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Playing Texas HoldEm poker with Chris Moneymaker, the accountant who came out of nowhere to win the 2003 World Series of Poker, is a bit like shooting hoops with Michael Jordan - though lady luck can even the odds slightly.

But Moneymaker (yes, that's his real name) is many things not seen on the frequent ESPN replays of his historic Vegas run. For starters, he doesn't even wear those trademark Oakley sunglasses.

"I use them only for the big games," he says, pulling up the table.

This isn't a big game?!

"Well, I'm not going to say that. Big money games, where I might get nervous. I haven't worn glasses in a while. They're more bothersome to me, actually, 'cause you have to take them on and off."

Well, our game was admittedly not big money. It was for, ahem, no money. But the stakes were still very real for the eight players (amateurs but competitive, including myself) The Associated Press brought together on a recent weekday evening to compete against one of poker's biggest names.

The game of Texas HoldEm was played at a Manhattan poker club, an apparently cleanly run (though unadvertised and technically illegal) parlour of about ten green felt poker tables. It packs in a crowd of mostly 20-something guys on a nightly basis, many of whom caught the poker bug from the much televised holdem games. But they are far from alone in today's full-fledged poker boom.

In 2003, the sport (if you can call it that) became a surprise hit for ESPN, which recently released a DVD of their eight hours of World Series coverage. On it, you can again watch Moneymaker's unlikely rise to the final table, where he ended the tournament (and won $2.5 million US) with a full house, two hands after a dramatic bluff against vet Sammy Farha.

That particular Texas HoldEm hand, where Moneymaker bluffed his way to win over $6 million in chips with just king high, deserves a spot in poker lore. That's a place Moneymaker already resides in, having ascended to the pinnacle of the game in his first tournament.

But the average guy in the baseball cap has indeed changed. For nine months following his big win, Moneymaker, 28, remained an accountant, but as the poker boom grew, he realized the financial prospects at his door. Now with an agent, the Tennessee native has a video game due for this spring, an autobiography in the works and is in talks for a made-for-TV movie.

And here he was playing a no-money game looking like a grownup frat boy.

In Texas HoldEm poker, everyone is dealt two cards face down. After a round of betting, the dealer lays down three community cards called "the flop." Another round of betting is followed by one more community card called "the turn" or "fourth street." More betting, then the final card, "the river," is shown. The player who can make the best hand out of their two cards and those on the table wins. But aggressive raises, safe folds and daring bluffs make having the cards to win only half of the battle.

Moneymaker passes his first couple hands, and explains, "If I get good hands, I'll play. I just don't play much early. Playing at a single table like this, the idea is just don't go broke early."

After settling in, Moneymaker says that his strength is reading people, specifically their betting pattern.

"You play with one guy, say, for example, him." Moneymaker points to Josh Kolenik, a 25-year-old musician. "He gets a top pair, he always bets it out. If he pops a set, he doesn't bet, he checks it and bets small on the turn and then he'll break huge if you raise over the top."

This analysis comes five minutes after meeting Josh, and after only three hands which he mostly spent eating a ham sandwich and talking to me. Josh later informs me this was precisely his strategy.

In the first hand Moneymaker plays, he holds a queen and a jack. The flop comes with a five, a king and an ace, giving him a straight draw - he only needs a ten for a very good hand. The turn comes, another king, and the river, another ace. Moneymaker finds himself heads up with Rich Alter, a 35-year-old equities trader - and a guy looking to take down the big dog.

Moneymaker, in brief, barely perceptible sideways glances, reads his competitor. Rich goes all in.

Moneymaker doesn't hesitate in folding. He missed his straight and with two aces and two kings sitting out there, the danger of running into a full house is real. Chris guesses aloud that his hand probably beats Rich with the kicker, and is absolutely right. Alter turns over a queen and a ten - Moneymaker's Jack would have trumped Rich's ten.

So Moneymaker accurately envisioned Rich's hand, but knew it wasn't worth the risk of being booted from the game.

Rich's logic? "I didn't have much of anything, but he hadn't been playing many hands. I figured he was just trying to buy it."

Soon the table loses its first player: Levy Wilkerson, 57, a former cop and now a security guard, whose pocket ace-king are beaten by four fives.

After again missing a straight draw, Moneymaker loses to Josh's pocket eights, (Josh's hands were visibly shaking), but recoups some chips in another hand.

Nevertheless, Moneymaker finds himself low and needing to take a chance. With pocket sevens, he sees his opportunity, pushing in his small stack of $200. But Karen Janowski, 38, a high school math teacher, quickly sees his bet, prompting this exchange:

Moneymaker: "I don't like the way she said that. The way she said that, I'm in trouble."

Seeing an opportunity to impart some wisdom, the humbled Moneymaker offers this maxim: "Don't raise all your chips into pocket aces. It's not a good thing to do. It's hard to shake someone out with those two cards."

As just the third Texas HoldEm player knocked out, Moneymaker's exit may have been early for a world champion, but in every game he might as well have a bulls-eye on his back.

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