Incirlik poker champ now to compete at USAFE

Published March 2, 2007
By Senior Airman Tim Beckham
39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- As many might have noticed, the Consolidated Club's banquet room has been transformed into a mini casino every Saturday night for the past couple of months where poker sharks and poker-shark wannabes come together to face off in hopes of becoming the Incirlik poker champion.

The wait is finally over and a winner was crowned, as Staff Sgt. Ryan Johnson separated himself from the rest of the pack.

"It was really exciting to win, I wasn't anticipating it," the Armed Forces Network broadcast technician said. "The competition was very tough and my philosophy going into the event was to just try my best."

In a game where one better have the best hand or have the ability to make other players think they have the best hand, Sergeant Johnson said it pretty much came down to one thing.

"I was patient," he said. "I waited for the right cards to come, but mostly I think I was just lucky."

The California native said he has been playing the game of poker for quite a while, but hadn't seriously got into it until recently.

"I learned the basics when I was younger," he said. "My friends and I would get together on the weekends sometimes when I was in high school, but once the Internet became more and more prevalent, I started playing more seriously online. But it wasn't until we started a weekly card game at my house here that I became real serious about it."

Known simply as "RJ" at the poker table, Sergeant Johnson will now take his poker skills to compete at the USAFE tournament March 17 at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

"It's very humbling," he said. "I never thought I could play cards and be competitive at this level. The competition was very tough and I think any number of the players at the tournament could have won and represented us well at USAFE."