For 32 years he has lived and breathed poker.
For 32 years he has lived and breathed poker.
Over those years every hand he played, every chip he threw, every dollar he won was done in preparation for a seat in the most prestigious poker game in the world.
Last week Hollister resident Chuck “Poker Hands” Agnew finally reached his long sought-after dream by not only playing in the Poker World Series in Las Vegas, but taking 82nd place out of over 2,500 of the best poker players in the world.
For four days Agnew played hand after hand of No Limit Texas Hold ’em with poker greats such as Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Helmuth and Chris Moneymaker.
“I lived my dream,” Agnew said. “I told myself, by the time I’m 50, I’m going to play in the World Series. I’ll be 51 in a couple of weeks.”
Agnew, who has lived in Hollister for the past two years and works as a poker dealer at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, traveled to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas five weeks ago and started playing in poker tournaments.
A seat at the world series tournament costs $10,000, and although Agnew had the money to buy a seat, he decided he would try to win one by playing in a Super Satellite tournament instead.
Several hundred people entered the satellite tournaments, attempting to parlay the $225 entry fee into a $10,000 seat to the big show.
Agnew won one of those seats.
“I was awestruck,” Agnew said. “Here are the most famous poker players in the world sitting at the same table with me. No matter what happened, nobody can take that away from me.”
At one time Agnew, who was determined to leave Vegas the tournament’s winner, was in third place and up over half a million dollars, he said.
Every hand he had played up to that point had gone in his favor and he “had his eye on the prize,” he said.
“Poker is a game of luck with an element of skill that takes a lot of discipline and the patience of a clam,” he said.
On the fourth day of the tournament his luck changed and in two devastating hands his dreams of walking away with the coveted gold winner’s bracelet and the $5 million purse, were dashed.
“It was like a dagger in the heart,” he said. “But that’s poker, and I win with grace and I lose with class.”
Although Agnew’s time at the table was up, he left Las Vegas with over $20,000 in his pocket, the knowledge that he was the 82nd best poker player in the world and a brand new dream.
“I played the best poker I’ve played in my entire life against the best players in the world,” he said. “I’ll be there next year to defend my 82nd place… but next year I’m going to win it.”
Although the final day of tournament play was on Friday, Agnew decided to come home to his fiancee, Janice Martin, who’s support has been instrumental in his poker success, he said.
“Not many women want to be with a man in the casino business, but she knows how important it is to me,” he said. “She is my inspiration in life, in poker – in everything I do.”
The entire tournament will air on ESPN on July 6, and Agnew and Martin will witness the winner’s joy and the loser’s anguish together.
“Even the guy who finishes in second place – he’ll win $2.5 million – and he’ll still leave unfulfilled,” he said. “But I’m jazzed, and I’ll get that bracelet with my name on it one of these days.”
Agnew will continue commuting to San Jose to do the job he was made for and honing his skills for next year’s tournament. And if next year doesn’t net him the title of best poker player in the world, he’ll go back the year after.
“I’ll keep going until I get it right,” he said. “If someone gave me $10 million today to quit playing poker I’d say no way. It’s my passion. It’s my life. It’s what I do.”
