John Gale

	He’s become a star at an age when many have lost the self-belief

John Gale lays down his knife and fork and for a moment abandons the steak he’s enjoying in the restaurant at the top of Binion’s Horseshoe casino, and says, ‘My aim is to become the No. 1 ranked poker player in the world.’

This surprises me a little. It seems overly ambitious. And uncharacteristic for someone who majors in humility. Of course, he can be forgiven; he’s still on a high after just winning his first WSOP gold bracelet and becoming only the second British player (Devilfish is the other) to have won both a WSOP and a World Poker Tour title.

But what it really reflects is the contradictory strands in the man’s personality. He combines humility with considerable self-confidence. From experience he believes that on his day he can beat anyone. He combines a friendly approach to his opponents, and genuine and warmly-expressed sympathy for those who lose, with an uncompromisingly competitive determination to send them to the other side of the rails.

He combines being ‘an ordinary guy, a husband and father’, with what I suspect is a relatively recent taste for fine champagne and limos. It could be that he’s a changing personality, that success is affecting him. Or it could be that he’s just a nice guy who happens to operate in a tough ‘kill or be killed’ business and has learned to do what he has to do… and to enjoy the rewards it brings.

He himself has no doubts. Confronted with the question he says, ‘I’m a nice guy. I worked in business for many years and never made any enemies. I do like the other players. But I’ve always been competitive too. It doesn’t have to be a contradiction.’ Nolan Dalla, the perceptive day-by-day chronicler of the WSOP, is convinced. He titled his report on Gale’s triumph in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event (he beat 561 players to win $374,849): ‘When good things happen to nice people.’

Late developer

Time to let the facts speak for themselves: John Gale lives the dream of the middle-aged recreational poker player; he’s become a star at an age when many have lost the self-belief or the will to dream at all. He’s 53 now, was born in London, left school at 16, and went into various forms of retailing before spending nearly 20 years in management consultancy. He specialised in the later years in helping companies prepare to go to the stock market.

He was, for many years while he was in business, a player at the Victoria Grosvenor, then took to the internet where he won consistently (he won his entry to this year’s World Series Main Event on Ladbrokes). Then in January last year he qualified for a World Poker Tour event in the Bahamas and went out with his wife Shirley for the holiday. ‘I didn’t even know he was playing in a tournament,’ Shirley says, ‘he just said he was going to play a bit of poker.’ He did that all right, winning the event – his first major tournament – and $865,000.

Flash in the pan? A one-off? He knew everyone would be saying that and desperately wanted to win a gold bracelet at the 2005 World Series to prove it wasn’t so. And it looked as if he was about to, in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event, until he suffered a series of bad beats and was driven into second place by Brian Wilson from Florida. He was devastated. Because, for all his humility, he wants desperately to be respected by his peers, and for those peers to be the big names in poker.

Return to the scene

Back on a final table again this year, Joe Hachem was one of his opponents. Facing Gale with only four players left, Hachem found himself holding K-9 with the flop showing K-4-3. He moved all-in. Gale had A-3, called, and picked up an Ace on the river to win with two-pair.

That left three and another went all-in, this time Kevin Ho with J-9. The flop came down A-10-8, giving him an open-ended straight draw. But Gale had A-J and Ho didn’t get the help he needed on the turn or river.

The heads-up was contested with Maros Lechman and went on for 89 hands with the chip lead changing four times. But finally Gale took a clear lead and found himself holding K-9 against A-6. The board showed 10-9-7-5-2 and he won with a pair of Nines.

An emotional Gale says it’s the bracelet that matters, not the money, and this is clearly the case. He doesn’t want to be ‘the No. 1’ in the world for the money. He just wants to be the number one in the world. Full stop.

Gale is an aggressive player, as I guess you have to be to win these big events. Barny Boatman says, ‘I’ve played with him a few times and he’s fearless.’ His play has an air of authority. Watching his WPT win on video shows how decisively he acts. He likes to boss the table. And it’s these qualities of aggression, fearlessness and decisive authority that contrast with the geniality, the hugs for players knocked out, and the cosy informality that we also see.

So who is the real John Gale? Is he Mr Nice Guy? Or Mr Nasty? Or is he a fairly straightforward, albeit competitive, 53-year-old for whom in just 18 months life has become a ball, and who, at least subconsciously, is afraid he’ll wake up in the morning and find it’s all a dream? Does the occasional lapse from affability, and the chain-smoking suggest he’s putting himself under greater pressure than he likes to admit?

My guess is that if we could turn over his cards it’s this last character who is likely to emerge.

Career highlights

Tournament winnings: $2,189,273
19/7/06: 37th World Series of Poker 2006; $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em – 1st, $374,849
20/6/05: 36th World Series of Poker 2006; $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em – 2nd, $204,440
5/1/05 WPT; $7,800 No-Limit Hold’em – 1st, $890,600