Have you ever played Poker with someone either before or after they were famous? I'm sure plenty of people on 2+2 have stories of playing some cards with someone who are or were prior to becoming famous, however for me, a small time, player I've never really had one of these stories until a recently discovery this past weekend.
I like many others, was part of the huge poker growth in the early 2000's after Poker started to become popularized on TV, so around the age of 16 (this story takes place in around 2003) I sought to play some Texas Hold'em nearby. The closest city was in Gainesville, FL, a thriving city filled with College students who were like minded in getting in on the new thrilling action of Texas Holdem. During this time, it was easy to find some home poker games (compared to now, where I still cant find one in Gainesville), I was able to find a 1/2 NL Home Game in Gainesville to start me off on a short live playing session during 2003-2004.
My live play wasn't anything to brag about, much less even to create a post about, but there was a couple of games that I ended up playing with someone who recently I discovered was famous and I wanted to share that.
The night when I met the person in question, I made some key notes from the conversations that started after the Home Game host announced his soon arrival to the table, the player in question who would soon to be joining us was a player who was identified as:
-Having a wealthy family background
-Extremely aggressive
-Was/is part of the Navy Seal program (I cant recall exactly which is was, but I recall his participation in the Seal program was definitely known and discussed prior to his arrival).
Either way, as a young kid (again, I was about 16 at the time) I kept quiet and just took some mental notes. The player walks in and immediately you could tell his personality was super high energy, eccentric and overall bold. My first impression was, wow, this guy is different, perhaps more fun than everyone else I've been playing with for a few hours. Then, before playing he did something unusual that stuck out to me (among several things to come later). Before playing, the player brought his own ingredients to cook a meal. Wow! Maybe thats common at home games, but a first for me, especially since this host provided food and drinks due to a rake. I'll exclude what the player chose to make (I remember what it was) in case I ever have the opportunity to later meet and verify my story with the player. The host seemed surprised as well by the player's request, but as a good host, agreed for him to use his kitchen. The food he made did smell great, in fact it's one of my favorite dishes, and if memory serves me correctly, I believe he did offer other players to have some if they were interested. Anyway, that was my first, but not the last unusual observation with this player.
The player eats his self made meal and then begins to play, and sure enough, the information before he arrived is starting to look valid as the player is unusually, super aggressive. He's 3 or 4 betting with 3 players pre-flop and then shoving all in with pocket deuces, 3 or 4 betting with other lower premium hands with tight callers, that I would never dream of doing. For me, a newbie to poker at 16 years old player, it was aggression that I haven't seen in my liminited playing experience, and not only I was surprised, but the rest of the tables seem to be too, even if we had advanced notice of his wild aggression.
After about a hour or so of the player being there, I ended up with another memorable hand against the player, but not because of the cards but what happened after. I dont recall what happened except either the player bluffed me out of a pot or made a wild run out against me for a decent pot, whatever the case was the table took notice and so did the player since as he's scooping the pot he says something very peculiar to me that I'll never forget. He first said something along the lines of how crazy that pot was but apparently felt bad about it as he then said, "How about I buy you a hooker?" WOW! I thought, noting that I did not express any disappointment or frustration with the end result of the hand because again, I'm a 16 yr old newbie in a home poker game, playing with older guys at an illegal 1/2 cash game. So, I kept quiet most of the time while there. Was he serious? A hooker? Did he win enough money to even cover the cost for that? Well maybe if he found one that was super cheap, which I'm sure wouldn't be that difficult to do. But as easy as that may seem to pass off as some banter without merit or seriousness to it, it actually felt that if I had accepted (which I didn't) his offer, he would certainly honor it considering his high eccentric, unusual characteristics.
That was the end of my memories with my first session with the above player. There was another different home game not too long after that where the player showed up at a home game that I was at, and like the first time, he did something that stuck out to me.
It was unusual, for my first home game at this other host's residence, the game was interrupted during a hand when someone, who was apparently drunk, stoned or both (I know, what a shocker for a college town) but started banging at the sliding glass door to his apartment that he just did a bunch of cocaine and wanted to play some cards. All of the players stopped, and the host yelled through the glass door that this was a private game. The table was pretty spooked from this encounter, especially after the host jokingly mentioned that the sliding glass door wasn't even locked. It was at this moment that the player did something memorable to me, he walked out of the game after announcing that he "was going to get his gun" from his vehicle and to see if guy was still hanging around. At this time, people begin to cash out, and I probably should have as well, but I stuck around. Shortly after the player leaving, he comes back in announcing the all clear but that he had his gun on him. A couple of other players who stuck around were interested in the gun and asked to see it, with the player asking the host if that would be okay and after the host agreed, he pulled out his pistol, it was a Glock (likely a glock 17 or 19). Again, considering my age and limited live playing experience, this was absolutely crazy to me. This player was someone like I've never come across to in my young life, cooking meals at home games, offering to buy me a hooker, pulling out a glock at a home game. Wow!
Not long after that game, I ended up getting a career going and pretty much stopped playing live poker, but the memories of this player had always stuck and I shared my crazy home game experiences with friends later on, this player clearly made a long lasting impression on me and I would likely never hear of him or know anything of him than what I learned that first night before he arrived and his first name (Yes, I remembered his name).
The player's name that left me with these memories was one that I never forgot, even 15 years later. The players name was Dan. All I knew about Dan was what people said about him, but mostly importantly the memories that he embedded from my short run cash game playing experience at 16. Until this past weekend.
I've been following poker a lot more as of recently, reading up on the game, reading vlogs, pros, following the wsop, 2+2, etc.. The other day, I read an article about some "high-stakes Poker player" who had a home burglary at his $10,000,000 mansion. Interesting, I'm reading the article and at the end it gives some background on this guy, where it states that he played poker while attending the University of Florida (located in Gainesville, FL). Interesting, his name is Dan as well and his pictures kind of resembled him. I started looking more into it and sure enough, I found a picture Dan Bilzerian without a beard. Wow! I'm fairly certain this is "the player" this was the Dan that I was playing with who left me with these memories! I did more research and it appears that he was indeed in Gainesville attending school around the time I was playing. I did more research on "Dan Bilzerian" wow! Apparently he's aggressive, that's a match! eccentric playboy, that's a match, tossing pornstars off of roofs, sounds like him! and then finally, I read Dan Bilzerian went to Seal training as was said of the player at these home games. I've come to the conclusion that I'm 90% sure I played with Dan Bilzerian who left me with these memories. If it truly was, all I have to say is, glad he's doing well and enjoying life and that for someone as high strong, bold and eccentric as he is, he was a well mannered player at the table.
Anyhow, I think this is the first time that I can say that I had some sort of interaction with someone who is now "famous" and it happened at a 1/2 home poker cash game. Maybe it seems lame to some, but for me, finding out who that player was/is, has really added on to my story for friends.
Last edited by matrixmoney; 07-01-2018 at 11:30 AM.
), but although there were some people there that had some idea what they were doing there was also a lot of bad players. At least bad enough to score me the occasional cash here and there, even though I was a scared nit with no real concept of adjusting to number of BB in my stack etc.