How can this be? One might ask. Well, tell me this. When was the last time you saw a poker room offer 7-card Stud? I know what many of you are thinking. WTF is 7-card Stud? If you asked that question, let me tell you that Chris Moneymaker is an accessory to that crime and question. By 2003, poker was becoming a big game, because The Travel Channel had started televising major Texas Hold’em tournaments. Just before television embraced poker, poker rooms were struggling to stay open in Midwestern states. I lived in Paducah, Kentucky between 2000 and 2003. There was a casino just across the Ohio River in Metropolis, Illinois, but before Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003, the casino in Metropolis didn’t offer poker. From Paducah, my poker options were to play home games that might get robbed, drive to distant casinos in Evansville, Indiana, St Louis, Missouri, or Tunica, Mississippi. Once, I got to a poker room in the Mid-south, I had more options as to which games were available to play. I could play limit Texas Hold’em, 7-card Stud or my favorite game, limit Omaha High-Low Split. Not every poker room offered Omaha High-Low, so if I was going to drive anywhere, I preferred Tunica. One game I never found, except during major tournaments, was No-limit Texas Hold’em.
Poker changed drastically after Chris Moneymaker won the main event of the WSOP in 2003. His story was incredible. He was an accountant from Nashville Tennessee who had won his seat to the event online. He had only played poker on the internet before winning it all. I had just sold my medical practice that year, and I played several events at the WSOP that spring including the main event, only I paid $10,000 cash to get into it. Because of all the television coverage, 839 people entered that tournament, which was the most entries ever up to that point. I lasted into the second day, and I never ran into Moneymaker as far as I know. After all the news coverage depicted how a guy, who had never played poker in an actual casino, had won poker’s most prestigious event, everybody wanted to play No-limit Texas Hold’em. Suddenly, even casinos like the one in Metropolis had poker rooms, No-limit Texas Hold’em was the game of choice, and I loved it, because it brought new players to the game. Early on, I was booking regular wins, because poker tournament play as shown on TV was different than cash game play. Eventually, the newbies learned how to play, and it was no longer easy money to fleece the newbies.
Then, came the casualties, the murderous consequences, and decline of other poker games. When I fell in love with poker, I started with 7-card Stud and occasional Limit Hold’em, but I was really drawn to high-low games. The two high-low games I liked were Omaha High-low and Stud High-low. After I got out of the Navy in 1999, I focused on the Omaha version of high-low. Omaha is similar to Hold’em, except that one receives 4 hole cards in Omaha versus just 2 in Hold’em. Each game has 5 cards face up on the table that are community cards. In Hold’em, you can use both, just 1 or none of your hole cards to make your best hand in conjunction with your community cards. In Omaha, you must use 2 cards to play with 3 community cards, which often leads to confusion and arguments as to who has the best hand especially in high-low split.
From 1999 to 2003, Omaha High-low had quite a following of dedicated players. It’s a fun game with many possible winning combinations. As a newbie, in 1997, I went to Las Vegas. I played Omaha High-low at the Mirage, and I won a few hundred dollars. I got hooked on the game, thinking I was good at it, but I was wrong. I just got lucky. It took me some time to learn how to play. The beauty of the game is that one can play bad and still win, but only for a while. I really loved the game, but I had to learn concepts like hand selection, pot odds, and the importance of trying to scoop up entire pots as opposed to half pots. I read about the game and practiced on computer software, and I started booking more wins. I even took 2nd place at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 2002 in an Omaha High-low event.
Then, No-limit Hold’em attempted to murder all the other poker games, and Chris Moneymaker was the instigator. Now, my Paducah poker buddies and I drove down to Nashville to meet Chris at a country club poker game that he showed up for. He was a nice guy, and I got sit at the same table with him at the Shooting Star Event later in 2005 in San Jose, California. He was always a pleasant person to interact with, but after he won the WSOP in 2003, other poker games were placed on life support. Casinos that once had regular Omaha High-low games started dropping the games or limiting the days the games were played upon. It’s not the casinos’ fault, but players were abandoning other games. Poker is a game of sharks and fish. It’s a game where better players take money from weaker players. In order for a game to thrive, new, less talented players need to bring money to the table. Moneymaker sent those new players to No-limit Texas Hold’em tables. Then, the little fish in the hold’em games became big fish. Thus, Hold’em is not as easy as it once was. In order to thrive, Omaha High-low needs new fish. The absence of fish is killing games like Omaha and 7-card Stud.
In January, I started playing No-limit Texas Hold’em tournaments at the Pensacola Greyhound Track. I qualified for the player of the month tournament 6 months in a row, but not for the upcoming one this August, 2026. Tournaments are streaky, and I have failed to make the money 11 tournaments in a row in July.
Between winning $17,500 at World Series of Poker in 2003, and winning $63,000 at the WSOP in 2005, I did not cash in a single tournament. My losses in tournaments between those two wins added up to over $63000. I have decided to give tournament poker a break for now. So, what am I going to do? I’m going to play Omaha High-low split. At the Pensacola Greyhound Track where greyhounds are never seen, new Omaha High-low players are nearly just as rare. In the absence of new players, I’m forced to play a very conservative style. Lately, they only play on Tuesday and Thursday. I enjoy interacting with staff and players like the Feisty Filipina Josefina and her boyfriend Carlos who love Omaha High-low. It’s a small card-room, so I get to know people, and often name characters, ships, casinos and buildings in books after the people I meet there.
I thank Claribel and Leah who actually bought The Trained Ghost print version, as did my landlord, Thomas. I want to acknowledge Hunter with the blue green hair who works the cage. I also acknowledge James, Jordan, and Callie, who are constantly cleaning up after me. Then, there’s Jaylen, Taleah, Sara and Kim who try to get me drunk or bring me food. I’m a real pain, because I’m always changing my drink selection. Of course, I can’t forget the dealers like Tania, Matt, X, Tank, David and Regan. I have to mention Adrian, Kinzie, Jeannie, Rudy and Troy who work the desk or they won’t let me play. The audiobook should be released in a matter of days. My vampire book, The Lost Art of Bloodletting is out on Amazon. My newest book called The Reenactment Gladiators will be out by Christmas shopping season. Does anybody want to play Omaha High-low Split? I offer lessons. Sometimes I’m the one in need of lessons.
