Education of A Wandering Man

Every true gambler needs a library. It doesn't matter what your game is, you never have too much knowledge to take on those odds!

For more than 40 years I have enjoyed the ups, the downs, the joys and the defeats of trying to beat the House or my fellow poker players. It hasn't been easy, that's for sure. But it has been worth the effort.

Gambling is as old as mankind. Geologists and anthropologists have discovered crude gambling devices as far back as primitive man. Their caves were filled with bones, rocks and other gambling tools designed to help them outwit their fellow man.

When I was a teen growing up in Western Pennsylvania, poker was a mystery to me. My dad had weekly games in the basement next to our wine cellar...

...and I knew of games around my hometown of Sutersville, PA. I never dared play in them. Money was too important to me and I didn't think I stood a chance against the other gamblers.

The other players all seemed to be misfits -- strange gangly men with beards, mustaches, baseball caps and dirty teeshirts. They wore scruffy jeans with sandals and their teeth were stained yellow from cigarettes or cigars.

While they played poker, I hung out at the library. I read constantly, anything I could get my hands on. Louis Lamour, the western author, titled his autobiography, 'Education of a Wandering Man." He wandered around the United States, a hobo without a home, and picked up books and literature where he could find something to read.

For years...

...I didn't realize there were strategy books out there for people who were interested in gambling. When I discovered such books existed, I was awed at the knowledge and began searching for them!

One of the first gambling books I read was 'Poker For Fun and Profit' by Irwin Steig, a professional writer from Teaneck, N.J. Steig had been published in Esquire and other top magazines. His brother, an artist, illustrated his books.

I found his address and began exchanging letters with him after publishing an article about his book. His letters were delightful and we became long distance friends up until his death. After he died, his wife wrote to me and told me how pleased he was with my etters. She also said she was honored to have been married to him.

In my 20s, I began collecting strategy books on poker, horse racing, dice, baccarat and other gambling games.

I heard of a horse handicapper named Andrew Beyer who had developed a system for grading the speed of horses. Known as the Beyer System, it used numbers to determine a horse's speed for a particular race.

For years I used the Beyer System. While it failed to make me rich, it gave me an edge on the other horse handicappers and provided some memorable moments for me at the various tracks I visited.

In Gardena, CA. I met a brilliant oddsmaker named Mike Caro. Mike was an oddsmaker, theorist and poker player who had published 'Caro's Book of Tells,' 'Poker for Women' and other strategy books on poker. His theories were sometimes difficult to understand but when you studied them, they made sense and added to my education as a poker player.

Mike's wife Phyllis was one of the top female poker players in the world and Mike took many of her techniques and included them in his book.

When I turned 30

I began traveling to Las Vegas, where I met and interviewed people like Amarillo Slim Preston, Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Eskimo Clark, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Moss, Bennie Binion, Oklahoma Johnny Hale, Puggy Pearson, Mike Sexton and many more.

Several of them had written books and I added them to my library., I found most of the poker legends interesting and they all had stories to tell.

Puggy had written a book about his life as a redneck gambler and even composed a song about being a roving gambler. Sometimes in the middle of a game he would start singing it to the discomfort of the other players. He didn't have much of a voice and they would beg him to shut up, but Puggy never listened to anyone.

The man who probably should have written the ultimate book on poker was Bennie Binion!

He was not a great player but knew more about the game than any man alive except maybe for his friend Johnny Moss. He staked Johnny to some of the biggest cash games in Las Vegas and Moss always paid him back -- with interest.

The oldest poker player I ever played against was Andy, a retired coal miner who was born in Russia. Andy had worked in the Russian coal mines when they used horses to haul out the coal. He had turned 94 when I began playing against him at a home game in Brownsville, PA.

Andy probably never read a book in his life, but he could have written one. The only words he ever said while playing poker, and smoking endless cigarettes was 'Raise,' 'Re-raise," 'Call" or 'Fold."

Start building your own poker library. You can find the books on line or in advertisements in the poker magazines.

Good luck and let the games begin!

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).