This was published in two parts by Poker Player Newspaper, but because of the limitations of space, it had to be cut down. Here's the complete article:
Donnie Vann started playing poker in the ninth grade on a junior high trip to Washington, D.C. His cousin Lamar had taught him the fundamentals of the game – basically what beats what and how you make the best hand – back when he was about ten years old. Donnie played off and on, but about five years ago, he became caught up in the poker excitement like so many others in the wake of Chris Moneymaker’s astonishing win in the 2003 World Series of Poker. He started playing online and in casinos near his home in Jacksonville, Florida.
Little of this would be noteworthy, were it not for the fact that Donnie Vann is paralyzed from his shoulders down. Injured in a diving accident when he was just 15-years-old, Donnie broke his neck and has been a quadriplegic ever since. To see his cards at a live game, he needs the assistance of one of his round-the-clock nurses who has to show him his cards while not exposing them to anyone else at the table. He tells them what he wants to do and they make the moves that he cannot. He plays mostly at local casinos, but this summer he set out to make a dream come true. He got a trailer, loaded it up, brought along his nurses, and headed out west to play in the biggest poker tournament of them all, the World Series of Poker.
I had a chance to catch up with Donnie in the middle of the West Coast part of his adventure. He was very upbeat and excited about the trip so far and looking forward to the next couple of weeks. He told me that he set out from his home on D-Day, June 6th, in a van with a trailer attached. That seemed like a fitting choice of a start date as travelling for someone with such a serious medical condition would seem to require preparation on a military scale. It took five days to make the trek and he started a blog to record his experiences along the way – http://dvann.blogspotcom/.
Once Donnie arrived in Las Vegas, he quickly met up with people who heard of his story and wanted to help, dispelling the stereotype of Las Vegas as seedy and uncaring. He had actually met one of these people, poker pro Susie Isaacs, some months earlier when she and fellow pro Tom McEvoy were teaching a poker seminar on tournament play at the Orange Park Kennel Club in Jacksonville, followed by two days of tournament play.
“After I was knocked out of the tournament, I was sitting next to Susie and we started talking and just hit it off," Donnie told me. "We went to dinner and we have kept in touch by email and phone calls here and there. She is wonderful. She has done so much for me. She’s really made my experience out here through the moon. Without her, I wouldn’t be able to do half the stuff I’m doing now.”
And what Donnie is doing is having the time of his life. Thanks to Susie, he was able to get a sponsor for his first WSOP appearance. Susie then told her friend Doralee Rae, aka Lady Pink, about his story. Lady Pink, in turn, offered to pay his buy-in to one of the $1K tournaments if he would wear her logo. Susie also put Donnie in touch with the people at FullTilt Poker. “She told them my story and they liked it and then put their logo on the trailer that I brought with me to carry all my stuff. They gave me clothes to wear. She really helped me in so many ways.”
But Donnie also helps himself. He was not coming to the WSOP unprepared. He had entered a satellite at his local casino, a $150 buy-in that, if it attracted at least 100 players, would award one seat to the Main Event. 132 players entered that tournament – and it was Donnie Vann who took it down. “I was prepared to pay the $10,000 if I had to in order to play, but I ended up winning the satellite. I’m really looking forward to playing in the Main Event. My mom, my nurses, and my best friend will all be there on the 6th” when Donnie was scheduled to play Day One.
Donnie finished the $1K event in the middle of the pack, happy to get his feet wet, even if he didn’t cash. With his first WSOP event under his belt, Donnie was ready for more. First, he entered the Pot Limit Omaha 8/b event. Then, it was time for the big show -- the WSOP Main Event.
Like so many other poker players, Donnie Vann has wanted to go to Las Vegas for the WSOP for some time, “It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the World Series of Poker,” he told me during our interview last month. Watching the broadcast on TV, he set his sights on being one of the many at the Rio vying for the most prestigious title in all of poker. But, for Donnie, a quadriplegic who relies on around-the-clock nurses to help him with even the most mundane matters the rest of us take for granted, it was a dream that took quite a bit more planning and effort. And his presence at the series has drawn a bit more attention than the average recreational player.
