 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
 |
President's Letter |
 Toward the end of Dostoyevski’s novel The Gambler, Alexei Ivanovitch, the story’s main character, wins a fortune at the casino against all odds. You could say the same about alumnus Tom McEvoy (B’79). The Grand Rapids native was the first player to win the main event in the World Series of Poker from a satellite table - which is to say that in 1983 he was still something of an outsider, although he had already been in Las Vegas for five years to pursue a career as a professional poker player. Today, McEvoy is one of the best-known authors of books on poker strategy. McEvoy talked to Crimson & Gold about his earliest card-playing influences, the Texas Hold ‘Em craze and making poker tournaments smoke-free.
TE: I have always played cards. In fact, my grandmother taught me to play, so I grew up with that card-playing mentality. After I’d been working for a few years, I got involved in some home games in Grand Rapids where I lived. We used to start on a Friday night and it would last all the way to Sunday night. Come Monday, I would not exactly be fresh for my day job. Then on May 11, 1978, I got the biggest career break of my life: I got fired from my accounting job. During the previous six months, I’d flown to Las Vegas for a week to compete for the National Table Tennis Championship at Caesar’s Palace. I spent more time at the poker table than playing table tennis, so I lost a bunch of my matches. But I made about $1,000. I decided I’d schedule my next vacation trip out to Vegas and give poker a shot. I wasn’t thinking in terms of quitting my job, but then when I got fired I decided, well, why don’t I just go out to Vegas for a while? I ended up going back and forth for a whole year. I finally talked my wife into giving it a try. I had a modest bankroll about $5,000 a new car and a U-Haul trailer that said “Vegas or Bust” on the back. My parents, friends and relatives thought I’d literally lost my mind. Four years later, I was world champion. My mother never told anyone what I was doing. People just assumed that I moved out there and was working as an accountant. She didn’t ’fess up until I made the front page of the Grand Rapids Press as winning the World Series of Poker. It took that before my own parents accepted my occupation. C&G: You’ve been involved in making tournaments non-smoking events, haven’t you? TE: For a while I was a poker tournament manager. I held the first non-smoking Las Vegas tournament in history in 1999. Since then every tournament across the country and in most of Europe has gone non-smoking. C&G: I’m surprised it caught on that quickly. TE: It did because that tournament proved it could be a success. Casinos were afraid that business would drop off. For a little while it did. But then word got out and guess what happened? All the non-smokers who left because they couldn’t take it anymore came back. C&G: You’ve written several books on poker strategy. How did that happen? TE: I was asked to do a book after I won the World Series of Poker in ’83. There weren’t any books out there on tournament strategy, so I wrote one. It was pretty good for that time and it was the only one out there, but I knew I could do better. Then in 1994 Dana Smith, who would become my long-time friend and partner, approached me about doing another tournament poker book. I’d had another book rattling around in my head, but I needed a partner to edit it and help get it out of my head and onto paper. The first time she approached me I said “Nah,” I wasn’t ready yet. Six months later she handed me a sheet of paper estimating how much money I could make out of the book. I said, “That looks pretty good, actually.” When the book came out, it made a lot more than she projected. I’m friends with T.J. Cloutier who a lot of people think is the best tournament player ever. I got him involved, and we did a series of four books also with Dana. Then I did two books with Brad Dougherty, who won the World Series of Poker in 1990 and was the first million-dollar winner. Then I did another book with Dana and one more with her husband, Don Vines. That was my last one. It came out in July [2005]. Altogether Dana and I cranked out 11 books. I also write for Card Player magazine, which is the biggest magazine covering the poker scene. I’ve been on their staff for about 10 years. C&G: I can’t imagine you have anything that resembles a typical day. Do you? TE: Here was Sunday: I was playing three poker tournaments simultaneously online, listening to the football game and conducting a business deal over the phone. That wasn’t too efficient so I had to eliminate the business deal [laughs]. Also, I teach poker. I’ve gotten remarkably good results from a lot of my students. They’ve won World Series of Poker bracelets from some of the preliminary events and other big tournaments. I have a student coming in for a two-hour lesson today. Of course, I’m still playing. I won a tournament with a $200,000 purse that was supposed to be televised last March [2005], but it got tied up in a lawsuit between the Travel Channel and the World Poker Tour. That cost me dearly, because there are a lot of invitational tournaments on television and the more exposure you get the more chance you’ll be invited. C&G: What’s driving the whole current craze for televised poker, especially Texas Hold ’Em? TE: With the invention of these “lipstick” cameras, as they’re called, you can see the players’ hole cards and what their strategy is. That’s what really did it. Before, on the few times poker was televised, you only saw the betting. After all the money was in, the cards were turned up. You didn’t see any of the strategy, so it was like watching paint dry. Seeing what the hole cards are and what the players are doing changed everything. And there’s a million dollar tournament every month. Last year there were something like 23 different people who won a million or more in one purse. People are fascinated when they see these bundles of money dropped on the table. C&G: Do you still have family in the area? Do you ever get back to Michigan? TE: I have a brother and sister who live in Grand Rapids, so I get back to visit a couple of times a year. I also have a brother who is a professor of sociology at Wittenberg University in Ohio. My brother in Grand Rapids is head of the Travelers Insurance office there. My sister has a doctorate in psychology. Me, I have a doctorate in Pokerology and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. C&G: Which brings us to your time at Ferris. TE: That’s when I was in the best shape of my life, because I lived in Clark Hall and some of my classes were way across campus I used to run to get to class. I also developed my table tennis skills at Ferris. I used to go to the different dorms to play. The winner got to stay up on the table. Of course I liked my courses, too. My very last semester I went to summer school because I was just a couple credits short of getting my degree although I didn’t need any accounting or business courses. Then in the fall I had an internship. I was originally going to be a CPA, but I didn’t stay in public accounting long enough to take the exam. If I had passed it, it might have changed my life. I might not have followed my true path, which is poker. C&G: Is there anything you’d like to add about your accomplishments? TE: I just want to make it clear that I’m not a professional gambler, I’m a professional poker player there’s a big difference. In poker you’re not playing against the house; you’re playing against other players, and the house makes its money by taking a rake, or a table charge. If you’re a good enough poker player, you can overcome the rake and luck factor the worst player on a given night can beat the best player because of the way the cards break, but in the long run the skill factor will overcome the luck factor. That’s in the long run, but there are fluctuations and there can be a fair amount of emotional turmoil. It’s not like being a car salesman. Even if you’re a salesman on commission, you don’t actually lose money. In poker you can have a negative income. I’m doing really well now, but it wasn’t always that way. |
||||||
