Over 400 Cashes and You've Never Heard of Him!

It’s poker quiz time and let’s play a quick game of ‘Who am I?’ Buzz when you know the answer or just read on.

Unless you’ve read the rest of the article first, I imagine you either don’t know who I am talking about or, at best, you don’t know much about him. You might have guessed Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan,or Humberto Brenes, but you would have been wrong. The player we are discussing likes to be unnoticed, but I was so intrigued when this story hit the Internet recently that I wanted to write about him. His name is Randy Holland.

A look at Randy Holland’s Hendon Mob Poker Database page makes for interesting reading. His largest live cash is $177,460 but his 400+ cashes see him weigh in with $3.5 million in lifetime career cashes, which is very impressive. His very first tournament entry is from when he reached the final table of the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event at the 1993 World Series of Poker which saw him finish 8th for a cash of $11,040. This was his first WSOP event. That particular event saw well-known poker players Chad Brown and Humberto Brenes also finish in the top 20 and Hugo Mieth won the event and captured the gold bracelet.

Why is it we know so little about Randy when he has achieved such consistent results during his long poker career? Part of the reason is because he achieved a lot of poker success prior to the poker boom. Yes, poker existed before 2003 and it was very popular! There are many players like Randy out there who were regulars on the poker circuit for many years, specializing in many games other than No Limit Hold’em that carved out a consistent and successful poker career outside of mainstream media interest, but did not hit the headlines because their poker careers had peaked before the boom. They continue to do well, grinding out a living, but the younger more flamboyant pros capture the media imagination. It is a shame in a way.

Another reason for him flying below the radar is his shy nature. Poker players are usually gregarious self-promoters who do not just hope for the limelight but actively seek it out. Phil Hellmuth is a great example of this. He laments poor coverage but would soon complain if the cameras passed him by on route to another poker pro. Randy prefers to tread a quieter path, leaving his poker to do the talking. Judging by his results, his poker is very good. He is vastly experienced and must catch many players off guard with abilities that have been honed by his 400 cashes and many more tournament appearances.

Reading about his background it is not such a surprise that Randy found success playing poker. He was a successful lawyer in Florida and we know that building a successful career in law takes more than a smile! You need serious brainpower! He turned to poker in his 40’s and has not looked back. The long hours researching law became long hours at the poker table and this reminds us that there are no shortcuts, nor should we fall into the trap of thinking that poker is an easy career. Randy put in as many hours at poker as he did in law in his first month as a poker professional.

I was interested to hear his views on whether he would welcome the opportunity to start out as a professional poker player today. Randy said that he would be hesitant to do so, especially at a young age, feeling it is important to get real life experience first. I agree with him, in a way.

During a recent interview, he said:

As a young person working a 9 - 5 desk job I recall reading things like this and I used to get angry and frustrated. Here is a guy who has enjoyed freedom I could only dream of, talking about going on worldwide cruises, getting to travel, and earning good money, telling me it’s all not quite such a good idea as I struggled on. Compared to what I had when I was young, I’d take the rough with the smooth even if there was quite some rough along the way.

A little more mature now, I note his serious point. Randy’s view and, despite my lack of poker cruises and personal freedom, probably my own view is that you should live a bit of life before achieving your dream. It keeps you humble and grounded and when you do reach the stars you will appreciate it all the more. I think that is his point. By all means chase the dream, but always stay humble. Life lesson over.

Despite not being particularly well-known to us poker railbirds, Randy Holland had a good enough reputation in poker to persuade poker legends John Juanda and Erik Seidel to exchange action with him at the beginning of their poker careers and then later on to stake him once their careers had flourished.

As you progress in your own poker career you will need to decide what type of professional poker player you want to be if you are good enough to play poker for a living. Do you want to be like Randy, enjoying a long poker career but away from the media spotlight? Or do you want to own the tables and the media coverage in equal measure? Either path is fine if you are good enough. Randy says that he hopes to win a couple more bracelets before he retires from the game and remains active in the moderately high stakes cash games around the world. If you play these games, you may not even notice him there if he plays against you.

That was his choice, now you need to make yours!