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Hi, I’m Rob Washam a RecPoker core team member and I lead the RecPoker Book Studies.
I’ve been playing poker for as long as I can remember. I started playing penny ante games with friends and family around the kitchen table. None of us knew what we were doing but it was always an entertaining evening. Some time in the late Nineties I caught an episode of the World Series of Poker. At that time you didn’t see hole cards, but the whole thing intrigued me. I wanted to find out more about this game called Texas Hold ’em. It was around this time that Canterbury Park opened the first card room in Minnesota. I knew I had to try it. So being the student I am, I purchased my first poker book “Ken Warren Teaches Texas Hold ‘Em”. With the lessons learned from the book I went to Canterbury and sat at a $2/$4 table. I was terrified. I ended up booking a $100 win and I went from terrified to hooked.
Soon after this experience I discovered on-line poker. My new found hobby could now be enjoyed from the comfort of my home. I played on Paradise Poker, Empire Poker, and Party Poker mainly the $0.50/$1.00 limit games. It was a fun past-time and I would occasionally make a withdrawal, but never for life changing money. Since Black Friday I have been playing primarily live and specifically small buy-in tournaments at local casinos.
I also play in various home games. One such home game was a WSOP Main Event League. We had 18 players and the winner of the league received a WSOP Main Event buy-in. I ended up winning in my first year and played in the 2018 WSOP Main. On the first day I was seated with some notable players: Mustapha Kanit who has over $11,000,000 in live tournament cashes, Michael Niwinski the 15th place finisher in 2016, and Rob Salaburu who made the final table in 2012.
As exciting as this sounds, later in the day Jason Mercier joined the table and that is when the fun really began. Soon we were surrounded by people from ESPN. We were given bio sheets to fill out and were told that we would be moving to a televised table. My claim to fame is getting my mug on television where I got all-in with 99 versus TT ending up with quads.
I consider myself a student of the game and someone who has a lot to offer the novice or beginning player. I can help you not only understand new concepts but how to apply them in your own game. If you would like to contact me I am active on Twitter @rabman50, on discord @robwasham, and of course by email at rob@rec.poker.