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TexasHoldem版 - How did Chau Giang lose $20 million playing craps? (very long)
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话题: poker话题: my话题: me话题: had话题: games
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1 (共1页)
m*z
发帖数: 2356
1
Here is his story, in his own words
The Communists had attained their goal, defeating the Saigon regime. As I
prepared to get onto the boat headed for America in 1977, I glanced back at
my homeland, Vietnam, believing it to be for the last time. It had taken me
a long time to save up the seven ounces of gold for currency to pay for my
passage on the boat, but I was now getting ready for the journey, under
cover of darkness. (You were not allowed to leave Vietnam without
permission, and permission was never granted, at least not to the United
States.)
A friend in America had told me of the freedoms and privileges that were
afforded to people there. I wanted this for myself, even if it meant making
the trip alone, with almost no money. I believed if I worked hard, I could
live the American dream myself. But just about the time I thought I was
home free, I saw the North Vietnamese authorities arrive. There would be no
trip to the United States that day. And for the crime of trying to leave
my country illegally, I would spend my next five months in a Vietnamese
prison. The gold was gone, too, and I knew that when I got out of jail, I’
d have to start all over.
I was born in Vietnam in 1955. As a teenager I loved to gamble, and in
those days, gambling was quite common. One of the games I played was No-
Limit Five-Card Stud with a stripped deck. The game is similar to the Stud
game played in America, but with the cards 2-7 removed from the deck.
I also played a lot of Chinese Poker. In this game, each player is dealt
a 13-card hand from a standard 52-card deck. Thus, no more than four
players can play at a time. The player then divides his cards into three
poker hands, called “settings.” Two of the settings contain five cards
each, called “back” and “middle” settings, and one, the "front" setting
,contains three cards. The back setting must be the highest ranking hand,
and the front must contain the lowest-ranking hand. (In this game,
straights and flushes do not count in the three-card hand.) The cards are
then arranged in order of setting in front of the player. After all the
players have set their hands, each player announces in turn whether or not
he is playing his hand.
A player collects one “unit” from each opponent whose front, middle, or
back hand is beaten by his own corresponding hand. Unlike most poker games,
the second-best hand is sometimes good enough to win money.
Poker was played everywhere on the streets of Vietnam, and I played a lot
of poker growing up, though the games were quite different from those played
in the States. I also gambled a great deal on sports like soccer. When I
was unsuccessful in that first attempt to reach the United States, I had no
idea what I’d do when I arrived, but I wasn’t thinking it would be poker.
Determination
The jail time did nothing to dampen my spirit. I was still determined to
make it to the west. When I was released from jail I went right back to
work, saving everything to earn enough for the trip. Eventually, I earned
another seven ounces of gold, and this time I got out of Vietnam, though my
journey to the United States was far from easy and far from over.
The boat did not travel directly to America. Our first stop was to be
Thailand, several days away, but our boat met with misfortune before our
arrival. We were boarded and robbed five times by people whom Americans
would call “pirates,” although these raiders had guns instead of eye
patches and swords. Not enough that we were robbed of all our money, our
boat was robbed of all its food and water. I don’t remember how long that
voyage took, but it seemed as if we were sailing many days with no food or
water—a miserable experience.
When we reached Thailand, my fortunes would not greatly improve. I had no
money and no assets of any kind. I also had no family or friends in
Thailand and, more important, no sponsor in the United States. Accordingly,
I was placed me in a refugee camp, where I stayed for four months while the
authorities sought a sponsor for me.
Eventually, I did find someone willing to sponsor me in America, but I had
yet another obligation to fulfill; I was transferred from a refugee camp in
Thailand to another refugee camp, this time in the Philippines, for the
purpose of learning the English language and something about American
culture. I would be there for another four months, and after all that study
, English was still very much a foreign language.
Finally, I was off to the United States. My sponsor lived in Colorado
Springs. When I stepped off the plane, I had a total of ten dollars in my
pocket. I met my sponsor but still did not understand a word he said. All
I knew was “OK.”
No matter what he said to me, I responded, “OK, OK.” It was 5 degrees
below zero in Denver, and there was snow everywhere. Just imagine how a
poor refugee from hot, muggy Vietnam would react to a Denver winter.
'Do you play poker?'
I had no job, no money or skills, and couldn’t speak the language. I
lived with my sponsor for two months and applied for welfare. My first job,
in 1980, was at a Kentucky Fried Chicken establishment. I worked there for
six months, at $3.35 per hour, but communicating was a struggle.
Fortunately, I found a Chinese restaurant nearby. I spoke both Vietnamese
and Chinese, and a job there seemed natural.
One of the waitresses at the Chinese restaurant was also a dealer at a
poker club. She asked me one day, “Do you play poker?”
I said, “Of course I do,” and before I knew it I was losing all my money
playing 7-Card Stud, Hold’em, Omaha, and other games I couldn’t spell or
pronounce.
Later, I met a man in the restaurant who offered me a job in Florida. The
job paid more and the weather was more to my liking, so I moved. Even
though I made more money there, my experience playing poker was no better.
