A Harder way to shine

We as media look for the dirt. We look under carpets and behind furniture for the sordid details that will lead to headlines and give the characters we cover color. We do it beause we all love gossip and the lust for such things inevitably leads to readership, or page hits or an increased number of whatever it is you’re measuring. It’s because of that reality that you probably, and unfortunately, haven’t heard of Christian “charder” Harder.

Harder doesn’t seem to have that dirt or that edge to him. There’s nothing exceptional about his road through hard work, trial and error to poker supremacy. He’s had his big scores, but not of the seven-digit variety that has made him stand out. He’s never on the internet gossip mill because his behavior just isn’t consistent with what will get him there. He’s just a good kid and a good poker player. Sorry, TMZ.

While that may strike some as disappointing, it forces us to look at the more concrete realities of Harder’s place in the poker world. Just 23-years old, the resident of Annapolis, Md. is happy sitting at the tables instead of on the gossip page, as evidenced by the numbers. In 2010, he scored seven cashes at the World Series of Poker, including a 100th place finish at the main event. People still didn’t notice him. All the more reason to do it again.

On Tuesday night, ESPN will broadcast Day 6 of the WSOP main event. When you watch, you’ll find Christian Harder surpassing his finish from a year ago to the surprise of few industry insiders, especially Cliff Josephy.

“I don’t accept interview requests about anyone,” asserted Cliff Josephy, one of the poker world’s most adept talent evaluators. “That I’m talking to you should be an indicator of what I think of him.”

Josephy’s words speak volumes. The well-known professional poker player and backer knows talent and has seen his share of those who fall short of his ideals.

“Christian is in a world where there are plenty of unsavory players, guys who will do anything to beat the system,” said Josephy. “He’s a breath of fresh air. He’s not only bright, hardworking and a good player, but he’s honest as the day is long. Those guys are few and far between. He’s really a good kid.”

Seriously though, Harder isn’t the phenom who just got it from day one. He doesn’t shine that way. He’s the quintessential hard work story, a kid who wanted to be good and through will and determination got there.

“My first two years online, I lost,” Harder recalled. “I dumped my minuscule paycheck from my high school job (as an ice cream scooper) into my account and kept losing. It wasn’t that much, like $2,000 total. I just wanted to figure it out though. It was such a complex game I really wanted to be good. I played with friends in high school online. They took it easy and I was trying harder to figure out why I wasn’t doing better. I just kept playing. I just really wanted to become good. Sometime in 2007, I just worked a lot. I would just constantly play, read strategy forums, speak with other players about strategy and something clicked, I guess.”

It clicked because of three factors that continually surfaced in conversations with colleagues: his aforementioned work ethic, a profound likability and a patience that goes against the online pro stereotype.

“I would say in a live setting, my best virtue is patience,” Harder said. “A lot of the other online guys don’t have it. It’s funny, if you look at me my friends always make fun of me because I’m on my phone or stuff, but online players will create situations out of impatience. They’ll go crazy for one hand. They’ll play well for a while and then create something in their head to go off on. I guess patience is my best attribute. I think that’s why I’ve done well. If I play with someone in the main event, and they recognize me, they know I’m from online and assume I’m going to bluff every hand.”

His peers think he may be underestimating his poker instincts.

“As a player, outside of a few guys, I feel his instincts aren’t matched by many people,” said Shawn Busse, a fellow pro and close friend of Harder’s. “He’s not overly articulate as poker goes. He’s not great at explaining his thoughts, but he makes these unbelievable calls, folds and bluffs and he’s always right. I try to get him to explain his thought process and he can’t, but instincts are awesome. That’s probably his greatest strength as a player.”

“He groomed his game and learned to play online,” said Josephy. “He just got better and better and more consistent online. I think he just plays the same game. He’s tight-aggressive He’s rooted compared to the lunatics of today who are all out of their minds. He’s tight, but he’s able to make the moves to gather chips because everyone perceives him as so tight. He’s a thinking player. He gets it. He gets everything. He’s great.”

It’s the quality of character Josephy refers to that made it easy for the twoplustwo community to embrace him.

“They’re responsible for helping me get a lot better,” Harder said the of the denizens of poker’s most populated forum. “I met a lot of people through 2+2. They helped me get a lot better. There were certain people who helped a lot and they’ve got to be pretty happy for me. When I was a broke college kid, in between classes, I would read [the 2p2 tournament strategy thread] hands. I’d read what Dani Stern and others would do and why they would. That was a big deal. You can’t just copycat, you have to play your own game eventually, but it really helped. Anytime someone asks me how to get better, I tell them that.”

The proof of Harder’s improvement came slowly. His online results steadily improved and that trend spilled over into his live tournament play. Back-to-back final table finishes in January 2008 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (seventh, for $200,000) and EPT Dortmund (eighth, for $125,481) put Harder on the live map and instilled in him a new confidence. His résumé is flooded with cashes since, including a fourth place finish at the 2009 WPT Championship ($571,965) and the WSOP success already discussed.

“I was scared money,” Harder admitted of his start in live tournaments. “Eventually, I made those scores and that made me more confident. With confidence, you don’t think about the bad results or what will happen if you lose. That helped a lot. Since then, I’ve just slowly gotten better.”

Harder is never going to get attention by acting like a fool at the table and he hasn’t gotten the TV-table tournament win that’s often needed to attract the spotlight. He’s just a young guy who does things the right way and has thrived as a result. It may be a frustrating thing for those who looks for the seedy nature of the world, but sometimes, excellence and a healthy work ethic should be celebrated too. They’re certainly good enough reasons to cheer Harder on at the WSOP.

You can do just that Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET as WSOP main event coverage continues on ESPN.

Casino Research