Jim Lester

A poker biography of Jim Lester.

Quick Information

Name - Jim Lester

Born - Not Available

Poker Room - Not Available

Biography

The world of poker is such an interesting arena. There are instances when winning depends mainly on luck and there are moments when winning is purely based on the skills of a player. However, the allure of poker tournaments keeps all poker players coming back at the poker tables.

Perhaps being around poker players early on in life was a sign that there are bigger things to come for the young Jim Lester. Learning the first poker lessons at age 12, Lester eventually became a poker expert. Winning $120 in the first poker week, Lester then lost that winning amount in just a couple of hours. Telling his father later that day how he lost his $120 winnings in poker, his father spent the entire weekend teaching Lester all about the poker. Equipped with a renewed spirit and some fatherly advice on poker, Lester returned to the match table the following Friday night. Surprising everybody with his cunning style in playing poker, Lester took home a total of $1,100. Gaining a reputation of displaying excellent poker skills, the company owner where Lester works then brought him to Newport, Kentucky for a game of poker that had $1,000 to $2,000 stake. Lester describes his Newport poker experience as being a back room game where most of the men he played with have guns. Nevertheless, Lester was welcomed by those armed men. As Lester turned 18, he was already gaining fame and fortune in poker industry. A regular weekend winning would sum up to $600,000. Those regular poker games made Lester very adept in reading people in poker tables. At first, most poker players he played with would think of him as a cheat because he became an expert with guessing what cards the other players were holding. To keep the poker game rolling, Lester would intentionally lose some poker games to entice the other players to come back for the next games. A little tactic indeed worked for Lester. Later on, he was nicknamed the 'Cincinnati Kid' as an accolade to his youth and poker expertise.

Another odd experience Lester had was when he was playing poker with drug dealers. The type of drug dealers that were accompanied by armed bodyguards and men who carried suitcases with money. The experience with the drug dealers made him even more knowledgeable in poker. A game of wit and skills eventually made Lester the winner, doubling his original $600,000 bet. To this day, Lester recalls that those drug dealers were the worst poker players.

At 22, settling down with a family did not slow down Lester in any way. Lester was able to put up his own construction businesses and still concentrate on his poker career. In fact, Lester even intensifies as the years go by. In the 2001 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $3,000 Limit Hold'em tournament, Lester took home the gold bracelet together with a total winning of $233,490. Moving up to the ladder of poker success sometimes has an unlikely beginning and Lester is an example of that.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 December 2007 )

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