A medium pot was developed in my home poker game, so I looked over the table at my game. Of course, most players in my home game think it’s above average, but I don’t have any resumes Bernard Lee has.
Lee stayed with us overnight in late August to give us some insight into his life as well as some thoughts on our game. Lee introduced us to a new game called Mini-May, and we made three or four attempts to catch up with a guy who thousands of people are likely to play.
Mini-May is a five-card stud game with a community card and a replacement. The game starts with everyone receiving one down card, one up card, and a community card. Each player then receives three more up cards, one each. Players can make small bets to replace up cards, and big bets to replace down cards. The game is played in low light with 10 qualifiers. 파친코
At the mid-low point, the ace cracked, and I knew that a pair of aces was better than anything Bernard could have. Showing a high hand, he first switched, dropping the face card and picking up the case ace, the ace of the club, and showing four clubs, including a pair of aces on the board and a community card.
I only had two decisions left: I could replace one of my cards, and I had to declare whether I would succeed or fail. In both cases, I made the wrong decision.
I decided not to replace my card – I got a low score instead of a high score, risking breaking the ace or not leading to a low score. Lee also got a low score; Lee also got a low score; Lee did not get a low score, and correctly guessed that I had an ace in this hole and that I could beat his high score. But because I didn’t declare a high score, I lost half of my points.
Since then, I have played about 30 more games, and now it’s painfully obvious how bad I was. But sometimes in poker, you have to pay for your education.
Lee’s poker education began in Harvard in the late ’80s and early ’90s after a high school friend let Lee play games with people who lived five doors down the hall.
“We played with dollars, but in retrospect now, it could be a small amount of money,” Lee said. “However, at the time, you didn’t want to lose a few hundred dollars because you were in college and had no income. It’s a lot of money for you.”
But he didn’t lose often, and after he graduated and the game was over, another player who was better at the game asked Lee if he wanted to travel to the casino together to play poker.
“I said, ‘Are we going to Atlantic City? Are you kidding me?’ And he said, ‘No, no, no. It’s in Connecticut, it’s an Indian casino.’ You may have heard of it, but it’s called Foxwoods.”
Lee and his friend started going on regular trips to Foxwoods, hoping to earn $20 per rental car to get there at the gas bill and Rent-A-Wreck, when his graduate school schedule allowed them. They did, and then did some.
“I’m not talking about thousands of dollars, but I’m making $200 every time I’m in graduate school, and it’s pretty easy when I’m having fun.”
He was bitten by a tournament bug after watching Chris Moneymaker win the 2003 Poker Main Event World Series, and spent a year trying to qualify for the Poker Stars. He was unsuccessful, but he participated in the next two major tournaments at Foxwoods by satellite, finishing on a bubble in the $5,000 New England Poker Classic in the spring of 2005. However, that disappointment soon followed and ended in 13th place, worth $400,000 in the 2005 Poker Main Event World Series.
Lee earned nearly $2 million on the poker tournament circuit, is an analyst at ESPN Inside Deal, hosts a weekly poker radio show on Boston’s 1120 AM radio, and writes a weekly poker column for the Boston Herald. Lee served as television commentator for the poker tournament, and was the official spokesperson for the Foxwoods poker room for two years.
He is also one of the few poker players with mainstream sponsors. Lee received an MBA from Batson College, and a marketing executive at Cabot Cheese, which went to Batson, read about Lee in a university alumni magazine. One of the company’s vice presidents liked poker, and she invited Cabot to the meeting, knowing that he was looking for a way to promote himself to men.
“We hit it off,” Lee said. “They have understood the mission of my Full House charity that we have been doing for two years and hope to extend it further.”
Lee’s Full House Charity donates $500 per full house on tour to a children’s charity in New England. Last year, the program raised money for Playing it Forward, a non-profit organization that provides sports equipment to disadvantaged children, helped organize competitions for the New England Autism chapter, many of whom were still without electricity in the weeks following the ice storm and tornado that hit the area, and offered Christmas gifts and vouchers to grocery stores in Big Y and Chili.
Lee also took the opportunity to give his children some perspective. His son and daughter, who were 8 and 6 years old at the time, picked out gifts for the children at the event and actually gave them away.
“I’m very lucky (to be able to play poker and work for poker media) and lead a pretty decent life,” Lee said. “We’re very lucky in what we can provide for our kids. But I think my kids also need to understand that this is not something that’s taken for granted in your life. Why couldn’t their situation turn upside down and they put themselves in the other kids’ shoes? My kids were really grateful for that and I think they were very good at preparing gifts for these kids.”
A true family man, Lee is the parent of a family who lets his kids sleep, even if it means going a little late to his usual home game (a 13-year-old $10/20 cap mix in Wayland, Massachusetts).
“When I come home, I try to be with my family,” Lee said. “My promise is to put them to sleep, and the game is so close to home that I arrive around 8:30 to 9 p.m. These home games are a tradition. These are my friends.”