After years of poverty and a long break in a Buddhist retreat, professional card player Andrew Black (aka 'The Monk') has made millions out of gambling's new era, writes Paul Cullen
HIS NICKNAME IS "The Monk" and his motto is "pray for the people you fleece". Professional poker player Andrew Black certainly comes across as someone with a conscience in an otherwise scruple-free sport. "I think about it all the time; if I win, someone else loses," he says. "The guy across the table might be supporting a kid who will feel the consequences should he lose." Such worries haven't stopped Black from amassing career winnings of more than $3.8 million (€2.45 million), making him one of the country's best-known card players and a headline attraction in the US, where he spends most of his professional time.
Black is one of a growing band of Irish players for whom poker is providing a living as the gambling industry expands and, thanks to the internet, becomes globalised.
The likes of Black are used to market gambling to lesser mortals, but what he does has little to do with the games of chance indulged in by most punters. Poker cards are dealt at random, but from then on, Black insists, the game is all about ability. "The skill lies in winning as much as possible when you have a good hand and losing as little as possible when you have a bad one," he says.
The 43-year-old says he has a reputation for being one of the most aggressive players on the international circuit and asserts that "bluffing can often be the safest thing to do". He spends up to 20 hours a week refining his methods and disparages games where players are at the mercy of chance.
"The National Lottery is the worst bet, yet it is sold so aggressively," he says. "People are told 'it could be you' when this is deeply inaccurate."
His scruples about gambling derive from being a Buddhist, and this, combined with the birth of a son, led him to take five years out of the game in the 1990s.
Professional gamblers are television superstars in the US these days and his life sounds glamorous, but Black is nonplussed. Atlantic City and Las Vegas are dumps, he says, and casinos, with their windowless rooms, bland music and glassy-eyed patrons, are "the last place I want to be".
It was different when he started playing poker as a law student in Trinity College Dublin in the 1980s. Having started to play the game with his mother while growing up in Belfast, Black ultimately found the card room a bigger draw than the courtroom. Poker is all he's ever done for a living. "The game was tiny then, with just a handful of pros," he says. "If someone new walked in on a game, everyone would look around."
According to Black, he remained broke in Dublin for 10 years. In 1997, he travelled to the US to take part in the World Series of Poker and was knocked out by the eventual winner. When he lost again in the following year's tournament, he quit the game and moved to England to live in a semi-monastic Buddhist environment for five years.
Having sorted out his inner demons, he came back to a changed world. The internet had transformed the game, with more players, bigger pots and massive profits. He got celebrity endorsements and the backing of investors who paid for his Vegas trips.
He placed fifth in the 2005 World Series, and won $1.75 million (€1.15 million). A series of big-money finishes followed, and he now spends five to six months on the international poker circuit. He travels with a spiritual adviser, has a personal page on Wikipedia and has bought his mother a house. The future looks bright, though many players "disintegrate" in their 50s, he cautions. "Sure it's glamorous," he says. "Poker players are superstars now. In the US, though not here, I'll be stopped for autographs and pictures. I'm living the life, allegedly, yet I suffered a lot to get here."