I made more money, but I lost it all. After about a year, I decided to move
back to Colorado, and I began working at a different Chinese restaurant.
This time, my fortunes began to change. After about six months I started
to win, and began winning regularly enough that I decided to take the plunge
; I quit my job and began playing poker full time. It was about 1983 that I
decided to become a professional poker player, and I’ve never looked back.
Two years later, my confidence and bankroll were strong enough for me to
feel comfortable moving to Las Vegas. I played at the Golden Nugget, $20-$
40 Limit Hold’em. In my first year I made about $100,000. I then started
to play for higher limits, first $50-$100, then $100-$200, and then still
higher.
The american dream
I didn’t play a poker tournament until 1990, when I entered the World
Series of Poker. Prior to this I had concentrated my efforts on cash game
poker. I didn’t win for three years, but in 1993 I won my first bracelet,
in the $1,500 No-Limit Ace-to-Five Draw Tournament. I also won a Limit Hold
’em Tournament at the Four Queens Casino. The second win came just two
months after the first.
As you can imagine, I was riding high. I said to myself, “Alright,
tournaments are fun! I can make more money!” I began a tournament tour—
Las Vegas, California. Before I knew it, I had made over a million dollars.
I couldn’t believe it. I was now a millionaire. I was living the
American dream.
I decided that it was time for me to test the limits of my game, and I
began playing in the biggest games I could find, with the best players in
the world. With a million-dollar bankroll, I believed I could take on the
likes of Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, Bobby Baldwin, and Lyle Berman. These
were games that started with $4,000-$8,000 limits. Later, we’d kick it up
to $8,000-$16,000 limits.
I turned that $1 million into $20 million in what seemed like a snap of
the fingers. It had actually taken about two years, but it went by so fast
it didn’t seem that long. It was an incredible run. Brunson’s son, Todd,
even bought into 25% of my action at one time, and he earned a tidy $2.5
million from my efforts.
Victim of vegas
The stakes I was now playing for kept me away from tournaments for a while
. I felt I could make more money in these high-stakes games. The money
came so quickly. Even today, I don’t play a lot of tournaments. Chan
GiangOf course, I will still play the Main Event and some of the bigger
tournaments in Nevada and California, but I want to stay near my family, who
live with me here in Las Vegas.
To an outsider looking in, you’d think things were going really well for
me. I was a refugee from Vietnam living the American dream, making huge
amounts of money—over $20 million. What could be better than that?
Unfortunately, winning $20 million in Las Vegas and keeping $20 million in
Las Vegas are two different things. I was good at the large cash card
games, no doubt. But those games didn’t happen every day, or even every
week. Lower-stakes games now bored me. They didn’t hold my attention, or
generate the thrill of the high-stakes game. So I sought new avenues for
excitement, and unfortunately those avenues were in the casino games, where
the house is heavily favored to win.
I began to play craps and baccarat. The experience was a disaster. I
lost everything. Everything! I lost all $20 million. What could I do at
that point? I had to go back to playing small limits again, but this time I
stuck exclusively with poker. No more casino games. I started winning
again, slowly at first, with small limits. Before I knew it, I was back up
to $200-400 limit games, and then higher limits once I rebuilt my bankroll.
It took a while, but I did it.
the good an the bad
I learned some extremely valuable lessons. Winning that kind of money can
put you on top of the world, and make you believe you are invincible, but
losing it all is a strong possibility, and the humbling experience can have
a greater impact than the thrill of winning. I had also lost about $3
million in the stock market over the past few years, so I decided that was
not for me either.
The other lesson I learned was that I am a poker player, and I need to
stick to what I know how to do—poker. I need to resist the games I cannot
beat—the casino games. Still, after almost 30 years of playing poker, I
get a thrill every time I play. It’s in my blood. There are days when I
still play around the clock, and I love playing poker more than any other
activity. I love it here in Las Vegas, too. I brought my family here with
me, and I get to spend time with them and put the kids to bed almost every
night.
Poker has also opened some fun opportunities for me. One of the more
interesting ones was playing a small part in the movie “Lucky You,” with
Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, and Robert Duvall. The way that came about was
interesting: during one of our large cash games, movie director Curtis
Hanson was sitting with Doyle Brunson, watching him play. As the game went
on, Curtis began telling tell us about this poker movie he was making, and
he hoped to have some real poker stars be part of it.
I asked him right away, “Hey, I’d like to be in the movie. It would be
fun.”
He said, “Don’t worry, Chau, you are already on my list.”
The movie is about the world of high-stakes poker. Eric Bana plays Huck
Cheever, a player who goes all out, all the time. Huck sets out to win the
main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker, and finds that his biggest
opponent, personally and professionally, is his father, L. C. Cheever,
played by Robert Duvall. Huck’s dad, it seems, was a poker legend who had
abandoned Huck's mother years earlier. Huck learns that to win in the games
of life and poker, he must try to play cards the way he has been living his
life, and to live his life the way he has been playing cards.
