Betting Poker Strategy

Confessions of a Champion by Joe Hachem

About three months after the win, it actually began to sink in. I thought, "Oh, my God. I did win. It's got to be true, it's on TV. They're not lying to me." You know you won, but you don't know you won.

- After the World Series there were quite a few people who came up to me with weird offers. There was one guy who I had met for five minutes. He came up to me and said "I love you like a brother and I want to be your manager." Crazy stuff like that.

- I subconsciously start shutting off two or three days before "the tournament starts". My wife says to me, "What's wrong? Why are you upset?" I don't even know I'm doing it. It takes a while to get in the zone.

- I don't like giving up too much, because I'm planning on winning it "2006" World Series main event. In the respect of how I'm going to handle all this attention, I could literally just throw in the towel on day one and just go "I've got no chance; I'm not going to be around to play with all these people." But I'm too competitive to do that.

- Generally these days, even with the iPod, I can't get away. Even if I've got the iPod on, I get interrupted. I'm not the sort of person that can tell people to go away. Phil Hellmuth does it all the time. He says, "Do I need to listen to this?" He said that at a table when I was there. I think that's his competitive nature that comes out. I don't see it as a really bad thing. He can't help it.

- What's on my iPod during the tournament? 50 Cent. I even went to watch his movie. I just think he's a very talented guy. His songs are great. At the other end of the spectrum is Michael Buble. I also listen to a lot of Arabic and Lebanese music as well. It just calms me down. Straight after a bad beat, I'll put on something like Michael Buble. If I'm running good, 50 Cent comes on and I start jamming.

- Before I won the World Series, I tried to keep my kids in the dark about my playing poker. Then after I won, the youngest kept on badgering me about it. I'm a strong believer in practice what you preach. I'm not going to tell them not to play poker. I would be a hypocrite. If they see you doing one thing and saying the opposite, it won't work.

- I don't gamble. I don't play the horses. I just think it's sick. Why on earth would I play a game where I'm giving up an edge to someone else? I wouldn't bet Carl Lewis $100 that I could beat him at a 100 meter sprint, even at his age now. So why bet the racing corporation that I can beat them when they know who to bet on and take a part off the top? I'm not going to do that. It doesn't make sense to me how guys who are intelligent will go gamble money away that they have no likelihood of ever seeing again.