When I Was A Donk With Garrett Greer

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Garrett Greer has had an incredible two years on the tournament circuit. The 29-year-old Newport Beach, California resident first turned heads with a seventh-place finish in the 2013 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic for $161,300. Then, in September, he took eighth in the WPT Legends of Poker for $48,615. In March of 2014, he banked another $174,080 by finishing sixth at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star.

Greer continued to cash all over the tournament circuit before arriving in Las Vegas in December for the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic. There, he ran through the field en route to a runner-up finish worth $869,683. As a result, the UCLA graduate now has $1.7 million in career live tournament earnings.

Here, Greer recalled one of his earliest memories at the table.

“Back when I first started playing poker, I was in a home game in North Carolina and I found myself involved in what I thought was a pretty normal hand. This guy opened from under the gun and I was next to act. I looked down at J 4 and, since it was suited, I called. I ended up getting super lucky and the flop came down J-4-2. I can’t remember if I just moved all in or if there were some bets and raises, but we got all of the money in the middle and my hand held against A-J.”

“My opponent didn’t take the beat well at all, and I was berated for my bad play for a long time. Up until that point, I didn’t even know that someone could play poorly. I just figured you are dealt two cards, you make a hand, and hope it works out. That was really the first time I realized that there was more to this game than the luck of the cards.”

“Hearing this guy go on and on about opening hand strength and position and all that other strategic talk was eye opening for me, because I didn’t know that anybody took the game that seriously. After that, I was driven to learn more about the game and not make any more mistakes at the table.”

“Of course, this guy shouldn’t have berated me, or any other player for that matter. It happened to motivate me to become a better player, but I imagine that for a lot of people, it would just turn them off to the game entirely. There’s nothing worse than seeing a professional poker player throw a tantrum and scare away beginning players. Everyone pays the same amount to be at the table and they have the same right as anybody else to some respect, regardless of how they play.” ♠