Once he arrived in Las Vegas, Donnie had the chance to meet many of the poker players he had followed on TV for years. “I met several of them so far. I got to get my picture taken between Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth. I also met TJ Cloutier, Joe Hachem, and Jerry Yang.” As his blog will attest, he also had the chance to meet and take pictures with Carlos Mortenson, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein and many other well-known poker pros.
But even more exciting than just meeting them, was actually getting to play against these pros. Donnie played in one of the pot limit Omaha 8/b events and “sat right next to Phil Hellmuth for about three hours. I had him all in, but his hand held up.” He also sat next to Greenstein for about an hour. “It was something you definitely never dream you’d do. There they were [these players he’d followed on TV] sitting right next to me.”
I asked Donnie about the horrible accident that caused him such devastating injuries, robbing him of all movement and sensation from the shoulders down. “When I was fifteen I dove into a lake, hit the bottom, and broke my neck,” he recounted. Just one sentence to describe how fast and irreversibly your life can change. No doubt, he’s relayed the story countless times, but it is still jarring hearing him recount it so matter-of-factly. Donnie said it took him many years to get over the anger at what had happened to him. But today, remarkably, there is not a hint of anger or self-pity.
“It took me about seven years to get adjusted to my situation, being paralyzed. But the lord blessed me. I have a wonderful life. I have a great mom and dad and wonderful nurses and friends. I’m very blessed. I just enjoy life. I just have to sit down to do it, that’s all there is to it.”
It is this upbeat attitude as much as anything else that makes Donnie so inspirational. But he doesn’t see his attitude as that unusual. “They way I look at life is that you look at your situation, it could always be worse. I try to make every day as fun as possible because you never know, it could be your last day. So you enjoy – to the best of your ability – each day.”
Donnie's positive attitude extends beyond his physical limitations, encompassing everything in his life. He talks lovingly about his parents and how close they are, and believes that their connection was preordained, but not the way you might think. “I was adopted. It was set up before I was born. My parents couldn’t have children so they adopted me three days after I was born. I always say, the lord’s been looking out for me since before I was born. I’ve got two of the greatest parents in the world.”
He shared how much they did for him after his accident with pride and appreciation. "When I first got hurt, I was in the hospital for six weeks and I was in a rehab center for another six months. Every single day they were there, every hour they could be there. It was hard on them because at first I was very mean and bitter and they stood by me and took care of me always made sure I had the best care possible."
Before the accident, Donnie had wanted to play baseball and was a typically active teen. Discovering poker gave Donnie a great outlet for his competitive spirit and craving for excitement. He plays about three times a week at the Poker Room in Jacksonville. Josh Zuckerman, Director of Poker Operations at the St. John’s poker room, part of the Jacksonville Greyhound Racing and Poker, has known Donnie since the poker room opened in 2004. He was intrigued the first time he saw Donnie.
“When I saw Donnie walk in I thought, oh, this is going to be interesting,” Zuckerman told me. “I wondered how this will work.” But he soon found out that Donnie needed little accommodation, just enough room for his chair and his nurse to sit nearby and show him his cards. “I went over, introduced myself and we’ve been friends ever since. He’s just an outstanding person with an outstanding outlook on life, regardless of his condition and how he got there.”
Not only is Donnie a great guy, but he’s a pretty good poker player as well. Like many amateur players, Donnie not only plays but he enjoys watching poker on TV. What shows does he like? "I watch them all. Of course, the World Series is my favorite and I like the World Poker Tour and I watch High Stakes Poker and Poker after Dark." Donnie says that you may think you learn strategy from watching all those shows, “but once you get to a live table you just can’t play as well as them, but you do pick up pointers here and there. But, I definitely learn more by playing, especially online where you get to see more hands."
Zuckerman said Donnie goes deep in most of their tournaments. Donnie’s first major tournament cash was two years ago in Biloxi on the World Poker Tour. And he can now add a WSOP cash to his stats, finishing 33rd out of a starting field of 847 in the PLO8/b tournament.
The culmination of his trip to Las Vegas, though, was his chance at poker immortality -- guaranteed to the winner of the WSOP Main Event. Donnie started on Day 1B and, though he lost about half his chips due to “a bad run of cards,” did what many failed to do -- headed for Day 2A. After the end of Day 1, Donnie put this experience, win or lose, into perspective. “I'm still having the time of my life!” And though he was eliminated on Day 2, Donnie is a true winner!
