“Mad Marty” Wilson reveals life as a poker legend

Oct 31 2010

TO the poker world he is affectionately known as “Mad Marty” Wilson.

And five minutes on the phone with the larger-than-life gambling legend is enough to understand why the Wolverhampton star earned his nickname.

“I’ve got no idea where I am. I’m wandering around Weston-super-Mare. Can you call me back when I’ve had my beans on toast?” Marty says, in the charming Black Country tones that have helped him become a poker hero on both sides of the Atlantic.

Having won a reported $4 million in tournaments around the world in a career spanning three decades, Marty is due back in Birmingham next month to host a major tournament.

“I don’t play so much anymore. I get paid to stand there and talk, which is much easier,” he told the Sunday Mercury.

“I remember in the old days it was a struggle. Just to find a game was hard enough, but now poker is everywhere, online, in pubs, clubs, casinos. It has exploded.”

Marty found fame as a fast-talking, big-betting character on the Channel 4 Late Night Poker TV series in the late 1990s. But the Black Country boy made good has been playing for a living since the 80s.

“When I first went to the World Series in Las Vegas back in 1985, there were only 220 runners. Now there are 7,000. That’s how much things have changed,” he said.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing the game, and poker has been very good to me, provided me with a great standard of living and let me travel the world.”

Growing up in Wolverhampton in the early 70s he was a Pendeford High School pupil set to work at local firm Lucas Aerospace, when he turned to gambling to make a living.

“All the kids had a compulsory interview with Lucas,” he said.

“I turned up an hour-and-a-half late because I’d been watching Wimbledon, and when I told them about it they weren’t too pleased.

“They put me in a side room with an entrance exam, but they made a mistake because the posters on the walls had all the answers to the questions.