Glory Days: A Wild Look Back at Poker's Golden Age

Take a look at a photo from around 2005. It’s not the crisp, high-definition stuff we see today. It’s got that slightly grainy, authentic feel of the era. A group of us are sitting around a poker table: me on the left, then Antonio Esfandiari, Clonie Gowen, Kathy Liebert, some other guy, Phil Laak, and Jennifer Tilly. Yeah, that lineup. It was the biggest cash game of my life, and honestly, it felt like the peak of the world.

This all went down at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Clonie Gowen had run a World Poker Tour seminar, and after connecting there, she invited me to a private game during the World Series. The stakes were $25/$50. I sat down with $25,000, which felt like an insane amount of money. And for a while, it looked like I was going to lose it all. I bled chips until I was down to my last $9k, and I could feel that sick, hollow feeling in my stomach. You know the one. But somehow, I clawed my way back. I ended up cashing out for $32,000. My confidence went through the roof. Beating a table full of killers? I felt invincible.

The Wild West of Poker

For those who were there, in that post-Moneymaker boom, you know what I’m talking about. It was a different universe. A friend and I spent a year just following the WPT circuit, grinding the cash games that sprung up around the tournaments. The games were just so unbelievably soft. I remember playing 2/5 uncapped at Caesars, and it wasn't weird to see $50,000 on the table in a game that small. My strategy was simple: buy in for $5k, way deeper than the drunk tourists buying in for $500, and just run them over. It was like printing money.

It truly felt like the last decade of old-school poker. It was social. It was about reads and feel, not game theory and solvers. People talked. People drank. You’d bring a six-pack or something to a private game, be a decent person, and nobody cared if they lost a few buy-ins to you.

You'd see celebrities all the time. I remember René Angélil, Celine Dion’s late husband, showing up to play. I even ran into Shannon Elizabeth back when she was deep in the poker scene. Still kicking myself for not getting a picture with her.

It was a time when flopping top pair, top kicker felt like the nuts because you knew three people were going to pay you off with garbage. The money was just flowing everywhere. It wasn’t just the poker economy; the whole world felt flush before the 2008 crash. Out in Vegas, you could rent a five-bedroom house with a pool for like $900 a month. My buddy and I were seriously considering moving out there. Three hundred bucks each for rent? It was a no-brainer.

The High Life and the High Cost

But here’s the thing about printing money: you find ways to spend it just as fast. The poker room at Caesars was right next to a huge club. The lifestyle was… intoxicating. Everything I was winning, I was spending on women and drugs. We were young, and this was before Adderall was the poker player’s drug of choice, so it was always coke. You could stay up for 48 hours straight at a table that was just too good to leave. It felt amazing at the time, but looking back? It was a one-way ticket to ruin.

I couldn’t survive that lifestyle. A lot of people didn’t. I think if I had continued down that path, I’d just be another casualty, another sad story of a poker player who burned out or worse.

One person in the community mentioned their dad warning them about the dangers, asking, "what if you end up on heroin?" It sounds dramatic, but it was a fair question. The temptation was everywhere. So, I quit. I walked away from poker for a long, long time. It was probably the best decision I ever made.

Whatever Happened To…?

It’s funny seeing that old picture and thinking about everyone at that table.

Clonie Gowen

Clonie Gowen… that’s a name you don’t hear much anymore. She was a huge face for a while, sponsored by PartyPoker. She was always super cool to me. I heard she ended up suing Full Tilt for a massive amount of money over a broken ownership promise and got a big settlement. Good for her. She deserved to be chilling after that whole mess.

Kathy Liebert

And then there’s Kathy Liebert, wrapped up in what looks like a velvet or velour tracksuit. Someone joked it was a nod to George Costanza. To be fair, those casino rooms are always freezing, so she was probably the most comfortable person there.

Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly

Of course, no one can see a picture of Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly without asking the eternal question: how did he manage that? People forget, but back then, he was a huge celebrity in the poker world. They called him the 'Unabomber' because of his signature hoodie and sunglasses. He was funny, smart, and a character at the table. She was getting into the game after her acting career. Maybe it was just a case of opposites attracting.

The 'Other Guy'

And the other guy in the photo? The one I just called 'scammer'? Well, that’s a longer, uglier story. Let’s just say he owes me a seven-figure sum and had to flee the country. A classic poker world story, unfortunately.

A Different Game, A Different Life

It’s a trip down memory lane. I’ve been playing a little 2/5 locally lately, just for fun. The game has changed so much. It's quieter, more mathematical. You don't see the same kind of wild action you did back then. But maybe that’s for the best. That era was incredible, a gold rush on green felt. But it wasn’t sustainable. I traded the 48-hour sessions and the high-stakes grind for a different kind of life. Now I’ve got two grandkids.

Looking back, that night wasn't just about the money I won. It was about being in the right place at the right time, at the absolute peak of a cultural phenomenon. It was a hell of a ride, and I’m damn lucky I knew when to get off.