slickpoppa
11-21-2004, 03:17 PM
This is from a profile on cardplayer.com:
[ QUOTE ]
Jim Lester didn’t earn the nickname “Cincinnati Kid” just because he’s from the river city. He earned it—and early in life—because he was playing successful high-stakes poker by the age of 13. Moreover, his poker playing career resembles that of Steve McQueen’s “Eric Stoner” in the 1965 poker blockbuster The Cincinnati Kid.
At 12 years old he started his first summer job. A neighbor had hired Jim to work on a construction site for 40 hours a week. On his first payday he pocketed $120, but didn’t make it out the door before being sucked into a few hands of poker with the other workers— seasoned after-hours poker players. “I lost all my money in an hour,” he remembers.
When he returned home that Friday night his dad asked him what he was going to do with all his hard-earned cash. “I lost it playing poker,” Jim ‘fessed up. His punishment? A 48-hour marathon poker lesson. “My dad sat me down and said, ‘I’m going to teach you how to play, and I’m not going to let you get up until you fully understand the game’”—the mathematical and psychological aspects and everything else that comes with it. “It wasn’t until Sunday at 7 p.m. that we got up from the table.”
The following Friday Jim took his $120 paycheck again to the poker table.This time he broke every man there: “I made $1,100 that night, and I couldn’t wait to tell my dad.”
Jim returned each week to the same game and kept winning. “I never lost a night,” he says. “I won every single week.” A year later the owner of the con*struction company took the 13-year-old across the Ohio River to Newport, Kentucky, where he staked Jim at a $1000-2000 game. “It was back room type of action,” he recalls. “The guys brought guns to the games, but they all liked me.” He quickly earned their respect and the name “The Kid.”
Jim continued to play— and win—those Newport poker games until he was 22 years-old. By the time he was 18 he was making upwards of $600,000 a weekend playing poker. “I was playing with the same men for about 120 hours a week, and I could almost name you exactly what every man was holding, judging by their mannerisms.They thought it was the freakiest thing. At first, they thought I had to be cheating. I was flawless at the game for a long, long time. Every once in a while I had to lose on purpose in order to make sure the guys would keep coming back. I wanted this to be like a well.”
Some of the most memorable poker games of his teen years were played with two men Jim describes as the biggest drug dealers east of the Mississippi. “They would come in with suitcases full of money and armed bodyguards,” he remembers. “But they were the worst poker players in the world.They couldn’t understand how a young kid could dominate a game.”
The first time Jim beat these two out of $600,000 in a weekend, they told him they thought they’d never see him again. But Jim had a gutsy response: “I said, ‘you guys are so bad that I’ll bring back this $600,000 next weekend, and each of you has to match it.’ I told them I’d put my money on the table, and told them that if I didn’t double it by the time I passed out or fell asleep then they could have it all back.” The others agreed, and Jim did double the $600,000 the next weekend.
Jim made the mistake, however, of taking his huge bankroll to Las Vegas. “Sixty days later,” he lamented. “I was broke. I wasn’t even allowed to be in the casinos because I was underage. But I guess they didn’t care when they saw I had fistfuls of cash.” Jim flew out there on several weekends and stayed in a presidential suite. “It was the life,” he said, “while it lasted.”
He kept playing the Newport games for several more years and eventually bought enough construction equipment to open his own contracting business at the age of 22.That’s when he gave up playing full-time poker to raise his family with his wife Cathy.
Now Jim Lester’s two sons are grown, and he’s back at it. In 2002 he returned to playing poker and has been going gangbusters ever since.The “Cincinnati Kid” may not be as much of a kid anymore, but he’s still a force to be reckoned with—and he still lives in Cincinnati.
[/ QUOTE ]
I found this very hard to believe, especially the making upwards of 600,000 a weekend part.
[ QUOTE ]
Jim Lester didn’t earn the nickname “Cincinnati Kid” just because he’s from the river city. He earned it—and early in life—because he was playing successful high-stakes poker by the age of 13. Moreover, his poker playing career resembles that of Steve McQueen’s “Eric Stoner” in the 1965 poker blockbuster The Cincinnati Kid.
At 12 years old he started his first summer job. A neighbor had hired Jim to work on a construction site for 40 hours a week. On his first payday he pocketed $120, but didn’t make it out the door before being sucked into a few hands of poker with the other workers— seasoned after-hours poker players. “I lost all my money in an hour,” he remembers.
When he returned home that Friday night his dad asked him what he was going to do with all his hard-earned cash. “I lost it playing poker,” Jim ‘fessed up. His punishment? A 48-hour marathon poker lesson. “My dad sat me down and said, ‘I’m going to teach you how to play, and I’m not going to let you get up until you fully understand the game’”—the mathematical and psychological aspects and everything else that comes with it. “It wasn’t until Sunday at 7 p.m. that we got up from the table.”
The following Friday Jim took his $120 paycheck again to the poker table.This time he broke every man there: “I made $1,100 that night, and I couldn’t wait to tell my dad.”
Jim returned each week to the same game and kept winning. “I never lost a night,” he says. “I won every single week.” A year later the owner of the con*struction company took the 13-year-old across the Ohio River to Newport, Kentucky, where he staked Jim at a $1000-2000 game. “It was back room type of action,” he recalls. “The guys brought guns to the games, but they all liked me.” He quickly earned their respect and the name “The Kid.”
Jim continued to play— and win—those Newport poker games until he was 22 years-old. By the time he was 18 he was making upwards of $600,000 a weekend playing poker. “I was playing with the same men for about 120 hours a week, and I could almost name you exactly what every man was holding, judging by their mannerisms.They thought it was the freakiest thing. At first, they thought I had to be cheating. I was flawless at the game for a long, long time. Every once in a while I had to lose on purpose in order to make sure the guys would keep coming back. I wanted this to be like a well.”
Some of the most memorable poker games of his teen years were played with two men Jim describes as the biggest drug dealers east of the Mississippi. “They would come in with suitcases full of money and armed bodyguards,” he remembers. “But they were the worst poker players in the world.They couldn’t understand how a young kid could dominate a game.”
The first time Jim beat these two out of $600,000 in a weekend, they told him they thought they’d never see him again. But Jim had a gutsy response: “I said, ‘you guys are so bad that I’ll bring back this $600,000 next weekend, and each of you has to match it.’ I told them I’d put my money on the table, and told them that if I didn’t double it by the time I passed out or fell asleep then they could have it all back.” The others agreed, and Jim did double the $600,000 the next weekend.
Jim made the mistake, however, of taking his huge bankroll to Las Vegas. “Sixty days later,” he lamented. “I was broke. I wasn’t even allowed to be in the casinos because I was underage. But I guess they didn’t care when they saw I had fistfuls of cash.” Jim flew out there on several weekends and stayed in a presidential suite. “It was the life,” he said, “while it lasted.”
He kept playing the Newport games for several more years and eventually bought enough construction equipment to open his own contracting business at the age of 22.That’s when he gave up playing full-time poker to raise his family with his wife Cathy.
Now Jim Lester’s two sons are grown, and he’s back at it. In 2002 he returned to playing poker and has been going gangbusters ever since.The “Cincinnati Kid” may not be as much of a kid anymore, but he’s still a force to be reckoned with—and he still lives in Cincinnati.
[/ QUOTE ]
I found this very hard to believe, especially the making upwards of 600,000 a weekend part.