Who is responsible for you being a poker player? (1 Viewer)

[amadeusstyle]

I was just writing a post about poker chips and this question came to my mind

 

[amadeusstyle]

James Bond and definitely Rounders

 

[SwissChip]

Much influenced by the first Poker after dark shows on a german TV station, started 2007 ; )

And Moneymaker did the rest. Great days!

 

[BPTDirector]

My Dad and Uncle.

 

[chippitydoodah]

Great question! I had to really think back. Playing WAR taught me card ranks and Yahtzee is part of it since that taught me hand strength. My next recollection is playing 5 card draw & 7 card stud with my buddies for nickles & dimes when I was 15. I'd have to ask some of them who introduced them to poker.

 

[MrBoosh]

My Grandpa first taught me how to play poker when I was a kid. I still have one of his custom chips that I use as a card protector now and then. Sadly, the rest of his set got lost or sold in a garage sale years ago. I am grateful to have one chip to bring back great memories though!

 

[golobos]

Moneymaker.

 

[SwissChip]

Great question! I had to really think back. Playing WAR taught me card ranks and Yahtzee is part of it since that taught me hand strength. My next recollection is playing 5 & 7 card stud with my buddies for nickles & dimes when I was 15. I'd have to ask some of them who introduced them to poker.

That‘s right!
5 card stud was the first poker i saw, not played.
10 years later i learned there is a version with 2 hole cards called Hold‘em. : )

 

[SteveEH]

 

[Fran]

French famous singer Patrick Bruel

 

[DrStrange]

I learned to play in 1972 at Boy Scout summer camp. We were taught by my dad and some of the other adults.

7-card stud and five card draw - played limit. So many wild card games - sometimes half the deck was wild. Is a royal flush better than five aces? We had rules about that. Also some weird games and a rare match-the-pot games.

We often played with pocket change. Chips if used, were of the interlocking plastic variety. Good times -=- DrStrange

 

[HiveKueen]

Ah…a great story. When my nephews were little it was easy to think up things to do with them. Then they got to be teens and it got tougher - aunt Kay was no longer “cool”! . So, when they want ed to teach me hold em I took the bait! I had no idea what was in store!!

 

[merkong]

Watching MASH, The Odd Couple, and Maverick as a kid. Moneymaker caused a comeback and getting into NLHE.

 

[TheRealTeddyKGB]

Not who but what.

I think the easiest answer is Community Cards.

I've always played card games but when I was introduced to NLHE the frequency of players getting stronger hands vs each other really resonated with me. Before that Poker was my least favorite card game behind Hearts, Spades, Cribbage, Gin Rummy, Pinochle, Blackjack and even Uno lol.

 

[allforcharity]

First real home cash poker game of any real stakes/consequence was at @T_Chan 's first shop with @Gear and 2-3 others in attendance. So I blame my downward spiral on them.

 

[LeLe]

I will say my younger brother when I first saw him watching some WSOP on his laptop and staying to watch the whole series with him

 

[mho]

Bachelor party in Vegas, everyone bought in for a low stakes tourney. My buddy busted me out with the nuts vs my 2nd nuts and he introduced me to basic poker strategy afterwards. We’ve been partners in degeneracy ever since

 

[GreatWhiteDope]

My grandmother and parents taught me to when I was 8 years old. They used to play for nickels and dimes on Saturday nights. And Grandma cut me no slack. When I got a little older, she told me "If you are looking for sympathy, it's between shit and syphilis in the dictionary." That started a life-long love affair with game and will be playing my eighth Main Event in July. Now I look forward to teaching my grandsons (5 & 2) to play someday.

 

[demonnic]

My parents' weed dealer in the mid-80s taught me to play poker because he was also their good friend and came to stay with us when my mom had surgery to remove cancer. I guess it was the best thing he could think of to keep a 2nd grader busy.

It would be a while before I took it seriously, but him and my dad are the two main people responsible. Moneymaker definitely renewed my interest, suddenly there were people to play with! Even if they all only wanted to play this weird type of poker I'd never heard of before called Holdem.

 

[ekricket]

This movie

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Card_Stud

 

[quintooo]

turned 21. me and buddies went to vegas. i wanted to play blackjack, and proceeded to lose all $200 in my checkings at the time.

friend suggested if I want to make money, i play poker instead.

well that was a big fucking lie and its been downhill since

 

[Highli99]

Henry Orenstein.

An incredible man who grew up in Poland in the 1930s. For those that know history, that was a bad time to live in Poland. Especially if you were Jewish. Henry was, and despite unspeakable odds, he survived pogroms, war, and five concentration camps. Eventually ending up in the US, he went on to be responsible for a toy franchise some have heard of called Transformers. Oh, he also played poker. AND, he happened to invent the notion of filming cards so that poker could be broadcasted with hole cards. Which is how it became a hit on ESPN. And how the poker boom started. And that is why most of us play it. Not all of us. But most of us.

Henry passed in away in 2020 due to covid. He played poker well into his late years and his story is really inspiring.

Highly recommend his book: I shall live

 

[pogona90]

Poker became a thing in german tv back 20 years ago. Thats how it got me started.

 

[Mushmanchuman]

03 WSOP for me. And for chips my first taste of chipping came on the episode of 03 WSOP where Dutch Boyd did a bunch of chip tricks.

“Who is Dutch Boyd? Hopefully the next big deal in poker.”

Nope, Dutch. You just went back to being a dealer at the Borgota. Or where ever..

 

[raynmanas]

chris moneymaker. i played casually before the 2003 WSOP, but that was the launching point that progressed it to a lifetime hobby.

 

[bergs]

A dealer in the Las Vegas Harrah’s Party Pit in 2006. I was there with the wife and playing blackjack, drinking my face off, and turned around at one point and was talking to the table behind me. After getting each other shots and more beers I finally turned around and the dealer had effectively played a few hands for me because I was playing perfect basic strategy.

I realized how boring games were when they were solved so I ended up going to Foxwoods to try poker with coworker and local legend The Hot Dog King (HDK). Before we got to the tables, he told me 2 things:

1) Never underestimate the sheer stupidity of other players
2) Don’t be a dickhead. People won’t punt to a dickhead

Three barreled my way to a nice pot my first band, flopped a set my second band, and hooked ever since.

 

[BGinGA]

Bob Ciaffone, Erik Seidel, Jason Lester, Paul Magriel, Dan Harrington, Gus Hansen.

All fellow backgammon pros who moved to the poker circuit when the big amateur money started flowing in that direction.

 

[Rhodeman77]

I would watch my mom player nickel, dime, quarter dealers choice poker with other extended family members at every family event. Games like midnight baseball and follow the queen were very common. Then I got my first computer and it included a poker game. I think it was a stud or draw poker vs computer players with names like Bubba and Tiny lol. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and my mom would be playing it lol.

When I got to my teen years my friends and I were all gaming nerds and on NYE after the ball dropped we would play the same nickel, dime, quarter dealers choice games until the sun came up.

Once Moneymaker happened we moved to hold’em and the rest is history.

 

[drdr]

Watching poker on TV and saw some older/balding/weedy dude destroying a table, emotionless and clinical. Was Barry Greenstein. Until then I saw all gambling as a losing addiction. But he showed the skill element and that it was a beatable game.

 

[Moxie Mike]

For me it was I discovered the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel back in '02 or so. Prior to that I never knew tournament poker was a thing, which was my gateway drug to the crazy games we play now.