Chapter 3

Doyle skipped golf the next day. I had my money from the bank, so if I lost, I'd still be OK. From the previous day's results, they all saw that I only had won a single hole the entire day, so they offered me the same number of strokes. When the ball flew off my driver and soared high and straight down the fairway, I heard a couple of "oh shit's" from the rest of the foursome. My irons were still doing well, so by the end of the day I really cleaned up.

They all accused me of sandbagging, but I honestly told them that I hadn't shot a score that low since college. I also mentioned that I was rusty, and I'd stayed for a few hours after our match the day before, to try to find my swing. They made me promise to come back, but with a new scoring arrangement.

I spent the next couple of weeks working on my golf swing. One of the pros worked with me looking for flaws, and giving me pointers. I continued to drop my score back ultimately into the ten-handicap range. The rest would come with practice, and as I continued to read greens better, and work on my course management skills. My goal was to become a scratch golfer, but achieving a five handicap would make me very happy.

Losing at the poker tables became the norm for me, but I was getting used to the top players, and would either last longer or lose less depending on the day. My attitude continued on an upbeat path, and one day Doyle asked me about it. We both typically left around midnight unless one of us was hot at the table. That wasn't typically me. That night, I invited him to dinner and he accepted.

We both ordered steaks, and while we were waiting he asked, "You seem too young to afford losing the way you do every night at the tables. Are you planning to make it as a professional gambler or will you be ending up hitting me up for bus fare to get back to mommy?"

"Thanks for worrying about me, but don't. I'm what you call an 'ideas man'. My role in life is to come up with ideas, and then after they work out, they pay me well, and for a very long time. We just left a six-hour poker session where I lost thirty-two thousand dollars. By playing with you, I wasn't spending money anywhere else, so while I sat at the table my ideas were paying me at a full rate."

"OK, so what you're saying is that you were making money somewhere else while you were playing."

"Yes, that's correct. What do you think my net was for those six hours?"

"I don't know. The only thing that I do know is that you lost thirty thousand."

"I made almost seven million, net. Even though the government will take almost half, at the end of the day, when I lose fifty at the tables and ninety thousand at the golf course, keep in mind that on the worst days that I have gambling, it only equals one percent of what the US government takes from me."

"I want to say bullshit, and bet that you're lying to me."

"To tell you the truth, I have some ideas that one day I'll want you to help me take into reality. Right now they're just ideas, but in a few years, those ideas can make us both some money."

"If you haven't noticed, I don't like to work much. I like for other people to do the work, and then bet against me, so I can just take it from them."

"Do you see these nice hotels and casinos around town? The owners didn't build them by having everyone that comes to town leave a winner. They also didn't build them for one person to come in and pay for them with one big loss. Their plan is to take a small amount from every person. If a thousand people walk into a casino over a twenty-four hour period, and they each lose an average of two hundred dollars, the casino makes two hundred thousand dollars for the day, before overhead and salaries. Would you rather do that or make twenty or thirty playing cards. I bet you all just pass most of your money back and forth waiting for the fish like me to come in, and resupply your banks."

"I never called you a fish. I may have thought it, but I never said it."

"Thanks for that. What I'm saying is that the house takes a rake off of every hand dealt, no matter who wins, so they're guaranteed money as long as they keep dealing."

"So you want to build a casino?"

"Maybe, but what I really want to do is to sell poker. I invest a lot and read a lot, so I see some things coming along that may help us create a special casino where people can play from home. If they didn't have to fly here and we didn't have to build a casino, the profit margin would be much larger."

"You lost me there."

"It's still in the future, but it's never too early to start planning."

"What's my part in this? If you were telling the truth earlier, you don't need my money."

"I don't need your money, I need you."

"Again, to do what?"

"I need you to write a book telling the world how the professional poker players make it in the world of gambling. What I need you to do is teach them how to analyze hands, table position, strategy, bluffing, statistics or as we may call it 'A Guide to Poker'."

"You want me to sell my secrets?"

"Yes, poker is about all of those things, but the most important part is the experience of playing with the top players. They'll read your book, and as they grow, they'll play with small fish in small ponds for the next few years. Once they feel they're a big enough fish, that they're willing to take their nest egg and try their skill against the big fish out in the ocean, they'll come to see you. They'll lose everything like I've been doing, but as you walk home with their twenty thousand or hundred thousand dollars, they'll have a memory of beating you for one big hand or bluffing you out of a pot. They'll be happy to trade the cash for the memory. You'll forget them the next day when the next new fish swims up to your table."

