Smart players know that winning has less to do with the cards they’ve been dealt than with understanding what makes their opponents tick. I’ve drawn Table 3, Seat 7, giving me a clear view of my nine opponents. No one in a poker room is exactly who they seem to be. Outside, in the real world, people know me by my maiden name, which is also my professional name. I’m grateful to be here under a secret identity. “Hey, Shelley Kelly,” he says, calling me by my happy, rhyming married name, and he hands me a random seating card. Wilson, one of the pit bosses, welcomes me back.
I head through the back door and downstairs to the basement poker room, where I hand over my $40 buy-in for the morning no-limit Texas hold ’em tournament.
