Hi folks -
A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Wednesday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer" . The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: "Why not on Wednesday?" The voice from in the well shouts back: "Because on Wednesday, it's your day in the well."

DMoogle suggested that perhaps it was time for me to a "well" thread.

I just rolled over 1K posts here (took me six years) so maybe this is a good time to do it. I'm happy to discuss most topics with a couple of minor exceptions:

• Nothing about Cake Poker. If you want to discuss that, please go to the Cake Poker feedback thread.
• Nothing related to legal status of poker in the U.S. I'm not an expert on it, and the last thing I need to do is offer random uninformed opinions.

If you want to read about people who are crushing online poker as players, you'll do better to read WCGRider. But I was seriously involved with poker before he was born, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't played pots with Johnny Moss, Sailor Roberts, and Bill Smith.

I hope I'll have something interesting to say.

Regards, Lee

What was the story behind getting hired at Pokerstars? What were your responsibilities there?

how would you describe pokerstars as employer? would you recommend them?

If you had a choice between having mad cow disease and being the greatest card room manager in your field, which would you choose?

Lee, you've had a long run with poker now, haven't you? How do you balance yourself and, for lack of a better term, stay connected with the rest of society?

This is going to be epic.

Favorite vacation destination?

Favorite humorous live poker cardroom story?

Ignoring the legality issues and potential longevity of it all, if someone from the US wanted to work for an online cardroom or casino how long would it take until they'd be at the upper levels of management? Is there any sort of applicable degree or just experience and working your way up? Anything else you can add would be awesome, very curious about this.

Do you think that the strategies in your book "winning low limit hold'em" would be profitable in today's online low limit hold'em?

what are you most thankful for that poker has brought you?
what are you least thankful for?


also, thanks for WLLH, that book turned me into a profitable player waaay back in the day

OMG that is too much lol **** man I just laughed my head off lol will ferrell

This will be old news for a lot of people, but...

When Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP in 2003, he had qualified in there by winning a PokerStars satellite. Needless to say, PokerStars' business skyrocketed shortly after Chris's win, and they were looking for people. I was a bit player in the poker business because of Winning Low Limit Hold'em, but somehow the management at PokerStars tracked me down through my publisher. I later understood that they wanted somebody who was not a professional poker player because to a professional poker player, a j*b is something you have while you're building your bankroll back up

I had a lot of different responsibilities at PokerStars - customer support escalations, recommending policy, hosting final tables, visiting with the players, etc. No two days were identical.

Regards, Lee

Hey Lee, what do you think about the idea of sync breaks being implemented on Pokerstars?

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Do you play donkaments or cash games? Which do you prefer?

Lee,

do you think legalized online poker in the US will open the door for people like me to get management jobs in companies like harrahs and MGM that will hopefully have popular internet poker sites? What kind of qualities will they be looking for besides a love for poker?

lol yea right, he's a rakeback pro.

Do you play online?

this

I've actually enjoyed all my jobs in the poker industry. Years ago, I had some angst about working in the business. I actually brought it up with a shrink, pointing out that poker players produce no good or service for society. Her reply (which I've held dear ever since), was "But your "business" provides entertainment and relaxation for people. That is an invaluable gift."

I don't think it's really my place to comment on specific employers. However, I've gotten to meet a ton of wonderful people in the poker business - both the players and the people who work in the industry. I am deeply grateful for that.

Weirdly, my wife, who is a nurse, has seen people die from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. She says it's one of the absolute worst ways to go, and she's seen many/most of them. So I'm pretty sure that I would take just about anything else, thanks.

Favorite vacation destination:

For sheer amazement: Kenyan safari. Once you see the African plains and Kilimanjaro, and met the Mas'sai people, you're never quite the same. It was a life-changing experience for every one of us on the trip.
For insane scuba diving: Galapagos. Whale sharks, hammerhead sharks stacked into the limits of visibility, and silky and Galapagos sharks circling us during safety stops. It was an adrenaline junkie's dream.
For overall happy vibe: Fiji. Exquisite coral reefs, Gilligan Island-esque scenery, wonderful warm people.
For centering my soul: Secret place in North Carolina mountains.