"You sure are a dreamer kid."

"Trust me on this. It will happen. You had a hard time finding a soccer club ten years ago, and now they're building numerous parks for the kids to play their games. I want to do the same thing with poker, so in ten years we can build the biggest casino in the world where people can come and play every night from their homes, like being able to turn on a baseball game in their living room."

"Britt, I'll have to see if you predictions come true. I hope they do, so that I'll have plenty of fish to fry."

"Why don't you spend some time coming up with an outline for your book? I'll bet that if you took the time to sit down and focus on what you do and why you do it, that you'll become more deliberate and more consistent in your play."

"You're consistent, but we both know that isn't always a good thing."

"My luck will change soon. I see my mistakes, and I'm learning from them."

"Why don't you tell me what you think they are, and I'll tell you if you're right?"

"I'm wishy-washy at the table. Either I should play more patiently while waiting for good hands or I should play more aggressively and force others to react to me. Instead, I play too many hands too casually."

"I think you do see things well. I was just going to say that you played too many crap hands hoping to catch cards instead of playing the odds. If you play the other approach, it can end up being effective, but you need to have deep pockets, because in the interim, the slow playing cautious player can win big from you. You may win eighteen small pots, but the two you lose could add up being more than the total of what you won."

As we finished our steaks, I could see him thinking. He wiped his mouth at the end of the meal, and as I picked up the check he said, "I think I can come up with a few chapters on my favorite pastime. I'm just afraid about losing my advantage."

I took the next five minutes and paraphrased what I knew he would write from previously reading his book Super System, twice during my first time through. Then I said, "I'm sure that there would be more, and you could include some fun stories to make your points, but this game isn't rocket science. It just takes a brain and a bankroll. If Babe Ruth wrote a book on baseball would that mean that every pitcher could then strike him out?"

"You're scary sometimes with the things you come up with. What you just said is actually a little more than what I was thinking. I didn't know that others had dissected the game that much. I thought that I was one of a few that didn't think that it was all luck."

"You're scary yourself. Sometimes I find it difficult to read people at the tables, so it all comes down to math for me, and there are very few times when you have a mathematical lock on winning the hand. Seventy or eighty percent after the flop is really good."

"You're a smart kid. I'm going home to get some sleep. How many strokes are you going to give me tomorrow?

"As few as possible."

I hung around Vegas long enough to close on the different properties and get the work started for the commercial building. I did that for about a day, and then called John to see where things were. He said, "We're going like crazy. We hired an HR person, and she's already putting together a team. Right now, Fred White is using and abusing his Rolodex to find top people to step into the key roles at the investment firm. Karen is finished up at Schwab, but is still in New York doing interviews and working with Fred and Barb to hire the right people. Fred also set up a line of credit for us until the company is fully funded."

I said, "I've been hanging out and playing golf. My tan is in good shape, but I've been losing my ass at the poker tables. I feel somewhat lazy after what you just said. They started the demolition on the interior executive space in the new building, and the new carpet should be in soon on the lower floors. We finished the design of the executive offices, and the work will start when the demolition is complete. I bought a house, but have some work being done there before I move out of the hotel."

"We need to have some temporary housing set up for when people start moving out there. It could be months for people to sell their homes or apartments and make the move."

"John, I like happy employees, so let's make sure they're happy. Do what's right to help them along. I'm sure that there are relocation companies that specialize it this process, so hire the best. We can start worrying about overhead and cost when we're settled in."

"I've put in a notice to retire from my firm here in Orlando, and they've offered me a fair buy out. I don't need the money, but it's nice to feel appreciated."

"If they're having a party I'll fly back to tell you how awesome you are."

"Thanks. Do you have a date that we can start moving people in the office?"

"They say a month, but I offered a nice bonus for three weeks. They have crews there twenty-four seven, and it looks like ants crawling around there are so many of them. What do we need to do about setting up the accounts for me to transfer my funds?"

"We're close to hiring a Managing Partner away from US Trust. He was responsible for running operations over there, and wants to play more golf and pay fewer taxes."

