The year is 2007 and on one of my first days in Vegas I decided to visit my regular Vegas game: the wacky 1-1-2 Game in Luxor.

After about half an hour some guy joins the table and according to his accent my best guess is: He MUST be from Texas, after some greetings to the table he introduces himself: I\’m Brad from Austin, Texas. How ya doing fellas?

No kidding, Brad from Austin.

This was just your average game with a lot of locals and regulars (everybody seems to know all the players at the table: Hi there Kenny, long time no see. How\’s the leg, Doug? How\’s the wife doing John? She outta hospital yet?\”).

Brad just told one of the regulars that he is a psychology student and all of a sudden some other regular mumbles: MMM, that\’s pretty interesting son, I am a phd. in psychology myself. I actually wrote a couple of books on psychology and poker.

My brains suddenly start working: I know this guy, I recognize his face from the cover of a book I just read. I think this could Alan D. Schoonmaker. Author of: Psychology of Poker. I verify with him and I am right: He confirms he indeed is: Alan D. Schoonmaker.

The funny thing is I ordered this book just 2 weeks ago from the Stars VIP shop, it arrived 3 days before I left for Vegas, the book was even signed by the good man. I took it with me to read on the boring plane trip (17 hours UGH). So we joke a little: \”Well, PS could have saved temselves quite some postage, I might as well well gave it to you in person\”

We just kid around while the dealer deals the next hand: I pick up JJ, Alan makes it $12 to go and I call, the rest of the tabe folds and we are heads up, when the flop comes: 333, Alan ponders and bets $20. I just dont trust this… I am only a big favorite against TT and I just feel I am beat. I just want to know what he has so I open fold my JJ and tell him:  \”Just take it down Alan, I think you got me.\” The whole table is in shock and Alan cannot believe his eyes: Son, you flopped a boat, you cant fold a boat. And I look at him and say: I sure did flop a boat, but I think you have me beat with either Queens or Kings, so I think I just saved myself a lot of money. Alan frowns and says: Gosh, this is freaking me out, this is scary kid. And he shows QQ. He looked at me and asked: How on earth did you know? The only appropriate answer for this question asked by the writer of \”Psychology of Poker\” was: I answer as dry as I can: \”Well Alan, Poker is just a bit of math and a whole lot psychology.\”