“The Dean” is the pen name for one of Europe’s most widespread poker writers. His name is Carl Sampson and Carl has played at numerous levels in the online cash poker games for the past seven years. It started back twenty years ago for Carl when he became employed as a croupier inside a casino in his home town.
It was here that Carl steadily built up his knowledge of the gaming industry and he later used this to good effect when he successfully set up and trained several teams of blackjack players that practiced theri trade all across the globe successfully.
Carl spent nine relatively unhappy years inside the casino’s but it was a chance meeting in the summer of 1998 that gave “The Dean” the opportunity to play blackjack, his first role in the arena of professional gambling. A wealthy backer gave Carl the opportunity to play and teach blackjack on a large scale and to really use his expertise. He was also asked to train others in what he knew both in how to beat the game and evasion techniques.
“The Dean” first arrived at his pen name in a local poker game, every time that someone asked him what the odds were for hitting a certain hand or what to do in a certain situation, Carl was always there with the answer. People started to call him the “Dean of Poker”.
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Carl’s schedule is a hefty one these days and involves writing for numerous poker magazines and websites as well as his latest passion which is sports betting and betting exchanges. Carl’s love of writing led him to write two books, one on cheating and advantage play in Roulette and the other on Blackjack.
“The Dean’s” book, “Princes of Darkness:” The world of high stakes blackjack” tells the story of the blackjack team that Carl set up and ran between 1998 and 2002 although he freely admits at the end of that book that he merely worked for wages. “The Dean” first started coaching and imparting what he knew about blackjack in 1998 and this coaching spilled over into poker in 2004 (which he now no longer does due to time restrictions).
“The Dean” has also advised on cheating and advantage play with an international film company in 2003.
He can also be seen in the 2+2 internet magazine hosted by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth where he currently writes theory on limit hold’em.
Carl also writes poker theory for the Flop Turn River website, All Aussie Poker website, Poker News Daily, Part Time Poker and Poker Olymp website amongst a whole host of others. “The Dean’s” reputation has grown within the industry and he has had offers in 2008 to join coaching teams including Stox Poker and Poker Swat which boast some of the best online players and theorists in the world, offers that Carl sadly had to decline.
Carl doesn’t play much poker these days due to other committments but is still a regular poker writer where he shares his knowledge and experiences with many readers.