"A man after my own heart. What's his name?"

"Kurt Sutton. He's a nice guy. He has a wife and three kids, but they're a little older than my two."

"I think that I'll go land shopping today, and see if I can find a nice large parcel to build a subdivision for our new employees."

"A company town?"

"Yes and no. I want to build something nice for the executives, and offer the houses at cost or even a discount. For me the key is for them to have nice homes and enjoy their downtime away from work. My job is to see if I can find something, and then see about hiring a builder to take on the project. By buying materials and building in bulk, we should keep the cost down."

"You do whatever you want. I don't like to question anything you do in business."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now that you work for me, should we discuss a salary? I think that minimum wage is up to four bucks an hour or something. What does Head Legal Counsel make these days, five fifty?"

"Let's call it five hundred a year plus bonuses."

"What are the bonuses for? What's the criteria?"

"The bonuses are for making you happy. The happier you are, the bigger my bonus is."

"That's not fair. You'll just send Beth over the night before I make out bonuses and you'll be rich."

"Ha, ha. I won't whore out my wife for a few bucks. I'm already rich, and I do that for her not you. If you send Darcy over two days ahead, she'll be so happy that it will rub off on you, and then my bonuses will be huge."

"You wish that Beth had the mouth of a world-class clarinet player. I don't think that this is a normal conversation between the owner of a company and the Chief Legal ... How nice is Kurt Sutton's wife?"

"Don't step over that line. We should stop now. I look forward to getting out there. We're renting out our house here in Winter Park in case we decide to move back some day."

"It isn't a bad idea to keep it for growth and income, but if you move back you'll want to buy my lot, and build some mega mansion on the lake."

"You're right, but we try to stay humble. Either that or it still hasn't hit us how much money we have to spend."

"Don't let it go to your head. It's just a tool. I care about people not things. Don't love anything that can't love you back."

"I need to get going, but you're wise beyond your years."

"Give Beth and Mary a kiss for me, and let me know if there's something I should be doing."

"Bye Britt. I will."

After several weeks, the daily golf rounds ended, but I continued to play two or three times a week. As playing cards continued, I took the aggressive and passive approaches to the extremes, and I found that both approaches did better than what I had done before. I actually won a few times, and the others at the table started to pay attention to my new aggressive style.

One Friday afternoon, I was just about to head out and get some dinner before heading over to Binion's when there was a knock at the door of my new house. I opened it to find Karen, Lilly, and Darcy standing there with their bags in their hands. I stood back to let them in and gave each a hug and a kiss. Karen was a big surprise with the way she responded or approached me. She pulled me tight and aimed her lips at mine. Darcy was right, business was her drug of choice, and she was high.

I made a quick call to let Doyle know that I had a change of plans, to make sure that they wouldn't hold a spot for me at the table. They liked to take my money, and they'd shun some other 'fish' to get a chance at me. I welcomed the ladies to their new home for the near term, and showed them around. They like the changes, and after freshening up they found some closet space for their clothes. They had a moving van arriving with the Porsche, some of their bigger items, and the rest of their clothes. I took them all out to dinner since I was hungry. I spent the night with Darcy, and all was right with the world.

It was now early June, and the office was to open on July 1st with everyone's contracts in place. We'd open the doors, get everyone moved in, and make sure that we took care of all the housekeeping stuff. Friday would be a big party for the fourth of July for those that wanted to attend, and then a weekend off. Monday the seventh would be our day for officially opening for business.

The weekend was nice, and it felt great to have Darcy and the girls in the house. I was so happy that I didn't play golf or cards. Doyle called after golf on Saturday to make sure that I was still alive and hadn't run out of money. I invited him and his family over for a cookout, and he accepted. Doyle came by with his wife. We had a nice time cooking steaks on the grill with Lilly making all the side dishes that I loved. We were out by the pool with some drinks when Louise his wife mentioned that Doyle had worked on an outline for a book, and he was blaming me for getting him started.

After a smile I said, "I think it's great when someone at the top of a sport takes time to help the little people like me learn all the tricks and cheats that he uses to take my money."

"He tells me that you make more back at the golf course than you lose at the tables. I wish Todd could have come with us, but he'd other plans. He's about your age."