FAQ

I am sure that you are familiar with the acronym FAQ — frequently asked questions. People who don’t play poker tend to ask professional poker players the same questions over and over. There are several extremely common questions:

1. What is the biggest pot you have ever won?
2. What is the biggest pot you have ever lost?
3. Isn’t it all luck?
4. Have you ever been on TV?
5. Do you know ______? (Fill in the blank with the name of some famous poker player.)

I’m not sure how interesting the answers to these questions will be, but it is not a bad idea to think them over. I guarantee that you will be asked them at some time in your life.

What is the biggest pot you have ever won? This one is always a little embarrassing for me. I don’t think I’ve ever won a pot bigger than $400,000, but I’m sure that I’ve won a lot bigger than $300,000. For quite a while, I played in what was then the “Big Game” at the Mirage and then Bellagio. We usually included pot-limit Omaha (PLO) in the mix of games. It was usually played with a cap. A cap means that there is a maximum amount that each player can lose on a hand. During the time that I played, the cap started at $50,000, then rose to $75,000, and finally moved to $100,000. Over several years in this game, I won quite a few three-way capped pots, usually totaling just over $300,000. I have no idea of the exact details of any of them, or of which was the biggest.

What is the biggest pot you have ever lost? I am pretty sure that I know the answer to this one, or at least I know the hand with which I lost the most. At one point, we were playing PLO with no cap. Bobby Baldwin was in the game, and he refused to play with a cap because he wanted to make sure that if someone lost, “it hurt bad, really bad.” I had started with $100,000 and had been winning. I had just won a pot that put my stack up to around $300,000. I was due to meet some friends for dinner, and my plan was to play my free hands and leave when it was my turn to put in the big blind. Nothing eventful happened in the first few hands. I was about to be under the gun the next hand, and would be out the door the hand after that. I got up to get a chip rack, saying, “Deal me in,” to make sure that I didn’t miss my last hand. Unbeknownst to me, the player on my right got up for some reason. So, I was dealt in as the big blind. I’d be late meeting my friends for dinner, but otherwise, it was no big deal playing one more round. There were $500 antes and blinds of $1,000-$2,000. I think someone min-raised from late position. Lyle Berman called from the button. I had a pretty terrible hand, the 7 6 4 3, but I was getting a great price to call. So, I called.

The flop came 8 5 2. Any card lower than a 10 that doesn’t pair the board (9, 7, 6, 4, 3, or ace) gives me a straight. I also have a spade-flush draw that might be good, and the 9 or 4 gives me a straight flush. I bet the pot, the original raiser folded, and Lyle raised. I felt that I was a favorite over almost any hand he could have. Only a hand like a set with higher spades made me a dog. I reraised, and we were quickly all in. We turned our hands over, and Lyle displayed the 10 9 8 8. This hand matches up very well against my hand. He has top set and some backdoor-straight and backdoor-flush draws. It was common to deal out large pots multiple times. I asked if he wanted to deal it twice or three times. Lyle doesn’t like to do this, since he likes to put maximum pressure on his opponents. He refused. Of course, he filled up, and I lost. I felt that after losing this pot, I might not play my best, so I quit. When we ran the flop matchup later, the computer showed that I would win around 54.3 percent of the time, making me about a 6-5 favorite. That was not much consolation.

Isn’t it all luck? No. Poker is a game of skill. It presents a great combination of psychology, discipline, and mathematics. These days, I then launch into a rant about officially legalizing poker everywhere.

Have you ever been on TV? Yes, I’ve been on TV lots of times. My televised results have been terrible, although I don’t really feel that I have played too badly. On the other hand, I don’t think I have done anything particularly brilliant or spectacular. I have, at least, made a few funny comments.

Do you know ______? (Fill in the blank with the name of some famous poker player.) For years, the most common name has been Phil Hellmuth. After answering yes, the next question I get is always, “Is he as big a jerk as he seems on TV?” I always explain that he is a great tournament hold’em player, and he wants to win so badly that losing may occasionally make him say something about his opponent that he will regret later. I also add that tantrums have helped him market himself much better than sitting quietly would.

Lately, people ask about Phil Ivey. After answering yes, the next question I get is always, “Is he really the best player in the world?” And I always reply, “No. He’s better, and he’s a really nice guy, too.”

Since her appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice, Annie Duke has become another popular name to put in the blank. Her brother Howard Lederer and I have been close friends for nearly 30 years. I have been friends with Annie for nearly as long. In her early Vegas years, Howard was teaching her poker, with the emphasis on hold’em, and backing her in hold’em tournaments. I added a little advice about the other games, and backed her in stud and Omaha eight-or-better tournaments. To Howard’s chagrin, her early successes came in the games in which I was backing her. I always claim that it was because I contributed that little extra drop of knowledge that pushed her to the top. Of course, it could have been just luck.

Steve “Zee” Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A — Nice Guy Eddie’s at Houston and Doc Holliday’s at 9th Street — in New York City.