Start'em Young

I remember the night I stayed up late hoping to catch my parents coming home from the airport. They were coming home from Las Vegas, a city my mother told me was "Not for children." She should've known better. "Not for children" sounds suspiciously close to "Really cool stuff" to my ears. My older brother and younger sister were already in bed but I was unable to sleep from the excitement. As I sat on the couch in the family room, reading comic books and sneaking a cookie, my grandma walked into the room and scolded me, citing I needed sleep. I argued that I wanted to see mom and dad as they had gone for the week. In reality, I had talked to my father the night before and he said he had some presents for us. Almost by fate, my parents walked through the front door and I rushed to them, hugging my dad. He was just as happy to see me and he pulled me aside to give me my gift. He handed me a set of dice from the Aladdin Hotel, a deck of cards from the MGM Grand and a blackjack felt. And at the tender age of seven, my father taught me how to play craps, blackjack and roulette. To me they were just games we would play, something to we shared interest in. It was not until my dad purchased a game for our Nintendo that I understood what these games were about and how you kept score.

At the age of nine my father helped me buy a video gamefor my GameBoy™ at Johnny's Toys in Milford, Ohio. It was called Vegas Stakes and I still have that gray, square cartridge to this day. The game gave you a bankroll of $5000 and the choice of Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, Slots and Seven Card Stud. I was thrilled that my two favorite games (Roulette and Blackjack) were on there, but was intrigued by this new game I had never seen before. My parents were lovers of card games, especially Euchre and Bridge. I had been introduced to 5-Card draw by them and some of my friends. I confess I was no good at draw, not really understanding what I was doing and having no one who knew better to show me. But this 7-card stud game, it fascinated me. I played it alot and I drained many batteries trying to win at it. The computer proved to be harder than I expected but one of my many talents (humble, I know) is adaptability, something that proved very useful later in my life several times. It took god knows how long, but I built that damn bankroll from $5000 to $500,000. And then like many young boys, I lost interest in it and switched over to play Mega-Man 2. Dr. Wily was proving to be a more... entertaining challenge. How was I to know that that year, 1994, Russ Hamilton won the World Series of Poker Main Event doing what I had just done on a video game. He made a cool million and his weight in silver. I would've been happy with twenty bucks and some arcade tokens.

Looking back on these experiences, I can't help but say my father is the reason I gamble. It was something he enjoyed and he had passed his love for it on to me. My brother and sister were both exposed to these games, but only I have carried on this torch. It was not til I was in my late teens that that torch touched kindling to ignite my fire. But that's a story for another day.

I hope I have caught your attention with this post. I intend to write more. But like any journalist would say: A story is nothing if they don't know who wrote it.

My name is Donald "Otter" Moore and I am a native Cincinnatian. (Go Bengals.) My screenname online is Deyna_Otter, a name adapted from a book that I loved and my favorite animal. I would say people call me Otter, but in reality they don't. I will be the first poker player to admit that I gave myself that nickname. It's stupid, I know but I thought it would sound cool. Some of my friends call me Otter, and that's as far as I got. Who knows? Maybe it'll catch on. Until that day though, I am Donald or just Don. It is a pleasure to meet you.