It was early 2017 when I came home fresh off of a nice heater run in Atlantic City where I final tabled 3 daily tournaments in a row and took 1st place in two of them [details and pictures of these events are in my very first post here on Scorum titled "My Intro to SCR- Poker, Life, and Scorum"].
I got home to share news of my success with my spouse as I remained on cloud nine for quite some time after. For that whole week alone no one could get me to believe that there a was better poker player than myself. During the following weekend, I began thinking to myself "I need some new poker gear." I searched up google and somehow I came across chipbully.com where I found some cool looking gear.
After making some orders I waited for about a week or two before I noticed something was up with my delivery as it was taking too long. Realizing the store was only ran online I decided to look up the owner and found that he was quite active on social media promoting his brand. After taking a further look, I realized I've seen this guy somewhere before. In fact, I had watched him take down the Borgata Open tournament in Atlantic City a few months back in the year of 2016.
His name was none other than Joe Reddick, author, professional poker player, and creator of Chip Bully INC.
https://www.chipbully.com
[at one point during the final table, Joe Reddick was All-In with KK and one of the top player's at the table had called and flipped over AA. Needless to say, it was Joe's day as he binked the king on the turn card. I remember me being ecstatic watching him win because Joe's demeanor/style of play reminded me a lot of my own. I was happy to see him win it all and enjoyed his humbleness all throughout the tournament. He is obviously one of the classiest of pros you'd ever meet (and I've met quite a few in my short life time)].
... Needless to say, Joe not only graciously took the time to correspond with me but he also drove all the way out to deliver my order along with other clothes for my older brother who owns a tattoo shop called Grind Design Tattoo, which is where we all met up.
*Joe originally showed up to my house at first but then I suggested that he follow me down the road to my brother's shop so that we could formally greet each other and do business.
Once there, I formally introduced myself to Joe and told him I knew of him before we talked and became a fan after his victory at the borgata. Joe and I obviously had a lot to talk about being that we were both poker players (despite him being at a higher level) but what was most interesting was when my brother walked in and sorta stole the limelight.
My older brother, Butch, and Joe Reddick, who are closer in age than I am to any one of them, had found out that they both had similar success stories. My brother, Butch, spent 3 years in prison and Joe had spent 17 years in prison , both came out and established themselves to become businessman/brand owners. What was most mesmerizing to me was that Joe had a secret skill similar to my brother in that they were both chess masters in their own regard.
My brother, who I had never seen lose a game, easily defeated Joe in their first match. Joe, claiming to be rusty and hadn't played in a while, offered to play Butch in another game. I thought to myself , "damn, Joe's going to find out the hard way." Throughout the course of me taking pictures and standing by idly allowing Joe and Butch some peace and silence to concentrate, I realized Joe actually knew what he was doing as he continued on to beat my brother. Like I said before, I never seen my big bro lose in a chess game. I'm the type of person who's usually exceptionally good at most things I can put my mind to but chess was one of those games I could only manage to be decent in and so defeating my brother was a feat I had never pulled off - nor ever seen anyone else do in person.
Below is a short clip of the ending of their match where Joe had my brother flustered and near the end of defeat
Joe had already exceeded all of my expectations of him being a great poker player but after hanging with him at my brothers tattoo shop I began to see that he was indeed the extraordinary person I perceived him to be (at least for just those couple of hours that I was fortunate enough to share with him).
Since then, Joe and I had only talked just briefly through dm's shortly after our encounter. I still follow him on instagram (even though I rarely use IG these days) and I even have his personal number, so maybe one of these days I'll muster up the energy and words to get him here on Scorum.
I hope you enjoyed the read.
Enjoy your evening.
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