Funniest live cardroom story... I guess the one that sticks the most in my head is playing in a tiny little tournament (maybe 20-25 people) back in the 90's, that had the legendary Jack McClelland as the tournament director. It was a bunch of the Internet geeks before either the Internet or geeks were cool. But somehow we got both Jack and (I'm not making this up) the official WSOP chips for a little satellite a bunch of us were running to put somebody into the "real" WSOP. There were a number of people in that tournament who went on to serious fame in the business, including (IIRC) Andy Bloch and others. The way the satellite ended up, two people were getting a seat into a $1500 WSOP event, and the third place finisher got $700 or something. I ended up in the final three, and a pot developed where the other two guys were threatening to get all-in. One shoved, and the other asked for a chip count. Turned out they had identical chips. So obviously if the other guy called, I was going to win. McClelland, who was doing announcing on the PA, said "I think Lee's hoping for a call." Obviously, that would be unthinkable for somebody to do now, but this was old school, and a very informal gathering. We all laughed a lot.

In terms of getting into the poker business, knowing a lot about online poker really wouldn't be one of the top qualifiers, IMHO. It's much more important to have a solid business background, an understanding of the community, the demographic, and so on. Obviously, it's better if you're enough of a poker player to understand how poker players think and act. But as I mentioned above, I wouldn't explain to a prospective employer in the online poker business that you played 100K hands last month. In terms of how you move up in the ranks, the online poker business is (!) pretty much like most other businesses by now - you start at the bottom and move up, or you move laterally from a similar position within (or without) the business. My situation was rather extraordinary; I'm the first to admit that.

Regards, Lee

What did you do for work before PokerStars?

And in case you're not aware, 2+2 has a multi-quote feature that you'll probably find useful. To use it, click the multi-quote button next to the Quote button on the bottom right of every post for each post you which to quote, and the button should turn red. Once you've selected all the posts you wish to quote, click the Post Reply button and voilà, all of the selected posts are quoted.

What are you doing creating a Well right now? Its taking time away from you devolping Cake software.

Now we have to wait longer for New Cake software. Or are you on vacation already? IF your on vacation your excused.

Who will win this years WSOP Main Event?

Lee when you decided to get back into an online site did pokerstars not want you back ? Or did cake make you an offer you couldn't refuse.

I've been here a long time and you were the face of stars.

do you think fullflush is cool?

I lol'd at the thought of Lee waking up with a dead horse's head lying next to him in his bed.

I think for very beginning players, yes, WLLH still has a place. I mean, we're not born innately knowing that A6o isn't a good hand or that if you have 77, the flop comes K-T-6, and two other players are jamming it up, you're in trouble. I'm proud of what WLLH taught people, and I believe it's one of the best primers. That said, $3-6 limit hold'em online is a very different game than what I cut my teeth on 20+ years ago in San Jose. The basic principles still hold, of course, but specific strategies have moved beyond what I covered.

Most thankful for? The opportunity to have a job wrapped around something that I love (poker), to live overseas for a couple of years, and to meet some insanely wonderful people (and some wonderfully insane people).

Least? There were a couple of years in there where I just worked too many hours - life out of balance and all that. But quoting Mr. Jagger, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need.

Thank you. To everybody who gives me a kind word or two about WLLH, I appreciate it more than you can know. It means the world to me to have somebody say they got something out of that book.

As I said above, I think pretty much the last thing they'll be looking for is a love of online poker. I think that fire departments have to filter pretty carefully to make sure they don't hire arsonists, if you get my drift. The big casinos are (er, "were") Fortune 500 companies. They want business skills, writing, communication, accounting, all that stuff. Never forget that to them, it's business, just business. To us, it's entertainment and fun (and profit, of course).

Totally a cash game guy. I'll play in a tournament just for fun or social value or whatever. For whatever reason, they've never really appealed to me.

I do play online when I get the chance, and I'm actually playing at Cake Poker now.

Heh. "Long run" is a relative term. I worked for each of two different employers (IBM and Silicon Graphics) for longer than I've been in the poker business as an employee/consultant. I've been fortunate to have an extraordinary wife and two amazing sons, and they've reminded me what is really important in life. I have never thought of poker as being the center of my life. It is the center of my professional life, but that's different than it being my sole existence.

Regards, Lee

Whoo-hoo! multi-quotes FTW! I did chip design software for almost exactly 25 years before joining PokerStars. Any of you out there know the Verilog simulator? I used to be a semi-expert on it.

It was time for me to do something Completely Different (to riff on Monty Python). Cake is a great opportunity for me to start over with a small company and help grow it into a big company. I'm delighted to be in a small enterprise again. Nothing against PokerStars, of course; they're a fine company with great people. But this is the right thing for me now.

Regards, Lee

what is your favorite hand you've ever played online. plz convert