Poker Interviews

Russ Floyd, Poker Dealer Turned Poker Champ!
By Jan Fisher

Tonight, while playing some poker during the WPC at the Reno Hilton, I was fortunate to get to spend some time with Russ Floyd. For those of you who haven't yet heard, he is the winner of the first event here at the inaugural World Poker Challenge.

We chatted in a very spontaneous manner, with no real direction for an interview. He is another of the good guys in poker and after only three years of playing, has really broken into the world of big events. There were more than 400 entrants in the limit hold'em tournament that he won.

Last year, at the WPO (World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi, at Jack Binion's Horseshoe) he came in ninth in the opening event. At only 29 years of age, he probably will be around for a while. From the time that I spent talking to him, and then playing in the same game with him a few hours later, I think that this will be good for the future of poker.

Russ hails from Texas and deals at the Blue Marlin, a social club. He has a one-year-old son named Austin Blake-- Austin after the city where he met his wife and Blake after his grandfather who taught him to gamble! He plays there about once a week, but generally speaking, he goes there to work. He also works for the Fox Sports Network in their production department. While they were busy putting together the recently broadcast show of the Isle Of Man Poker Million Tournament, he was busy explaining to his cohorts why this hand beat that and why this guy bet and mucked! They were all fascinated. Of course, he will have plenty of stories to tell when he gets home.

Having traveled to the WPO last year, he met a lot of folks in the poker industry and got friendly with some of the staff. Things just seemed to fall into place and he decided that it would be fun to take a trip out to the Reno event and work for a few weeks with the real poker pros. He got hired to deal on the graveyard shift and hadn't really planned to play any tournaments.

He played in a satellite and, as we have all heard so many times before, he couldn't win a hand. Well, he put his last chips in the pot in desperation with a 9-3offsuit where he was getting huge pot odds and need I tell you the rest? He won the satellite and parlayed that $40 into the tournament victory, which paid in the neighborhood of $40,000! And guess what he did after winning the tournament? He showed up to work on his shift! This guy has class.

Showing up for the final table, which reconvened at 4PM the day after the event started, he was in fifth chip position. I asked him when he knew that he was going to win it.

He told me that there was one key hand when they got down to four-handed where he pulled off a huge bluff against a WSOP multi-bracelet winner. Then, he showed this player his hand and "sent the guy on huge tilt" and catapulted him to the winner's circle. He has a permanent ten percent swap with Raymond Beck (the winner of the WPO event when he came in ninth) anytime they reach the final table. So far, these two friends keep handing the money back and forth! Raymond came in second in the no limit hold'em event that was just completed tonight. It would seem that Russ has some good mentoring already in place.

A few hours after we spoke, he joined the $20-$40 limit hold'em game in which I was playing. Hold'em is his favorite game, although he also enjoys Omaha high and stud. He is planning to begin learning the split games, as they seem to be the wave of the future. We chatted some more and had a good laugh when he was seated next to a chain smoker and I loaned him my fan. He told me how he really likes the events that do not allow smoking, such as the one at this WPC. He is hoping that next year, the entire cardroom will be no smoking. Russ said that he was better able to focus on his game, remain alert, and feel good throughout the tournament since there was no smoking at the tournament tables.

Way to go Reno Hilton, lets hope more properties follow suit and extend the non-smoking to the ring games as well. We could all feel a little better. It was a pleasure to play with such a nice gentleman and from the very little time that we shared, he gave me the impression of someone who has his head on straight and has his priorities right. I commend him for his deportment and know that if he can continue to say no to all the folks who come out of the woodwork to borrow money, he will do just fine!