The first five years of my life were idyllic. My parents were totally committed to giving me and my siblings the most carefree of environments so that we could explore nature, music and art in whatever ways we liked. For most of those early years we lived in an old farmhouse. My mom stayed home and my dad was careful to be as available as he could and still support us financially.
When it was time to start school, my parents decided they wanted us to grow up in a neighborhood, with other kids to play with instead of goats and cows, although that was fun too. We moved to Madison, WI and one of my best friends was a boy named Jeff Weum, whose dad was a professional poker player named Dewey. In those days there were maybe 50 people in the world who would have claimed that status.
Although I didn’t consider taking up poker seriously until many years later, there were at least three all night Texas Hold Em parties in Jeff’s basement when we were in middle school.
One night in Portland I was watching tv and found a program about a poker player from Madison named Phil Hellmuth. I was fascinated by Phil’s story and remembered that my friend Lucas, had coincidentally lent me a poker book before I left for Portland. I began to wonder if I could use poker to support my musical endeavors.
From this point, destiny took over. During an online game I was seated next to a player named P0ker H0 on UltimateBet and I asked him if he was the same P0ker H0 who Phil mentioned in the same book Lucas had lent me. It was the real P0ker H0 and he invited me to look him up when I moved back to Madison. I did, and he was gracious enough to pretend that he actually remembered me. P0ker H0 became a mentor to me and a close friendship was formed.
Over the next few years, my primary focus began to shift from music to poker. It’s been a wild ride so far, playing and partying with the biggest names in poker, to finally talking about it on my own radio show.
Stay Focused and Live the Dream
Mike “Wisco” Murray
