SUNDAY STORY
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WEST HOLLYWOOD ? The forced bets called “blinds” had doubled twice when Jim Davenport began scanning the table for poker faces.
The Corona del Mar native wasn’t going to find one on his right. Tucked into a bright orange shirt and a pair of tight Frontier Jeans was actress Shannon Elizabeth, naively smiling as she chased anything that matched her face card and low kicker.
At the other end sat MTV’s Andy Milonakis ? a tough read considering he’s a 30-year-old comedian who plays a 12-year-old on TV. That aside, the guy still seemed a little off.
“Come on, guys. Why’s everyone so quiet right now ? someone should start a conversation,” Milonakis shouted from his seat off the green felt table. “I’ll start. Hi, my name is Andy. I walked my dog today. My favorite color: red.”
OK, forget trying to figure that guy out. The entire celebrity poker tournament was a bit surreal ? black Audis shuttled B-listers in from the valet, and twentysomething mortgage brokers dropped $500 buy-ins for a chance to sit with the pros at poker tables scattered around a hilltop mansion in early June.
Davenport exuded a happy confidence that hid his lack of experience playing the game.
Besides, past hands don’t really matter anymore ? now it’s all about what the future deals this professional poker player.
NICKEL AND DIME GAMES
Some do it for the excitement, and some do it for the money. Actually, most do it for the money ? but for Davenport, a lifelong Corona del Mar resident, those early nickel and dime games had nothing to do with collecting a $40 payoff. He was there to help a sick friend.
Around the summer of 2001, Davenport’s childhood friend Nate Lemmerman had become ill with Hodgkins lymphoma. The illness sidelined Lemmerman’s baseball career at UC Berkeley, but it rallied his buddies from Corona del Mar High School around their sick friend.
First they just stopped going out to the bars. Then they shaved their heads in solidarity when he went through chemotherapy. At night, when they needed something to do, they played poker.
“I found myself consistently winning,” Davenport said. “Eventually Nate got healthy and people started wanting to go out again, but I just wanted to keep playing poker.”
That’s when Davenport began dabbling in online games through the website PokerRoom.com. Quick games started turning into day-long runs, and then a few all-night tourneys. Those tourneys led him to enter a series of regional contests, hosted by the website, in hopes of becoming PokerRoom.com’s first professional player.
A win at a $40 tournament bought him a seeding into a $650 tournament, where he eventually won a seat at the table with the site’s top 10 players.
BIG TURN
The other players said he was out of his league when he showed up to compete in the final game, a marathon tournament on a private boat just off the Bahamas.
But as he sat head-to-head in the final round with chip-leader Bill Pero, he knew he had a chance to prove the others wrong.
“I had been watching ? [Pero] all night and had figured out his tells pretty easily,” Davenport later boasted.
For any player, learning an opponent’s tells, or physical signs and body language they use when they pull certain hands, is as important as any card they might draw.
“It’s not just about five cards on the table and two cards in your hand,” Davenport said.
So it was on the 158th hand of the night that Davenport decided to take down his opponent. Pero went all-in betting on a pair of sevens, thinking he could scare Davenport out of a large hand.
But the bluff didn’t work. Davenport said he could tell from Pero’s body language that he was unsure of his card. Plus, it helped that he was holding a pair of aces after the “flop” ? first three community cards ? was dealt out on the felt.
Both showed their hole cards. A disappointed look came over Pero while Davenport cupped his hands over his lips and waited for the final two cards to be dealt, possibly landing him $250,000 in endorsements and a year contract as a pro player.
There was a brief pause and then the dealer flipped over another ace. Davenport had a three-of-a-kind and a new future as a pro poker player.
It wouldn’t be long before Davenport quit his job as an investment banker to pursue his new career.
READY FOR A BIG WIN
These days, Davenport spends most of his free time playing for $300 pots at Native American-run casinos and perfecting his game. He’s expected to compete in 15 tournaments this year on different pro circuits, including the upcoming World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. PokerRoom.com pays his buy-ins and lets him keep his winnings. He just has to show up ? and stay in the game.
He recently competed in the Mirage Poker Showdown and the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, both in Las Vegas, but didn’t finish with any cash prizes for either contest. But in the Grand Prix de Paris tournament in mid-June, Davenport finished in 22nd place, and walked away with about $18,200.
“During a tournament, it’s extremely stressful,” he said. “Each day includes about nine hours of playing, and by the end, you’re worn out. I can be in an air conditioned room, and when it’s all over, I’m drenched in sweat.”
The Native American-run casino tournaments are more about sharpening his concentration and endurance, and less about winning.
“I just want to take one of the big tournaments; that’s where all the money is,” he said. “These casino games are nothing. If I win one of the casino tournaments, that’s where the big money is.”dpt.02-sunday-2-CPhotoInfo651SI7P820060702j1p7ainc(LA)Jim Davenport of Corona del Mar places a bet during a poker tournament. dpt.02-sunday-1-kt-BPhotoInfo651SI7O320060702j1p79lnc(LA)Corona del Mar’s Jim Davenport, a professional poker player, is looking for a big win. “If I win one of the casino tournaments, that’s where the big money is.” dpt.02-sunday-4-CPhotoInfo651SI87M20060702j1p7b7ncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Jim Davenport, right, sits next to Shannon Elizabeth at a celebrity tournament.dpt.02-sunday-5-CPhotoInfo651SI86620060702j1p7bmnc(LA)Jim Davenport of Corona del Mar, left, sits with Vivica A. Fox at a celebrity tournament.
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