He knows when to hold and when to fold 'em
Patience guides online poker champ
More than $60 billion was spent last year on more than 200 online poker sites, according to a New York Times article. Bill Pero of West Bridgewater just wanted a little piece of the action. On March 5, he got it.
Pero came in second that day in the inaugural Pokerroom.com ''Become a Poker Pro" tournament held aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise line's Majesty of the Seas ship, which sailed out of Miami that weekend. For his efforts, Pero won a $13,500 buy-in plus expenses to the World Series of Poker Main Event, scheduled this summer in Las Vegas. He qualified for the all-expenses-paid trip by winning online tourneys at the Pokerroom.com site. He was one of 10 players vying for the title, nine from the United States, one from Finland.
''It was a good ride," Pero said of the tourney that featured Texas Hold 'em. ''I had a ball."
Pero, 32, an electrician in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 in Boston who works for McDonald Electric in Rockland, is the father of twins, a boy and a girl, born in early February. Taking off for the weekend away from his new babies and his wife, Melanie, 30, wasn't easy, but he was following a dream.
''It was a gift, her letting me come," Pero said.
''Actually, I wanted him to come in second," Melanie Pero said. ''I didn't want him traveling all over."
The winner of the tourney, Jim Davenport of southern California, won a prize worth a quarter-million dollars and will spend a lot of time on the road. He got $60,000 cash, which Pokerroom.com officials said is the greatest cash prize in the history of online poker, and travel expenses and buy-ins for at least 12 major tournaments in the coming year, including the World Series of Poker Main Event, the World Poker Tour Bellagio 5 Diamond Classic, and the World Poker Tour Final.
Pero, a Whitman native, is a graduate of South Shore Vocational Technical High School in Hanover, and has been playing poker for several years, but online only for the past few.
''When I started online, I did nothing but win tournaments for six months," Pero said of a streak that has yet to cool. ''Pokerroom.com sent me to California for a tournament that I didn't win, but I did qualify for this one."
Pero declined to say how much he's won, adding with a smile that ''I've done OK, but I'm still working" as an electrician.
Pero said he doesn't show emotion when gambling; his online moniker is ''BillyBluff13."
Patience is a virtue in life and especially in poker, said Pero, who went into the tournament with a leading chip stack worth $103,700 (not cash, but chips from Pokerroom.com worth the equivalent of that amount that he was allowed to use in the event).
''If you rush, don't play the game," he said. ''I win 75 percent of my tournaments because I sit and wait. I will always wait for the right card."
Pero lost the Pokerroom.com tourney when it was just he and Davenport left at the table. In Texas Hold 'em, players are dealt two cards each face down. Three common cards, called the flop, are dealt face up, and players use those in conjunction with their secret cards to create a hand. Bets are made throughout, and then two final cards -- the turn and river -- are flipped over.
Pero had a queen and a seven in his hand, Davenport an ace and a queen. The three flop cards were ace, jack, and seven, giving Pero a pair of sevens, but Davenport a pair of aces. The river card was an ace, cinching it for Davenport. The final hand and information from the tournament can be viewed at www.pokerroom.com/main/page/promotions/pokerpro.
Officials at the Sweden-based Pokerroom.com said theirs is the fifth largest real-money poker site in the world, with some 3.2 million players signed on from more than 130 countries. Since its creation in 2001, the site has dealt almost 800 million hands, sometimes as many as 2.7 million per day.
''Money, it's about money," Pero said when asked why the game is so hot. ''You can buy in for small money and play better than half the people playing, then play for big bucks in tournaments."
''Besides the Patriots," Melanie Pero said with a laugh, ''poker is his number-one hobby."
''It's good to be home," Pero said, ''to see my wife and kids -- and play some poker online." 