“The Busiest Man in Poker” Bernard Lee Calls, Raises, Deals, and Explains the Booming Card Game
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JOHN HARVard’s JournAL cial moments are rare, but totally worth it.” At the London Olympics, Fagbenle The rising star comes from a Nige- attempts a steal rian family; father Tunde is a newspaper from French player journalist and mother Buki is earning an Elodie Godin. herbal medicine degree. Fagbenle has 11 sibs and half-sibs—nine brothers and two she led Blair to the Mid- sisters, ranging from five to 43 years of age. Atlantic Prep League She is the ninth child in her “sporty” fam- and state prep-school RESS P ily, and third tallest, after her six-foot-nine championships, and was and six-foot-seven brothers. (Her parents, named a McDonald’s SSOCIATED SSOCIATED at six-feet, two inches and five feet, eight, All-American. In the A RUPA / RUPA are not formidably tall.) Born in Baltimore, spring she found time K ES ES she grew up mostly in London and has to win state champion- L AR dual citizenship. ships in the high jump, Ch Tennis was Fagbenle’s first love (she still javelin, shot put, and discus. She also per- Nonetheless, “We did our country proud,“ plays) and she dreamed of playing profes- formed in two musicals and “enjoyed them Fagbenle says. “We played with guts in ev- sionally, but by age 13, “it wasn’t flowing,” thoroughly,” Fagbenle declares. ery game and played hard till the buzzer.” she says. She switched to basketball at Culture shock is now a thing of the The Crimson hope that her considerable 14, and wears uniform number 14 to com- past; Fagbenle’s current problems involve skills will help them break out of a rut of memorate that. It was awkward. “You’re more practical matters like finding a pair second-place Ivy finishes: Harvard’s last rubbish when you first start a sport,” she of jeans to fit her frame. (She does have title, shared with Cornell and Dartmouth, notes. “I was like a baby deer on the court. one pair, bought years ago.) She prefers came in 2007-’08, and for the last three sea- I had poor balance and my shots weren’t skirts and dresses, but even there, length sons the Crimson have come in second to dropping.” Yet at six feet, three inches, is a problem, as a dress for a five-foot, two- Princeton; the Tigers she had already been dubbed the “tallest inch woman, she says, “is a shirt for me! have dropped only one 13-year-old girl in London.” She also bene- Shopping is a nightmare!” of 42 Ivy games since Visit harvardmag.com/ fited from top-notch coaching at Haringey This year’s Olympic experience is un- the 2009-10 season. But extras for a video of and helped the club to national titles. likely to be her last. The popularity of Harvard returns several Temi Fagbenle ’15 demonstrating one of Her coaches had some contacts at Ameri- women’s basketball has only begun to strong players to com- her on-court moves. can prep schools; Fagbenle chose Blair be- grow in the United Kingdom; unlike plement their Olympi- cause “it had the prettiest pictures.” She France, Australia, or Russia, England has an, including high-scoring, six-foot forward thought high school in the States would “be not yet become a women’s-hoops power. Victoria Lippert ’13. If Fagbenle can bol- a breeze—I got that idea from movies.” In- Though the English national team had ster the Crimson’s results the way Allison stead, she experienced heavy culture shock a solid pre-Olympic run, besting highly Feaster did, the competition had best brace and “crashed and burned the first year.” But rated teams from France and the Czech itself: beginning with Feaster’s sophomore she soon adapted and began to love school Republic, they may have peaked too early; year, Harvard ran off three straight Ivy while excelling at basketball: as a senior they lost all five of their London contests. League titles. vcraig lambert ALUMNI “The Busiest Man in Poker” Bernard Lee calls, raises, deals, and explains the booming card game. n 2003, when a complete amateur at PokerStars—and Lee and thousands of skills for more than a year, he wept with joy. named Chris Moneymaker won the other nonprofessional players had the same That summer, when his wife, family physi- $2.5-million first prize at the World thought: “If he can do it, I can do it!” The cian Kathryn (Higashi) Lee ’92, drove him Series of Poker (WSOP), the game’s poker boom was born. to the airport to attend the WSOP’s Main Ihighest-profile event, Bernard Lee ’92 had Lee got his own chance to compete at Event