Part Time Poker Player... Full Time Magician
Rich, tell us about your strange upbringing…
My upbringing was bizarre. I grew up in Salinas, California, in a very violent situation, with drugs and police raids and things like that. I grew up living with a drug lord. It was a really unhealthy environment, and I never had any guidance whatsoever. My mom was murdered when I was about five and my dad was in jail my entire life. So I had no one. I was basically this little kid – this little street rat – who lived in a house with all this crazy violence. In a way, I was lucky to be so neglected by those people, because it meant that I wasn’t drawn into their world; I was just an observer. Luckily, the Protector Service came along when I was about twelve and put me into emergency foster care, changed my name, and relocated me to LA. And then I was lucky enough to be adopted. It’s because of my crazy upbringing that I’m a spokesperson for the children’s charity Dream for Kids. They heard about my story and asked me to get involved.
How’d you get into magic?
If you ask any serious magician how he got into magic, he’ll tell you he watched an uncle do an amazing trick or was influenced by a great magician. But in my case, because of my upbringing, I never had a magic set; I was never bought a magic trick. In fact, I had never even seen anyone perform magic. It just happens that I’m a freakishly observant person. I’ve actually been tested and I’m completely off the chart when it comes to observational skills. They’ve never tested a person that came anywhere near my level. You see, I didn’t learn to read until I was twelve – and I think the way your mind develops as a kid – that sets up a base for everything else. From day one, all I did was sit back and watch and observe.
I was always able to do things that other people couldn’t do. But I didn’t think about magic at the time. I was doing things just to amuse myself – setting up traps or taking things out of people’s pockets and saying, “Hey, here’s your wallet back.” For me it was just very easy. I saw how people worked, how they ticked; and I found it easy to manipulate that. When I was in high school, I would have a lot of people come up to me and say, “Hey, you’re that magician guy. Do a trick for me.” And I never knew why they said that, because I had never said I was magician, and I never had any interest in magic, per se. I always thought that magic was silly and cheesy. And “magic” is such a vague word. I do interactive magic: it’s very psychological, with a lot of sleight of hand, reading people, and planting suggestions. It’s very subtle. There are no colored handkerchiefs in sight. But at school I began to accept that people saw what I was doing as “magic.” When I was about 19, my best friend got married and asked if I would walk around the tables and entertain the guests at the reception. That’s when I fell in love with entertaining and began to call myself a magician. It’s hard for some other magicians to understand. They’re like, “Well, someone must have taught you something.” I’m like, “No… I made it all up.” But now I’m very involved in the magic community. I’m a prop designer for The Pendragons and they do big stage illusions. So I’m into those big illusions, but it’s not what I like to do when I perform.
How do you apply these skills to the poker table?
When I first started playing poker, I had no idea about pot odds and stuff like that, but I’m very good at estimation, and gut instinct. And I’m very good at reading people, of course, through years of studying neuro-linguistic programming, body language, hypnosis, and mentalism. I find it very easy to see through it whenever an opponent is trying to pull one over on me. So I make more decisions based on what I think my opponents are doing than on my cards or the odds. It’s a subtle gift, but I think it’s also a skill that other people can develop. If you watch the pros on TV, they have it.
The performance aspect helps, too. In poker, you’re on the spot; people are watching you and they expect big things, so the pressure’s high and you learn fast. But just handling the cards with so much skill and flair is intimidating to opponents (amateurs, at least; I don’t think the pros could care less!). I’m also very good at portraying hands that I haven’t got – suggesting things to people – that’s what half my magic is about, after all. I don’t think I’m the best poker player there is, but there are certain skills I have that help me out a lot. At times, during amateur games, people muck their cards and I get a glimpse of them as they fly onto the table. I just can’t help it; I see everything. Sometimes I see the cards flying off the deck when someone’s dealing. It’s hard for me; I feel guilty and try to look away, but it’s difficult.
Tell us about these famous home games you have?
We have Jonathan and Charlotte Pendragon, David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, Jonathan England… all these magicians stop by – it’s kind of funny.
How the hell can you trust anyone? You guys can make cards appear from nowhere. At least one of you can make the Statue of Liberty disappear…
Well, that’s the thing. We can all recognize technique. And all that manipulation and sleight of hand is totally out of bounds. I mean, I’d trust playing with those guys far more than any frat boy (laughs). There’s a lot of honor in what we do, but I’d recognize immediately if they were trying something. To me, poker’s about the fun and camaraderie and the excitement; it’s no fun if I know I’m going to win.
What about when you’re in a casino and you get a miraculous run of cards – I mean, it does happen sometimes – do people get suspicious?
That has happened on the rare occasion. I’ll hit quads and get funny looks. But I’m pretty personable and I’m also one of the most honest guys you’ll ever meet. So I think people see that. I mean, I’m like anyone: most of the time I get dealt junk. Generally, the reaction I get at the table is that they love all the chip tricks and they want to play with me because they find them entertaining.
Give our readers a tip on how to read minds at the poker table.
That’s hard because it comes so naturally to me, but I would say to just trust your first gut instinct. I mean, your first instinct might be wrong if you don’t have a natural ability, so it’s hard to step out of my shoes here. I would say, trust your first feeling and then sit there and contemplate stuff, but don’t forget that first feeling. I think a lot of amateurs get thrown off by the pressure and end up doing things that they didn’t really want to do. You can also get yourself a book on the fundamentals of things like facial recognition, left brain/right brain conflict, neurolinguistic programming… There are some basic guidelines and techniques out there that help you understand how people behave and why; and once you open your mind to them, it’s a revelation.
