began to realistically consider going pro in poker. The final push he needed, the final transitional step from part-time stockbroker/part-time poker player to full-time poker player, came when the company that he'd been working with for roughly 12 years went out of business. "It was just perfect for me. I didn't go to the successor company, where everyone else went. I just said, 'I'm done.' It was definitely a sign."
Now, with the success he's had, dealing with the neighbors is a bit easier. "I'm no longer viewed as an outcast in the neighborhood," Josephy said, chuckling.
The Bracelet That Lifted the Veil
"Do I look okay like a guy who's gonna lose?"
- Vincent Mancini
The tournament that lifted his veil of secrecy was a seven-card stud event at the 2005
World Series of Poker. He won the event and took home the bracelet. Those shiny golden bracelets are like beacons in the poker community; good luck trying to remain anonymous with one of those around your wrist. Maybe he should have tried harder to finish in second place.
Possibly the best part about Josephy's win was that he had barely any experience playing seven-card stud before the tournament. Was his win simple luck, or did he have an innate skill for the game?
"I think in order for anybody to win a tournament, he has to be lucky," he said. "There's no doubt about that."
Josephy did, however, give himself some credit. He said that from playing no-limit hold'em sit-and-gos online as much as he did before that stud tournament, he learned how to control a final table. "That final table at the
World Series had nothing to do with cards and nothing to do with luck, because I didn't have any cards at that entire table," he said. "I just really dominated the table."
Josephy recounted how he preyed on players who were playing in the short term, simply wanting to move up a slot of two on the pay scale. He stayed very aggressive and took pot after pot, not letting any of the other players do much of anything to stop him. "Once they felt like they were playing for second, nobody wanted to fight with me. So, that was a lot of fun," he said, laughing.
The Family Man
"Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man."
- Don Corleone
Although Josephy admits that he's beginning to enjoy playing live poker more than playing online, he says online poker has at least one significant advantage that keeps him playing: family. Said Josephy, "There's nothing better in life than seeing your children grow up.
"This weekend, I missed one of my kids' basketball games," he said. "Although that's a little thing, it can be a big thing to a child. I didn't like it when my father didn't come to my Little League games. So, while I think that my child understands, I don't want to miss any of it. I love going to that stuff.
"What good is having a family if you can't spend time with it? This isn't about the money. The money is great; it's fun to win, and it's fun getting paid a lot of money, but if you're away all year long, like a lot of these pros are, it's unfulfilling. It's kind of a shallow life, I think."
The Business
"This is the business we chose."
- Hyman Roth
Being the intelligent businessman and investor that he is, Josephy parlayed his success in online poker into a full-fledged business. With the help of Scott "Mindwise" Pendergrast, a Web guru and programmer, and his now good friend Eric Haber, he launched the poker training site PokerXFactor.com.
Pendergrast initially proposed the idea for the site to Josephy. The plan was to have Josephy provide audio commentary for video replays of interesting hands that he had played, to illuminate his thought processes behind them. Josephy liked the idea, except for two things. First, he didn't want to do anything without Haber. Haber had taught Josephy a lot about the game, and Josephy didn't like the idea of making money on a website without him. "Plus, I thought he'd be a fantastic teacher," Josephy said of Haber, "because if he was able to teach a knucklehead like me how to play the game, he should be able to teach anybody how to play."
Second, Josephy was concerned that making his playing-style available to the entire world might not be the smartest decision for his poker career. In fact, he commented that he believes PokerXFactor has significantly damaged his online results this year.
"That said, we're building a successful business," Josephy said, "so one has to understand and also adapt to a different style of play. As people adapt to play against me, I'll just readapt and take it a step further."
The Advice
"Hey, listen, do me a favor, Tom, just help me win, OK?"
- Sonny
Many people aspire to have the kind of success that Josephy has had, and to those people, he gave this advice: "The most important thing is not to be stubborn and to realize that you can always be helped."
Josephy compared learning poker to his original career trading stocks by pointing out that research is essential. Poker books, training websites like PokerXFactor.com, and poker forums (as long as you're learning from the right people) are all invaluable tools for honing your skills, he said. "Pretty much anything you can buy that will help you make informed decisions is a good thing."
The Godfather: The Legend Continues
"It made me think of what you once told me: 'In five years the Corleone family will be completely legitimate.' That was seven years ago."
- Kay
"I know. I'm trying, darling."
- Michael Corelone
Josephy's lust for poker is truly insatiable. He continues to be a highly ranked Internet pro and continues to play in live tournaments in search of his next big win. There is no end in sight for Josephy, especially considering how good the career change has been for him up to now.
"It's been a pretty smooth ride for me," Josephy said. "I'm extremely happy with the way my poker career has gone so far, and I hope that I continue to enjoy the game as much as I still do.
"And I say 'still do' as if I've been playing for 15 years," he said, laughing, "when I've been playing for only three years. The beauty of the game is that it seems to always stay fresh, and hopefully it will continue to be that way. It's a brilliant game."
