$490 + $45 + $20 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600/75 ante

Calledare Takes Out Two

For a man who’s jumped out of an airplane more than 8,000 times, you’d think poker would be no big deal. But for Richard Calledare (Derry, NH), until he’s pushed the pot, he’s terrified.

“You don’t know what he just did to me,” says Calledare, a professional skydiver, who knocked out two players with pocket Kings. One of them had just doubled through Calledare with running straight cards.

The three players are all in preflop (KK vs 88 vs 66) and when Calledare flops a set, you’d think he’d relax. “What were you afraid of,” he’s asked after breathing a sigh of relief.

“Running diamonds,” laughs another player while pointing to the 8♦.

“You never know,” says Calledare who takes his stack to 30k.  After the hand he tells a few skydiving stories, including the time he spent on the movie set of Drop Zone with Wesley Snipes.

“It’s hard to make a living,” says Calledare, “but it’s great, I’ve been all over the world.”

Calledare (second from right), The National Skydiving League
photo courtesy skyleague.com