Ultimate Poker Challenge: Becoming A Pro
A bit of poker trivia. While I was watching an episode of Ultimate Poker Challenge, they cut to a clip of pro player Gavin Smith. Apparently he’s from my hometown. Well, I have three hometowns, depending on how you define hometown.
I’m talking about my third hometown - the one that I basically grew up in. It’s grown from about 55,000 in the early 70s to over 110,00 now, and defined by many local university grads, who came from elsewhere, as being a black hole that people have a hard time escaping from - in a good way. Unless you’re from here and want to leave.
Believe me. I’ve tried four times to leave, but I always end up back home after a few years, whether I went to Atlanta or Toronto. And it’s not really a town that might be associated with poker, despite its growing status amongst celebrities.
I’ll give you a clue. Actress Neve Campbell of the TV show Party of Five and the Scream series of movies is from here, too. Lucille Ball is rumoured to have convalesced here after a breakdown in the 1970s, followed by a string of other celebrities, some whom now own large homes in a new luxury development on the east side of town.
In the 70s I shook the hand of the then Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. It’s an important town demographically, for all Canadian market research studies, and a core town for every election, both in the province and federally. A high-profile female politician from here, who made a bid for Prime Ministership recently, is rumoured to be a special friend of ex-pres Bill Clinton. And ex-pres Jimmy Carter regularly visits Habitat for Humanity projects in a nearby town.
We’ve had lots of celebrities pass through town over the years, performing at clubs or at the university - including Elton John, around 1974-5, during his Brown Dirt Cowboy days, just before his Rocket Man star really started to shine.
And some people (including myself) believe that this town is the inspiration for the original Smallville that Seigel and Shuster created for Clark Kent’s hometown. (Since the original Metropolis is Toronto, not New York. Toronto is my second hometown, and the one I usually tell people I’m from.)
But this is the first time I’ve heard that a poker player, now living in Vegas, is from here. It’s stuff like that either makes you think what are the odds that someone else from this town will make it in poker, or can I do it too?
What exactly am I babbling about? Just that no matter where you’re from, opportunities abound, and lots of celebrities have shown that success is possible no matter where you start out life. So you have as much chance of becoming a top-notch poker player as anyone else from any town. Provided you do due diligence and play and learn as much as possibly can, including mental exercises calculating your odds on a hand.
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