Nolan Dalla -- Biography

According to hearsay, Nolan Dalla was born with a deck of cards in one hand and a line sheet in the other. A gambler since childhood, Nolan grew up in Dallas and worked his way through the University of Texas playing poker and betting sports. After graduating in 1984 with a Political Science degree, followed by a year in a Masters Degree program in Public Policy Administration at UT-Arlington, Nolan racked up his chips and moved to Washington, DC and worked on a U.S. Senate committee for a year.

He hated it.

After burning out on politics, Nolan returned to his hometown Dallas and found himself unemployed. He quickly discovered several poker games around town and began frequenting the underground circuit -- playing in $5-10 holdem games up to pot-limit. Over the next three years, Nolan supported himself by playing poker -- both in Texas and during sporadic visits to Las Vegas and the West Coast. He also bet sports.

Eager to establish a career, Nolan eventually went back to working a "real" job. He was hired by the United States Department of State in 1989. He trained at the Foreign Service Institute and completed Romanian language studies. He was assigned to the American Embassy in Bucharest, Romania for a two-year assignment in one of the Eastern Bloc's most repressive nations. While in Romania, Nolan witnessed the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. He was the first American to establish contact with the revolutionary government inside the Communist Party's Central Committee Building on December 22,1989. He also hosted one of Eastern Europe's most popular poker games on the diplomatic circuit. While in Romania, Nolan worked a short stint as a blackjack dealer under contract for Casinos Austria.

In 1992, Nolan returned to the United States and worked for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department in Washington. He later took a position in the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC where he worked as a speechwriter and information officer.

In 1993, poker was legalized in Atlantic City. Nolan started playing poker regularly there -- first part-time on weekends, and gradually became a full-time poker player again. He has supported himself by gambling ever since -- a combination of playing poker, sports betting, and writing on gambling subjects. Nolan has been married to his wife Marieta for 13 years. He currently lives in Las Vegas.

Nolan Dalla's career as a gambling writer began in 1994 when he started writing for Card Player magazine. His column "Tales From the Felt" quickly became one of the magazine's most popular columns. Over the next seven years, Nolan wrote 170 columns -- many on poker strategy and gambling theory. He has also written for The Intelligent Gambler, Poker Pages, and many gambling-related websites. In December 2001, Nolan began his association with Poker Digest. He is also the lead sports gambling columnist for both Casino Player magazine and Western Player magazine in Canada. Nolan contributed a chapter to the popular Lou Kreiger book, Poker For Dummies. Nolan also created poker's "Player of the Year" tournament rankings using a mathematical rating system he devised. "Player of the Year" has been awarded by Card Player since 1997. Nolan is also known for creating his odds on the World Series of Poker and other major events related to poker and gambling.

In 2001, Nolan joined Poker Pages as an Instructor at Poker School Online. He regularly gives poker and gambling advice and writes regularly for the pokerpages.com website. He has also been an enthusiastic speaker at poker conferences. He has visited over 110 cardrooms in 16 states and six foreign countries. Nolan plays all forms of poker, concentrating mostly in the $10-20 to $20-40 range of limits. He also plays pot-limit holdem and Omaha frequently. He rarely plays in tournaments, although he has covered major poker tournaments with reports -- including the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Open, and the Four Queens Poker Classic. Nolan was recently hired as the Director of Public Relations for the World Poker Open, in 2003.

Nolan’s first book is scheduled to be released this year called, Behind the Shades: The Life and Times of Stu Ungar -- the biography of the greatest cardplayer in history. A deal has been signed with Simon and Schuster as of January 2003, which will publish Behind the Shades.

Nolan has worked diligently on behalf of the integrity of casinos. He worked closely with the legendary Mike Caro (a.k.a. "The Mad Genius") last year in a lengthy investigation into allegations of cheating. Nolan believes strongly that all casinos and off-shore sportsbooks must maintain the highest ethical standards in order to continue to grow and gain wider public acceptance. Furthermore, he believes those same standards should apply to the sports gambling community -- which has been tainted by scandal for years.

Nolan is also known just as much for his sports gambling writings as poker columns. Nolan has been betting sports for more than 20 years. For five years before joining MadJack's, Dalla posted his weekly NFL selections to boards at America Online and SportFanRadio, where his advance selections developed a cult following. In 1999, Dalla maintained a personal mailing list with over one-hundred regular subscribers. His best year versus the spread was in 1997, when he hit an astounding 68 percent against-the-spread. In 1999, Dalla hit 57 percent winners in the NFL. In 2000 -- his first full season posting plays at MadJackSports -- Dalla hit 61 percent and posted 160 plays. 2001 was an off-year, as he finished under .500 for the first time. In 2002, Dallas broadened his handicapping to include angles and hit 55 percent, with over 500 posted plays and angles. His record in totals (over/unders) over the last six years is quite likely the highest of any handicapper in the nation.

"Gambling is the great metaphor for life," Nolan says. "Whether in gambling or in life -- I find that the harder you work, the better your chance of success."

Nolan is proud to be part of MadJackSports.