Poker News Daily: How did you get started playing poker?
Markholt: My dad used to play a little bit of poker in the local card rooms here in Washington State. One summer, I was laid up from riding bulls. I had shoulder surgery and couldn’t work, couldn’t ride bulls, and was just sitting around. I picked up a couple of my dad’s poker books and read them. After that, I started playing in local card rooms and went from there.
PND: At what point did you know that poker would become more than just a hobby?
Markholt: When I quit riding bulls at 25 years-old, I started to play poker more and more. I realized that I was winning consistently and actually making more playing poker on the weekends than working in my dad’s meat cutting business during the week. I decided to try it full-time and haven’t looked back.
PND: You won the Season VI World Poker Challenge on the World Poker Tour and have several solid WSOP cashes to your name. In your opinion, what’s your biggest poker accomplishment?
Markholt: I would have to say it’s a toss up between my World Poker Tour win in Reno and my Professional Poker Tour (PPT) win at the Bellagio in 2005, which was invitation-only and had all of the pros. That was a pretty big feather in my cap.
PND: Describe the atmosphere of the final table of a major live tournament.
Markholt: It’s a rush. I really enjoy it. Part of the reason I play tournaments is the competition. When you get down to the final table, the adrenaline gets going and it takes me back to my bull riding days.
PND: Tell us about your decision to become a poker pro in Washington State instead of in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
Markholt: I don’t play in Washington State anymore. I’m on the road traveling and do all of my playing out of state. Before I started traveling, it was before the poker boom and I just ground it out in the local card rooms around town to stay close to my family. I played $10/$20 and $20/$40 Limit Hold’em and Omaha Eight or Better.
It wasn’t easy. There were a couple of times that I almost quit and did other things, but I stuck with it because I loved the game. Fortunately, internet poker, Chris Moneymaker, and the World Poker Tour all culminated at the same time and gave me a lot of opportunities. I can make money on the road and then come home and relax. I’m on the road about half of the time now.
PND: You used to be a skilled bull rider. Tell us what being a bull rider is like. Could you have seen yourself doing it professionally?
Markholt: I rode at the professional level, but I didn’t do it full-time. I mainly stuck around the Columbia River circuit, which is in Washington and Oregon. I never did it full-time, but competed at the highest levels at professional rodeos. It was quite an experience. Every day, I wake up and my body is sore. I’ve had so many injuries, but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.
PND: Describe what made the PPT tournament series different from others like the WPT or WSOP.
Markholt: It was invitation-only. You had to earn your way into it. Just to get invited on that tour was a big deal for me. Then, to go ahead and win one of the events was a huge feather in my cap. You’re competing against all of the best pros. That was a big achievement for me.
PND: After all of the success you’ve had, are there any facets of your game that still need improvement?
Markholt: In my mind, you never quit learning. I’ve been a professional poker player for 20 years and am still very interested in other people’s insights. If a new book comes out that I haven’t read and I have respect for the author, I’m going to buy it and read it. Even if I don’t learn anything, just to read other people’s insights on the game and how they think about poker is very useful. Everybody thinks about the game a little bit differently and there is definitely more than one winning style in poker. I’m still learning the game. If you ever get to a point where you’re not learning, that’s when your game starts going in the other direction.
PND: How has the game of poker changed since you first became involved and how have you adjusted?
Markholt: The internet has brought so many new players and the average age of a poker player is now very young. A lot of the internet kids are very good. They’re smart, they learn the game fast, and you have to adjust. For the most part, a lot of them play a very aggressive style. My bread and butter is still cash games, but I love tournaments because of the competition. The game evolves. You just have to stay on top of it and adjust accordingly.
PND: Talk about the differences between tournaments and cash games.
Markholt: In cash games, you’re playing much more deep-stacked. You’re sitting with maybe 300 big blinds, so there are more post-flop decisions. In tournaments, especially as you get deeper, a lot of your decision process is pre-flop. A situation where there is a raise, a re-raise, and then someone pushes all in doesn’t happen very often in cash games. I mainly play the bigger buy-in tournaments because they play more like cash games early on; you get a lot of chips and the blinds progress slowly.
PND: What advice do you have for beginners?
Markholt: Treat it like a business. It’s like anything else in life in that you get out of it what you put into it. Work hard at it and study. Stay away from all of the other pitfalls that are associated with the gambling world: the casino games, the nightlife, and the glitz. You have to stay focused on the game.