Tom McEvoy, 61, is the 1983 World Series of Poker Main Event champion.  Back then, there were 108 entrants and a top prize of $540,000.  In contrast, this year’s WSOP Main Event had over 8,000 players and a top prize of $11 million.  What used to be only 11 tables has become a national sports phenomenon. 

With that has come TV.  The success of ESPN and WPT poker shows has every poker player in every garage in America dreaming of “making it” to a WSOP final table.   To accomplish that feat requires more than just a dream.  It requires building skills as for any profession or serious hobby.  You can't win by wishing. 

So how does one truly develop high-level poker play.  What are the key differences between average skills and final-table skills? 

Tom’s McEvoy's latest project, an instructional methodology called ProPlay, answers those questions.  This quite fascinating and easy-to-use technology helps players learn the game faster, smarter, and more effectively.  More on ProPlay shortly.  Here's some background on Tom.

Most people don’t know that Tom used to be an accountant in Michigan.  In 1979, he moved his family to Las Vegas and went full-time on the felt.  His big WSOP win came from qualifying through a satellite, the first champ to do so without a direct buy-in.  Much was made of Chris Moneymaker’s online satellite buy-in in 2003 and his being an accountant, but Tom was first in both in 1983.  Six days later after qualifying, he was the world champ.  Since then, Tom has written or co-written 13 books, become a spokesperson for PokerStars along with fellow WSOP winners Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem, and cashed 84 times amassing $1.8 million in tournaments including a PPT win of $225,000 in 2005.  His most popular books include:

·         Tournament Poker

·         How toWin at Poker Tournaments

·         Championship Holdem (with TJ Cloutier)

·         Championship Omaha (with TJ Cloutier)

·         Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Holdem (with TJ Cloutier)

·         Championship Stud (with Max Stern and Linda Johnson)

What distinguishes Tom beyond his abilities as a player is his desire and experience in teaching.  For years, Tom has coached hundreds of players, one at a time, out of his West Las Vegas home.   This past summer during the World Series, I visited during one of his off-days at the WSOP.  Knocking on the door of his modest adobe-style house, Tom flies down the stairs.  He’s in a game, online, and we rush back upstairs to resume play.  About 30 minutes into the one-table tournament, he has to go to the bathroom, so I ‘become’ Tom McEvoy.  Do I tighten up so as not to lose Tom’s chips?  Or do I bet like crazy, win a lot, and therefore impress Tom?  I chose the tight option and by the time he got back a bit later, I had raised his chipstack about 15%.  Whew!

I learned that Tom’s teaching follows certain fundamental principles. 

• “While you can’t win a tournament early, you certainly can lose it early.”  So play conservatively the first few rounds. 
• Forget about what you see on TV.  “TV distorts what happens in real game because you don’t see all the hands.  Most of the hands are folded and that doesn’t make for compelling entertainment.  So they only show the showdowns or the big matchups.”   Playing like a Josh Arieh all the time will get you crushed.  Remember, we’re not seeing hardly any of the hands Josh folded, especially in the early rounds.
• With a big chipstack, avoid marginally winnable confrontations (coin tosses), especially when a lot of chips are at stake.  Again, “While you can’t win a tournament early, you certainly can lose it early."

If you can't make it to Las Vegas, there’s a more convenient, faster, and less expensive option.  Tom developed ProPlay where you can “look over Tom’s shoulder” while he plays live in internet tournaments on PokerStars. This is an extraordinary way of learning.  You get to see what Tom is doing while Tom tells you what he is thinking, what action he takes and why, and how he reads the table and the other players at every turn of the cards.  “ With ProPlay I found the answer.  If I can help you win (or not lose) just one extra hand every time you play, ProPlay would more than pay for itself.”

Tom appears live on ProPlay almost every week and sponsors monthly tournaments for students on PokerStars.  What sets ProPlay apart, I found, is its library of past broadcasts.  You can run these 24/7 and get a tremendous amount of insight into the game.  They are useful because you hear Tom's reasoning real time as he makes moves.  That's something you won't get on ESPN!

Visit ProPlay at:  http://www.proplaylive.info/howproplayworks.asp.

Copyright © 2005-2008 by Charles Richards, All rights reserved.