I played the role of one of the poker players, and had a good scene with a
speaking part. I still have the check I earned from that movie.
going online
Online poker began to interest me, too, and playing electronically keeps
me challenged. I play on Full-Tilt under the handle “La Key U.” (The
name is a spelling-variation tribute to the movie “Lucky You.”) In 2008,
I made more than $5 million online alone. Chan Giang
One of the things I love about online poker is the variety of games
available there. I’m pretty good at just about all the games, and I love
mixing it up. In the big cash games at the Bellagio, you’re playing high-
stakes No-Limit Hold’Em, and that’s it. Online, you can play 7-Card Stud,
Omaha Hi-Lo, Pot-Limit, No-Limit, Tournament, Sit & Go, and more; playing
the different games helps to keep the mind sharp.
Skill vs luck
I have a foundational belief about poker: that it’s a skill game having
elements of luck and not a luck game having elements of skill. I believe
this very strongly, and I believe it’s one of the reasons I play well. Yes
, someone with pocket deuces can beat another person holding pocket aces,
but not very often. Reading your opponent is very important, and it’s a
big part of how I play my game. I play hands I know I can win, and I’m not
afraid to throw down a big hand when I know it’s a loser. I think that’s
really important. A lot of players out there want to hang onto their
pocket aces when, after the flop, they know the odds are that their opponent
has a flush or a straight. I get to know my opponents well. I will sense
that one of them has A-A or A-K, because I know how he bets those hands, and
knowing it makes it easy for me to give up A-Q or Q-Q in those situations.
This is not to say that there is not some luck involved. Once during the
World Series of Poker my opponent called “all-in” and I called, putting
all my chips at risk. I had K-K and he had A-A. I was already in big
trouble, but it got worse when the flop came… 7-2-A. My opponent had three
aces, and I was all but drawing dead. I got up from the table, shook my
opponent’s hand, said my goodbyes, and left. I had walked all the way to
the parking lot before a guy caught up to me and informed me that I had just
hit K-K on the turn and the river to win the pot.
So, certainly, luck is a factor, but over the course of time a skilled
player will always win over a lucky player.
My son is almost 13 years old and he wants to play poker, but he’s too
young to make that decision. I told him there’s plenty of time for that in
the future. Right now I want him to go to school and enjoy his youth. If
he still wants to become a professional poker player after college, I’ll be
happy to teach him. He’s a smart boy and a good student, and I want him
to have opportunities to choose whatever path he wishes.
Lucky man
I have now developed somewhat of a name for myself because I’m a winning
poker player. My sister, who still lives in Vietnam, tells me that I’m
famous back home. People here recognize me from ESPN and WPT. The fame
means little to me, however. I don’t seek fame. I seek games I can win.
Whether I win $20 million or lose $20 million, I’m still the same person
inside, and celebrity status does not change things.
I see a lot of players who gain their reputation more from talking and
creating good theater for TV, rather than from how well they play. This is
not my style, though it does not bother me when I’m at the table.
I think of myself as a lucky man. My wife and I have a wonderful family.
Fifteen years ago, while I was here in the States, a good friend of mine
told me of a lovely woman back in Vietnam. She made the introduction, and I
flew to Vietnam to meet her. We hit it off very well, and I flew back to
meet her again. Fortunately for me, she agreed to marry me and move to the
States. We have been together ever since. We have a thirteen-year-old son
and two daughters, eleven and eight. I have a sister in Vietnam still,
married with two children. I try to stay in touch, and I offer my support
whenever I can.
My biggest moment came in 2004, when I won my third bracelet in the $2,000
Pot-Limit Omaha Tournament. There was $187,920 in first-place money, and
the event was televised. The money, however, was not my motivation for
winning that particular tournament, nor was the prestige or the bracelet.
Although I had shied away from celebrity status, my children had wanted to
see me play on television. That was my motivation. I remember my son
saying, “Dad, you’re a big poker player like all these other guys. How
come you aren’t on television?”
So I played my heart out in that tournament, not for the money or for the
bracelet or the fame, but so my children could see me winning on television.
The feeling I had, knowing that my family was watching, made it seem more
as if I had won $10 million.
Over the next few years I hope that poker fans in America will get to know
me better. I’m still learning English, and conversations are becoming
more and more comfortable. I tend to worry that people won’t understand me
. When the television cameras are on, I tend to be less talkative than many
others, because I still do not feel comfortable speaking English in front
of cameras. But when some people do recognize me and ask me for autographs
, it makes me very proud.
I’m 53 years old now, but I never see myself retiring from poker. I love
it too much. If I’m still healthy when I’m 80, I think I’ll still be
playing poker. I don’t care if I’m broke or worth more than $100 million,
I’ll still be playing.
g********r
发帖数: 1458
2
I read the whole thing, it's very touching that Chau shared the stories of
his life.
One thing I learned: stick to what you are really good at.
I quitted playing poker online because I know I am not good at it, it's sad
but true. I still play in friends' place once a while. Poker is one of my
hobby but I have more other hobbies that can bring me a lot fun too.
1 (共1页)
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