Oklahoma Poker Legend Still Finds the Thrill in Competition
Chances are, if you’ve played poker anywhere in the Midwest, you have played against Oklahoma poker legend Doug Paxton. The long-time poker grinder and the 2006 Oklahoma State Poker Championship winner spoke to PokerNews about his accomplished poker career.
Paxton shared that he was first introduced to poker when he was just in the fourth grade. He was taught how to play seven-card stud and five-card draw poker.
Paxton stated, “We used to use toothpicks for chips. We would take 20 toothpicks each. When we were done, we would put them back.”
Paxton eventually graduated from his toothpick days as he got older, and he reflected that his introduction to tournament poker began when he visited to play a cash game in Deadwood, South Dakota, where he began to play Texas Hold’Em more frequently.
Paxton shared, “I’d learned to play Hold’em before that in Vegas, but when I went to Deadwood, I was playing one night and this guy said, ‘You play pretty good poker. You ought to get in their tournament we have tomorrow.” Paxton stated that he listened to the advice and won the tournament the following day. Ever since his first taste of victory, Paxton has been grinding at tournaments and traveling across the country and Canada, finding the best tournaments to play as he chased bigger buy-ins and prizes.
Paxton stated that it wasn’t until he played in a tournament in Tunica, Mississippi, that he felt he could compete with some of the best players in the country.
Paxton said, “I found out I could play with the big boys… well, sometimes,” he said with a wry smile.
The Weatherford, Oklahoma resident has always been a competitor. Paxton used to compete in trapshooting and rose up the ranks in the trapshooting world, but ultimately decided to put his focus into poker. He shared that it is still the friction of competition that keeps him coming back to the tables throughout the decades of his poker career.
Paxton is still in contention but shared that he has had a turbulent start to Day 1b, but he can still be seen peering under the brim of his cowboy hat, chasing another title to add to his resume.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
23,000
23,000
|
23,000 |