in Las Vegas, she asked, “If you cash already been playing poker with buddies WSOP in 2005, qualifying on a night when [win prize money], do you want me to in his hometown of Wayland, Massachu- he returned from tennis practice and played throw a party?” Lee’s reply: “If I win six fig- setts, for a long time. Moneymaker had online from 11 P.M. until 5:00 A.M. Having ures, then we party.” Kathryn relaxed; with earned his WSOP seat by playing online read books and worked hard to improve his 5,619 entrants who had each bought $10,000 www.alumni.harvard.edu Harvard Magazine 55 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 JOHN HARVard’s JournAL in chips to enter, the chance of such a large the official spokesperson for the Foxwoods assistant to then-Quincy House master Mi- payout was highly unlikely. Resort Casino’s Poker Room from 2010 to chael Shinagel. (All House affiliates may par- Or so she thought. Lee began the tour- 2011. And he teaches poker at the WSOP ticipate in intramurals.) ney with one of his best first days ever, and Academy. In other words, Lee embodies his It was at Harvard that Lee cut his teeth by day two was one of the top hundred epithet: “the busiest man in poker.” as a poker player in a weekly Quincy players (in chips amassed) of the 2,000 House game with one- and five-dollar remaining entrants; nearly two-thirds of Now ranked 235th of the 300 players on chips where “winning $500 was a really those who’d entered had gone broke after the Global Poker Index, a weekly rating of good night.” His friend Abe Wickelgren their first day of play. Lee had made $35,000 the game’s top players worldwide, Lee di- ’91, J.D. ’94, Ph.D. ’99, the game’s organizer by day three, and the following day he was vides his time about equally between his and one of the best players, became a men- among the 58 survivors all assured of at various media commitments and playing tor. “I’m a very observant person,” Lee least $145,000 in prize money. “You might in tournaments. “I have a pretty competi- says. He watched Wickelgren and even- want to get that party list ready,” he told tive personality,” he says. “Everything I’ve tually they took a road trip to Foxwoods his wife. He also called his boss at Boston done has led to this moment.” In his youth for Lee’s first casino action. “Bernie had Scientific, where he was a senior marketing he played soccer, basketball, and tennis, and great discipline,” Wickelgren recalls. “Not manager. (“I didn’t expect to get this deep now competes in an adult tennis league and having it is the downfall of a lot of poker in the tournament, so I didn’t take enough golfs; in college he may have played in the players: there’s a tendency to want to be days off from work,” he explains.) “Every most intramural poker contests ever, helped involved too much, to want to always be single person here is following you online,” by three post-collegiate years as a resident involved in the hand. Bernie had the disci- came the reply. “We can’t pline to fold a hand and sit get any work done.” on the sidelines. He also Lee’s father, brother, could think about things college roommate DooJin analytically and not let Kim ’92, two co-workers, his emotions get involved. and some poker pals flew He was very interested in to Las Vegas to see him improving—Bernie read finish thirteenth overall, poker books and got bet- winning $400,000. (The top ter when he was not actu- prize, won by Joe Hachem, ally playing.” was $7.5 million.) If not for A “picture memory” a 1-in-10 chance of a dealt helps Lee remember cards card that didn’t fall Lee’s that have been played; way, he would have gone he’s also aware of a vast even further. But the event range of odds of cards be- changed his life. ing dealt. “When you start The PokerStars online out, all you do is worry card room, which now has about getting good cards,” nearly 50 million registered he explains. “The bet- players worldwide, invited ter you get, the more it’s Lee to write a blog about situational—you’re play- his experience; he respond- ing the player as much as ed with 25 single-spaced playing the cards. This pages that ran as a 10-part game is very psychologi- series on the website. ESPN cal.” For example, though produced and aired two there’s no obligation to profiles of him.The Boston show one’s cards after a Herald asked him to write hand, sometimes Lee will a Sunday poker column, show what he held after which he did and has con- winning a bluff to “desta- tinued since 2005, alongside bilize” an opponent.