Page 17 - June 2005 • Southern California Gaming Guide

All-Expenses-Paid Poker Fantasy Camp
by Jim Mercurio
Like the popular fantasy camps for baseball and football where fans pay to rub elbows and learn from the pros, at Howard Lederer’s Poker Fantasy Camp (www. allincamp.com), poker acolytes mix and mingle with the pros. If you go to a fantasy camp with Roger Clemens, you don’t always get a chance to face his fastball. But at Howard Lederer’s Camp, attendees play full-contact poker against poker’s cream of the crop and have a chance to win tens of thousands of dollars. Writer/ lmmaker Jim Mercurio recently attended the camp to write about it and won enough to cover his entire trip and then some.
Istarted playing poker seven years ago in an industry-only game (writers, producers and directors). We showed up then with rolls of quarters, but now we’re armed with rolls of twenties. I started studying the game a few years ago,
and when I manage to rein in my loose-aggressive style, I can actually have eeting moments of poker brilliance. I am by all means, though, simply an amateur who loves the game.
The author on his way to the nals.
Apparently, I’m not the only player who is thinking, “Chubby amateurs are winning millions of dollars at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and I’m a chubby amateur...” Several hundred players and I, many of like girth, jumped into a long weekend of what Howard Lederer calls Reality Camp, to learn from and compete against some of the world’s most prominent and respected
poker players.
Like graduate school, the students who learned the most
weren’t necessarily the ones taking meticulous notes. ey were the ones who listened and gured out how to think like their teachers. Also, just like grad school, you get a chance to pay for your education with, ah, assistantships. (Scholarships imply that you aren’t working for it.) Camp costs a few thousand dollars but players compete in two tournaments, one with a $50,000 prize-pool and one for a $10,000 seat into the WSOP main event.
We played the tournaments at the legendary Binion’s in Las Vegas — in Benny’s Bullpen — where every World Series of Poker has been played. Robert Duvall and Drew Barrymore were a oor below us lming the poker movie Lucky You with Oscar-winning director of L.A. Con dential, Curtis Hanson. Maybe it was my mention of Curtis Hanson’s directorial style in all of my lmmaking classes that brought me some luck, but
I landed at the nal table of the 305-person tournament playing for a rst place prize of $18,000! Did I graduate summa cum laude or just make the grade? Keep reading.
Howard, his sister Annie Duke, Chris“Jesus” Ferguson, Erik Seidel and Phil Gordon each gave an hour-long seminar, rotating rooms where we sat in cozy groups of
40 or so. Howard’s class was a great Zen-like overview of how to nd and navigate your own personal path in poker. Phil’s no-nonsense mathematical concision gave me new insights into understanding important concepts like domination. (To AK, 7-2 o -suit is only a 2-1 underdog whereas AJ is a 3-1 dog.)
Annie Duke’s class “Eliminating Uncertainty through Reading Body Language,” focused on the psychological and physiological reasons behind many classic tells. Annie related her recent experience with an FBI interrogator whose job it is to know when someone is lying or blu ng. It was impressive to see that one of the best players in the world was still studying to improve her game.
Philosophy, math, psychology, physiology? Enough about reality. What about the fantasy?
Besides the lecturers, several of Howard’s buddies— including David Williams, Clonie Gowen, Layne Flack,
Amir Vahedi, Andy Bloch and Paul Phillips—many with whom your only chance to play is on Full Tilt, were playing in the tournaments and in sit-n-goes where they
Howard Lederer and “King of the Camp” Jim Mercuiro with his trophy. (Photo by turpenoff.com)
would share their strategy. e pros were always generous with their time: signing autographs, posing for pictures or talking strategy.
I immediately put to use the tenets from Chris Ferguson’s lecture on tournament play. I bullied some short-stacks who were trying to survive and landed at the nal table second in chips. e di erence in prize money between rst and ninth place was about $17,000. I live a freelance life, so that’s a big deal. My fancy chip- shu ing quickly turned into chip-fumbling as the blinds skyrocketed.
Much of the nal table is a blur. I do remember that in the few hours at the nal table, the quality of play increased more quickly than the blinds. My pocket 8s held up against an all-in AK. And soon thereafter, it got down to heads-up.
e classes helped my game immensely, but a little bit of philosophy from Erik Seidel helped to prepare me for my nal exam—or should I say nal table. In his lecture, he compared poker to jazz:“Your game is not a solo, it’s an ensemble.” anks to him, I was able to react and adjust to the players in front of me. anks to him, I stopped trying to force my play. And thanks to him, I walked away with $10,000 ( rst prize after all the deals were made), a twenty-pound aluminum and granite trophy/sculpture and the heralded status of King of the Camp.
If you want to improve your game, hang out with celebrities and play a bit of poker, then attend Howard Lederer’s camp. If you want to surround yourself with a community of people who have an immense love and respect for the game of poker, then attend Howard’s camp. If you want a chance at taking my title, then attend Howard’s Camp.
And if I don’t blow my bankroll, I will see you there.
Jim Mercurio produced the feature lm Hard Scrambled, which stars Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) and Richard Edson (Do the Right Thing). He is planning to milk his King of the Camp status for years to come. If you want to stake him in any major tournaments, please contact him at jim@jamespmercurio.com.
Jim Mercurio (second from the left) at Howard Lederer’s Fantasy Poker Camp. Phil Gordon is emcee.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
June 2005 Page 17