Part-Time Poker Player: Dr. Jerry Buss
Dr. Jerry Buss has done a lot of things throughout the course of his life, from earning his PhD in physical chemistry at the University of Southern California to becoming a successful real estate mogul, and eventually becoming the owner of the most successful and well-known basketball team in the world: the Los Angeles Lakers. Buss has repeatedly shown that he has a knack for making his dreams become realities.
Having conquered several areads of the business world early in his professional career, Buss remains fueled by an unyielding competitive desire that drives him to search for new challenges. Fortunately for this Laker legend, playing poker has become a means of feeding his competitive urges.
Like many poker players around the world, Buss started playing poker with his family when he was young and continued playing throughout high school and college. He would eventually fi nd his way to the casino cash games at the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles in 1982 and has continued to play the game regularly.
According to Buss, how much he plays these days often depends on how the Lakers are faring. “If they give me some time off and there are tournaments happening, I’ll play. I also play in several home games when I have the time. On average, I play probably twice a week, but then I’ll be out of town for ten days. I guess I probably play seven times a month if I’m lucky.”
Finding success with the Lakers has allowed Buss to pursue crafting his game at the highest limits California casinos have to offer and has enabled him to see action with poker’s elite players. Frequently sitting in games with limits as high as $1,000/$2,000, Buss has no qualms about mixing it up with the game’s best players and he shows no fear in his television appearances on popular poker shows such as Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker.
Buss says, however, playing poker isn’t just about the juicy action. “Even when I play the $40/$80 game at Oceanside, I’m still very competitive. I try to see if I can beat the game, regardless of the limits. The money isn’t as important to me as it is to a lot of players, but the competition truly is.”
Although he has been known to play No Limit and 8/Better, Buss prefers to play live Limit Hold’em because of the communal aspect of the game. “I don’t play online because the social part of the game is big for me and I prefer playing Limit, because it doesn’t require as much concentration as the others. I tend to like to socialize when I play, and when I play No Limit I know I have to focus more and not get distracted. That doesn’t always happen,” he said.
For Buss, distractions are a big part of his life thanks to the rollercoaster ride that comes with owning a successful sports team like the Lakers. The frequency at which he plays is linked to the ups and downs of the team and he often fi nds himself susceptible at the tables as a result. “Running the Lakers has probably hurt my game more than it has helped it because when the Lakers lose, I get in a bad mood and I tend to make foolish mistakes. I guess if the Lakers won every game, I would probably be a better poker player,” he said.
Despite his fl uctuating results at the tables, Buss credits owning the Lakers with helping his game in specifi c ways. For example, while at the tables, he frequently uses the art of negotiation, which is crucial to signing NBA players. “You have to look at the situation and understand that you are not going to make a deal unless you have something to offer them and they have something to offer you. The best way to do that is to judge how valuable what they have is and how valuable what you have is and that is very similar to trying to guess the value of someone else’s and your hand while playing,” he said.
In addition, Buss said that being the owner of the Lakers also has another big advantage in that he can always fi nd action. “It has certainly made me very famous and made it so that I can get a game whenever I want.”
Although sports fans might think that the attitudes of today’s star NBA players and its celebrity-like coaches would automatically rub off on Buss at the tables, they are highly mistaken. When asked whether he applied any of coach Phil Jackson’s trademark Zen philosophies, which soothed the egos of superstars like Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, Buss said “I’m not in the Zen mode when I play. I think Phil is a great coach and he is really unbelievable at times, but I think his personality and mine aren’t that similar.”
With eight world championships under his belt, Buss has little left to accomplish in the NBA, but he has plenty left to accomplish in poker; and although he would rather win another title for his family, friends, and fans from Los Angeles, don’t expect him to give up on his dream of wearing a World Series of Poker bracelet in the near future.
