He enjoyed poker, he made money at it, but to be a pro player these days you need to move to the soulless pit that is Vegas, and that town and Vaughn, who has as much soul as any white boy I know,  just weren’t a good fit. Regardless, here is his story of what it’s like to be a poker player and how he got into it.

JGT: Tell me how you first got into poker.

Vaughn: Well I was always a bit of a gambler. I used to sneak into the Taj to play blackjack  when I was 16-20 years old. Not often, once or twice a year.

JGT: Were you pretty good at it, right off the bat?

Vaughn: Yeah. I was a chess prodigy as a kid. Top 5 in the country age 9 and under, with two therapists for parents. I was kind of born and bred to play poker

JGT: I didn’t know that you were a chess prodigy.

Vaughn: I peaked at age 8. But that movie Searching for Bobby Fisher? I used to play with that kid a lot.

JGT: Ok, so when did you make the jump to cards?

Vaughn: Age 25, working as an assistant in Hollywood. Flew home to Philly for a one week vacation, had a changeover in Las Vegas.

JGT: An assistant what?

Vaughn: I was the assistant to the head writer/executive producer of an ill-fated CBS sitcom.

JGT: Called what?

Vaughn: Ladies Man. Helluva cast but the show never got off the ground. Alfred Molina, Betty White. But it was working 90hrs a week on the Titanic. Anyway, my flight was late out of LA and missed the Vegas to PHL flight. It was 11pm and next flight was 7am. Being a bit of a latent degenerate, I put my bag in a locker and took a cab to the Bellagio. I had 6 hours to kill and knew I couldn’t spend it playing blackjack.

Rounders had recently come out. I wandered over to the poker room, played $1-$5 spread limit stud all night. Finished up $12 and thought it was the coolest f***ing thing. On the way to my flight I went into the gift shop and bought the first book I saw on poker strategy. The book mentioned poker was legal at several card rooms in L.A., including the Hollywood Park Racetrack which was maybe 15 minutes from the Culver City lot where we shot the show. I didn’t go during weeks when we were shooting, but the non-shooting weeks I went a couple times a week and I was a better than breakeven player almost right away.