Gary Wise
Encyclopedia
Gary Wise is a professional Magic: The Gathering
player from Canada
. He was inducted to the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame
in November 2006. He also wrote the "Wise Words" and "Limited Skills" articles.
Gary Wise is also involved with another popular card game – poker. Gary now writes for Bluff Magazine
as well his own poker strategy website called WiseHandPoker.com where he details individual hands played by some of the most well known professional poker players.
Not only does Gary write for the above mentioned sites but he has also been known to provide content for the World Poker Tour
website as well as some other high profile poker sites.
After a second stint with the Dojo, Gary was hired by sideboard.com, the official website of the Magic:the Gathering Pro Tour as staff writer and columnist. He served in that capacity from 1998-2003.
Wise traveled to Vegas and stayed the full six weeks during the 2004 World Series, his first foray into the tournament poker world. A year later, he embarked on his poker writing career, co-founding wisehandpoker.com and the Wise Hand of the Day, which can be found on websites across the internet.
The beginning of his writing career signaled the end of his professional poker pursuits, with the demands of running a business not allowing time for both. He still plays 10–15 hours a week.
Gary now writes for Bluff Magazine
and World Poker Tour
and his poker-based writing has been featured in a number of other paper and online publications including ESPN
.
Community, with that game's Director of the Year award being named after the father following his passing in 1997. Michael's example as director of "Club three" in Toronto, curiosity with the mathematics
and literature of sports and other game
s, and constant participation in varied competitions, served as the example Gary would ultimately follow.
Gary's writings have been geared more towards the people who play the games than how those games are played. He's focused primarily on the cultural fabric their stories weave, recording the oral histories of the games he's covered for posterity. With poker's popularization, his conversion was a natural one.
For the years 2000-2004, Wise earned income from both games. He earned repeated appearances in Magic's Masters Series, a lucrative invite-only tournament in which all thirty-two participants received payments.
It was during this time that his interest started to turn from Magic to poker, joining well known poker personalities David Williams
, Eric Froehlich
, Noah Boeken
and a host of others in making the switch.
In 2004, he retired from the Magic: Pro Tour to focus on poker full-time.
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
player from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He was inducted to the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame
Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame
The Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame was started in 2005 to honor the most successful Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour players. The first inductions came on the tenth anniversary of the first Pro Tour event, and new Hall of Famers will be determined annually...
in November 2006. He also wrote the "Wise Words" and "Limited Skills" articles.
Gary Wise is also involved with another popular card game – poker. Gary now writes for Bluff Magazine
Bluff Magazine
Bluff Magazine is an American magazine specializing in the game of poker. Separate editions are also published for Europe, Latin America, South Africa and Australasia....
as well his own poker strategy website called WiseHandPoker.com where he details individual hands played by some of the most well known professional poker players.
Not only does Gary write for the above mentioned sites but he has also been known to provide content for the World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises , the firm that...
website as well as some other high profile poker sites.
Magic: the Gathering Accomplishments
- Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer
- Top 8 at Worlds (1999)
- 1st at Pro Tour-New York (2000)
- Top 8 at Canadian Nationals (2001)
- Top 8 at English Nationals (2002)
- Top 4 at Pro Tour-Boston (2002)
- Top 4 at Pro Tour-Boston (2003)
Writing
Gary followed a popular trend in his early years on the Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour, putting his experiences into tournament reports in order to share them with the Magic community. He developed a following and became the first paid writer for the Magic Dojo, a now-defunct website that served as the heart of the online Magic community in the late 90's.After a second stint with the Dojo, Gary was hired by sideboard.com, the official website of the Magic:the Gathering Pro Tour as staff writer and columnist. He served in that capacity from 1998-2003.
Wise traveled to Vegas and stayed the full six weeks during the 2004 World Series, his first foray into the tournament poker world. A year later, he embarked on his poker writing career, co-founding wisehandpoker.com and the Wise Hand of the Day, which can be found on websites across the internet.
The beginning of his writing career signaled the end of his professional poker pursuits, with the demands of running a business not allowing time for both. He still plays 10–15 hours a week.
Gary now writes for Bluff Magazine
Bluff Magazine
Bluff Magazine is an American magazine specializing in the game of poker. Separate editions are also published for Europe, Latin America, South Africa and Australasia....
and World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises , the firm that...
and his poker-based writing has been featured in a number of other paper and online publications including ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
.
Game Culture
Gary's father, Michael Wise, was a key contributor to the competitive ScrabbleScrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
Community, with that game's Director of the Year award being named after the father following his passing in 1997. Michael's example as director of "Club three" in Toronto, curiosity with the mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and literature of sports and other game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s, and constant participation in varied competitions, served as the example Gary would ultimately follow.
Gary's writings have been geared more towards the people who play the games than how those games are played. He's focused primarily on the cultural fabric their stories weave, recording the oral histories of the games he's covered for posterity. With poker's popularization, his conversion was a natural one.
Switching Games
Wise began playing Magic: the Gathering in 1995, attending his first Pro Tour in 1997. It was through Pro Tour associations that he was introduced to Texas Hold'em.For the years 2000-2004, Wise earned income from both games. He earned repeated appearances in Magic's Masters Series, a lucrative invite-only tournament in which all thirty-two participants received payments.
It was during this time that his interest started to turn from Magic to poker, joining well known poker personalities David Williams
David Williams (card player)
David Anthony Williams is a professional poker player and popular Magic: The Gathering player.-Personal life:Williams was born in Arlington, Texas. He briefly attended Princeton University before switching to study economics at Southern Methodist University...
, Eric Froehlich
Eric Froehlich
Eric Froehlich is an American professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. As of 2009, Froehlich's total live tournament winnings exceed $1,300,000. His 16 cashes at the WSOP account for $867,783 of those winnings....
, Noah Boeken
Noah Boeken
Noah Boeken is a Dutch professional poker and Magic: The Gathering player.-Magic:In the 1997 Pro Tour Chicago, Boeken finished in 15th place, and later 32nd at Pro Tour Mainz...
and a host of others in making the switch.
In 2004, he retired from the Magic: Pro Tour to focus on poker full-time.