The Magic Man is Back!

Y’all know I had to do my first player profile article on my baby boo Magic!

Recently players have asked me where my very best poker playing friend Magic has been. “Hey Chris, where’s your girlfriend Magic? Haven’t seen him in a while. Did he go back to ‘school’ again?” 

Lol. Nah guys he didn’t go back to school. He has actually been doing well, handling his business and being a good dad. Last night he was spotted at a poker table for the first time in months, playing 1-2 NL Holdem. He took a win of $430 after a small session, and headed back to work. I asked if he was back. He said yes, adding he was going to play in both major El Paso tournaments hosted this month. That would be the $15k Guaranteed, hosted by Sun City. As well as the $1,100 buy-in with $20k Guaranteed to 1st Place, hosted by High Society.  

“Sometimes you just have to take a break from poker. I wasn’t losing or anything. I was actually up from the last several sessions I had. And I wanted it to leave it that way. I have made the mistake in the past of continuing to hit the tables relentlessly, until I lost my whole bankroll. I wanted to enjoy that money on Christmas and a vacation with my kids. I’ve also been working hard, building up a roll, and now I am ready to crush it at the tables. I knew I was going to run bad if I played these past couple months, so I just skipped over all that bad juju, and I’m feeling good now.”

I remember the first time I laid eyes on Magic. This would have been at least 15 years ago because it was at a freeroll tournament at some westside bar. This motherfucker wouldn’t shut the fuck up. Fucking annoying and picking on players for no good reason. So I started laying into him, and that only riled him up more, and we were talking mad shit. Maybe just a few months after that, I run into him at a private cash game, and he ends up running a squeeze play on me with his buddy. Even saying “yeah that’s right! We just colluded and did that on purpose. What are you gonna do about it?” This motherfucker had been talking shit to me all night, even making fun of my mole (I had a huge mole on my face back in the day, this is why I had it removed lol, thanks Magic). The squeeze play would have worked beautifully, forcing me to fold, but unfortunately for Mr Magic, I had flopped a set, so I called. The look on his face was priceless. After that, Magic and his buddy got up and left. Man that was satisfying. Fuck that guy!

Then maybe 6 months to a year after that, we literally and unintentionally acted out that one scene from How High where Method Man and Red Man meet each other in the parking lot. I had just arrived at Alex Guadalupe’s game and I was getting ready to do my pregame ritual in my white Ford Mustang. Except all I had was a blunt wrap with nothing to put in it. I was like damn, and I got out of my car and started heading to the front door in full despair. And then, lo and behold, that motherfucker I hate pulled up, and said, “Yo man, you got anything to smoke out of?” I said, “I have a blunt, but no smoke.” Magic said, “Perfect! Hop in!” So I did, and of course we got to talking, and the rest is history. I love this man, now. 

Magic is for sure one of the most well known players in the El Paso poker scene. And for El Paso players, they either love him or hate him. Or actually, it’s both depending which day it is, and who Magic is targeting with his table talk. In a recent conversation with Magic, I reminded him that some players think negatively about him, accusing him of being disruptive and disrespectful to the game. “I am trying to be disruptive to a players’ particular game, it’s part of my strategy to get inside a player’s head and disrupt their game, but I always have respect for the game of poker and the poker community as a whole. In my younger years, for sure I was just being a mamon, acting a fool to get attention, and I am sure at times I was actually disrespectful to players. But I have matured now, and I don’t go looking to cross the line of disrespect, all my table talk is now very strategic, not just for the hell of getting a rise out of someone like I sometimes used to.”

 But at the same time a lot of players seem to love him. They greet him like he is a good friend and a great man. “The ones that love me have spent time with me away from the poker table. They see I have a completely different attitude away from the table. As my good friend Eric McNabb used to say, I’m on the table for one reason, and that’s to take stacks and dreams. Away from the table, I love everybody from the poker community. The ones that know me know I am the first one to help if someone is in trouble. I might have just shit talked you on the poker table, but if I see you on the side of the road with a flat tire, I am pulling over to help, regardless of what happened on the poker table.”

I asked him to also share some of his experience as a dealer. “That’s really why people don’t like me. Especially because back in the day everyone knew I was a “marker” player, and for whatever reason that rubbed people the wrong way. I wasn’t going to put the money I needed to feed my family on the poker table. If the house wanted me to play, they knew it had to be on a marker, and if I lost I would just deal it off. They hated that I would never pay my debt back with cash. No way was I going to do that, when I knew the debt I had was ultimately helping the game, helping to put money in the pockets of the house. The house always got it back when the debted players would win, or the house would put debted players in the box. So I have no apologies for that.”

 I always did say, the best way to get a poker dealing job was to borrow money from the house and lose.   

I also asked him about Jack of Hearts. For those that follow Magic on Facebook, you might remember him heavily promoting the venue. He started by posting videos of the place being constructed, and kept hyping up the place until its grand opening. It seemed he was going all-in with Jack of Hearts. And then shortly after it’s opening, Magic was like, “Fuck Jack’s!” Lol. I was like, what happened, bro?

“Jack of Hearts was opened, managed and owned by two people (Jack and Nassib) who had zero experience in running poker, but would not take advice from staff who combined had over a hundred years of poker managing experience. The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was receiving a text instructing staff not to play anywhere but Jack’s. With other clubs, like House of Kings, finally starting to embrace the idea of all clubs as one community, I felt we were taking a big step backwards and I decided to walk away.”

(Side note: I plan on writing a full article on Jack of Hearts, let me know if someone can put me in touch with Jack and Nassib for their side of the story)

Okay Magic, so what advice do you have to all the El Paso Card Clubs? “Never be complacent. Always put players first. And stay consistent on the rules, don’t play favorites with the players. And of course, let your staff play at other card clubs, and encourage the El Paso poker community to be supportive to one another. This is so important. This is why we really play. The best part of the game for me is the memories with the Sherrodds, Zubiates, Martitas, Clyde’s, Crazy Eddie’s, Steve’s, Sweet dear Angie’s, I met my best friend through this game. It’s been a poker family through good and bad and I couldn’t pick a better family to be a part of.”

Well said, Magic. Well said. See you on the felt, brother. Stacks and dreams, baby.