Mickey Wernick

	Understand what a call and a raise means. It means the other guy thinks he’s got you beat

If anyone in British poker has been there and done it all, it’s Mickey Wernick. He’s the nearest we have to one of the old Texas road gamblers. When I was writing my book Swimming with the Devilfish I wanted to interview Mickey, and Mickey wanted to be interviewed – but I could never pin him down.

If I went to Walsall (where he said he would be) he’d be in Brighton; I’d go down to Brighton, only to find he was in Walsall. To Luton, only he was in Blackpool. Once I phoned his partner Dawn to ask where he was. She roared with laughter. ‘How would I know, I’m a poker widow.’

You can’t help taking to Mickey. He’s what’s known as a ‘character’. This is the man who used to play with Chan, Brunson and co in Vegas in the 1980s, and when he couldn’t afford the buy-in he would slip a lot of one dollar bills into his wad of $100s so that it looked as if he had the $20,000 he needed.

He’s short, he’s a bit tubby, he’s got a face that looks as if it’s taken a punch from time to time (which it has, because in earlier days he was a boxer, good enough to be the Midlands lightweight champion). But he’s immensely likeable, always friendly, always fun… the kind of guy even the pros are pleased to see winning.

And winning is what he’s been doing, because he’s a fantastically good poker player who finally, after years and years of being around and scratching out a living, has finally reached the top of European poker.

Mickey’s life breaks into two stories: there are the first 60 years, and there are the last two. Born in Wolverhampton, from the start his life was woven around the activities of his father Solly, firstly in the family sectional building business, and then in bookmaking and a poker club they ran in the upstairs room of the city’s old Victoria Hotel. Mickey was the dealer, sometimes working 20 hours at a time, often dealing to Solly, who was a hopeless player. ‘I’d be watching him lose and thinking, “For God’s sake, fold”, but what could I do?’ They also worked as bookmakers, Mickey becoming a familiar figure on his box at the dogs.

Hard times

It was their love of boxing that led them to Las Vegas, to see some of the big fights, and it was there that Mickey began to centre his life around playing poker. He was not a big winner. In fact, Mickey has been broke more times than he can tell, has often had to pawn his ring and more than once even had to sell his house. Often he would set off down the M1 to London knowing he had to win, because there was no food left for his family of six, no money for the rent. You could say he was irresponsible – well, I guess all gamblers are – and yet in his relentless pursuit of winnings, wherever they could be found, he showed he knew what his responsibility was and somehow always managed to meet it.

As the tournament scene grew throughout the 1990s Mickey’s name would appear in the prize lists, but he was rarely a winner. It was in 1993 that he first won, £6,240 in a pot-limit Omaha event in Sheffield. Internationally, he cashed in a no-limit Hold’em event at the 2003 World Series, and then cashed twice more in Las Vegas in 2004. He was always there or thereabouts, but still rarely a winner. And then last year, at 60, began the second stage of his poker life.

He was flat broke and driving down the motorway to a festival at the Vic casino knowing he would have to borrow to buy-in, and… well, I’ll let Mickey tell it, because he loves to: ‘I came down to London with £700. It was all I had left. I was feeling a bit desperate. I thought, it’s £1,000 for the tournament, so I have to sell myself out. And I did. The first day I get a result, second place; I win £7,000. Now I don’t need to sell percentages, so I buy-in to Tuesday’s event and I come eighth and get another chunk – and I’d only gone down for the day. So I come back on the Wednesday and get to the final of that event. I come second. I’ve gone down there with £700 and suddenly I’ve got over £20k.

‘And from that moment it all changed for me. From then on I’m in contention everywhere. ‘I never look at the European rankings but I happen to glance at them and it’s Wernick moving to number nine, and I think, what’s this? Well, I discover there’s £10k to the winner and I figure that would be useful … then it becomes a kind of dream to be European champion. I’ve gambled all my life and everyone knows me, probably anyone who is on the circuit. And I want to show I’m one of the best. Also, I think to myself, if I can win this I’ll have a chance of sponsorship. So everywhere there’s a festival I go, and I finally win the Luton Christmas Cracker, scoop £27,000, and find myself at the top…

Lease of life

So he ended 2005 as European champion and is still there or thereabouts this year. He’s also found a sponsor in Blue Square.

After all these years this relatively humble hustler has gained a new confidence. He’s discovered he can compete with anyone around and that discovery has made all the difference. Now he goes into these tournaments expecting to win.

But what is his strength? His fellow Midlander Marc Goodwin is in no doubt: ‘Mickey may be a gambler but he’s also an extraordinarily disciplined card player. He’s unbelievably good at putting down hands when he knows he’s behind. A lot of people can’t do that. If you see Mickey out of position and he has two Queens, then he has no hesitation… straight in the bin. Most of us would think, “I’m going to re-raise and see if you’ve got it.” And then, when you play as if you have, most still end up thinking, ‘well, I can’t pass.’ Mickey doesn’t get into those situations.’

Mickey confirms that being ready to put a hand down, no matter how attractive it may seem, is a key ingredient of his game. ‘If you’re 90 percent sure you’re in front, even though the hand looks good – say a pair of Queens – and you raise and somebody re-raises… I mean what can you beat? You can only beat a pair of Jacks. They’re not going to be re-raising on Jacks. You may be looking at a re-raise with Ace-King and then your pair of Queens are in a coin-flip and I don’t like playing coin-flips.

‘If someone who’s a top player calls or raises you, the chances are they’re ahead. They don’t risk their chips unless they’re ahead. So pick a better opportunity – wait for a better situation.’

He puffs on yet another of innumerable cigarettes (well, he’s a gambler, and that includes with his health) and says, ‘Listen, I’ve been around a long time and I have a view about poker, and it’s that it all comes down to common sense. You have to use simple common sense. Don’t do silly things. Understand what a call and a raise means. It means the other guy thinks he’s got you beat. And he probably has.’

Career highlights

Current reigning European No.1
05/01/06 European Hall of Fame Classic, Paris – €5,000 No-limit Hold’em 2nd, €26,085
10/12/05 Luton Christmas Cracker – £750 Main Event No-limit Hold’em; 1st, £27,100
29/06/05 36th World Series of Poker – $1,500 Seven-Card Razz; 6th, $19,675