Shortly after his book was published, you could see Oklahoma Johnny Hale every day in the poker rooms of Las Vegas. He always came to the table with a bag which contained copies of his poker book. After he sat down he would reach into the bag, remove two or three copies, and place them on the table in front of him. Of course he wasn't interested much in playing poker, he wanted to peddle the book. One time I came into the Bellagio poker room and put my name on the list. I strolled through the low limit section and noticed an open seat in the $8 - $16 hold'em game. Because there was no list for that game I took the seat. Oklahoma Johnny was sitting in the seven seat trying to sell his book. I tossed him three red chips. On the back cover of the book is printed the retail price: $14.95. Did he give me a discount? No, he kept the 15 bucks but he wrote a dedication in the book: "08/03/2000  To: 'Tristin' [many people have trouble with my name]  Best of luck 'always'  Stay lucky  OK Johnny Hale" 5 cents well spent but what about the $14.95 for the book? To put it mildly that was a donation for Oklahoma Johnny.

The first part of the book shows how a poor boy from Oklahoma works his way up to become a successful businessman. It's the classic American success story: from rags to riches. The problem with the book is that Oklahoma Johnny loses any sense of reality. One of the first chapters starts with the sentence: "My father was the greatest poker player that ever lived." And of course his father was "the wisest man I've ever known." In reality his father was a poor farmer without any high school education who couldn't support his family. Yes, it's great that a son loves his father but the problem is if Johnny writes about his family and especially about himself he only uses superlatives and gross exaggerations. More examples? Johnny was born as the seventh son and he hurries to add: "In the Bible, seven is the perfect number and I am a perfect seven". He lets the reader know that nothing is unachievable for Johnny Hale. If he only wanted he could be a movie star, a movie producer, a casino tycoon, governor of Oklahoma or even president of the United States. Obviously Einstein and Bill Gates are no great geniuses compared to Johnny Hale. You become bored very quickly reading this kind of self adulation. Johnny writes: "It has been my good fortune in life to have a lot of people who have loved me. I think one reason for that is because I like myself." To the reader it looks like Johnny likes himself a little too much.

After the tiring first part of the book the second part deals with poker. The attentive reader hopes the book will take a turn for the better, alas, in vein. How good is Oklahoma Johnny as a poker player? Frankly speaking I don't know. I only played three short sessions with him. Several professional poker player I know and whose judgment I respect told me that Johnny couldn't beat a mid limit game. So it's probably good that Johnny doesn't give any specific advice on how to play. His comments are rather general. But even this general advice is often flawed. Look at this statement: "Always try to gamble with folks who don't need the money and you'll have better luck." I don't have a problem with the recommendation to play against people who don't care about the money but why you should have be to luckier playing against lawyers and dentists will always remain Johnny's secret. How should you play the blinds? Johnny tells you this: "In the small and big blinds you almost are 'obligated' to call to either complete the bet or meet a single raise." To play too many hands from the small and big blinds is a sure way to go broke. One last example: It is common wisdom that when you first sit down at a new table where you don't know most of the players that you should play a little more conservative for a while and evaluate the table. Johnny takes this advice to the extremes: "When you first sit down in a game, I recommend that you sit there for a while and observe before you play a single hand. Just look at your first fifty hands or so and then throw them in the muck. Don't play for a while. See what's happening first, how the flow of the game is going. If you get dealt two aces, throw them away!" This is nonsense. Not to play fifty hands costs you 7.5 bets. In a $10 - $20 game that's 75 bucks. If you are a very good player who wins one big bet per hour you have to play nearly four hours just to win that back. It's much cheaper to stand at the rail or behind the table to observe the players.

The highest limit I ever saw Johnny play was in a $10 - $20 game at the Mirage in Las Vegas. He tells the reader that he no longer plays high limit poker because of all the cheating that is going on today. That's perfectly legitimate and of course Johnny can play any limit he wants and feels comfortable with. The longest chapter in the second part of the book is about cheating and mostly about tournaments cheating. There are a lot of things wrong with poker tournaments today and you won't read much about it in the poker magazines. "It is unfortunate that the trade magazines such as Card Player, Casino Player, Poker Digest and the others cannot speak to the subject of cheating. Their revenues come from the casinos so they can never say anything negative about one." He talks about player collusion, chip trading and casinos that shorten the prize pool to make an extra profit. But not every example he gives about cheating is convincing. How would you rate this incident? "The way in which communications goes on between the cheaters has been highly refined in some cases, and in tournament poker play it can be devastating if you find yourself at a table with team players. I found myself in that situation one time in a big seven-card stud tournament that had been going on for two days. I was one of the last four players at the final table and I owned the most chips. Then we took our dinner break and I could not make a deal - I couldn't make any financial settlement whatsoever with my three opponents - and they knew that I could play. We'd been playing together for two days and they were supposed to fear me a little bit, dammit, but they showed no fear, no concern. I knew I was in trouble. I finished fourth." Was that cheating? Maybe but I think it is much more likely that the other players reasoning was "Well, the weakest player has the most money, so let's play on" or the players noticed that Johnny was a bad short-handed player or something like that. And then there are always some players who don't like to make a deal. There are a couple of reasons that have nothing to do with cheating.

What does it take to win a poker tournament? According to Oklahoma Johnny there are only three important points. "The first thing you must have money to get into the tournament. The second requirement is that you must have enough courage to go broke on every hand. The third requisite is that you must have enough luck so that your best hands will stand up, and so that with an inferior hand, you can outdraw your opponents." Hey that's easy, no need to know how to play, to read your opponents, to adopt to their play, no need to calculate pot odds or to change gears, just outdraw on your opponents. Johnny won the Seniors Championship Event in 1998. He gives us two key hands: he won with K♦J♦ against Thomas Chung who held A♦T♦ (the flop was A-T-6) and he tied with A-4 against A-K hold by "Super Mario" Esquerra. Both times he was a big underdog. Maybe there is a grain of truth in his statement: "I'm the luckiest person that I know".

Oklahoma Johnny Hale is a true gentleman and the founder of the Seniors World Championship of Poker. He put a lot of effort into this product to make it as successful as possible. We will always remember Johnny for this achievement. I only wish he had never written this book.

(Tristan Steiger)

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