Fred McNatt is not your typical “Friday night with the boys” type of card player. The Ninnekah resident recently qualified for this year’s World Series of Poker to be played at the North Texas WinStar Casino next week and friends may get to see him play on ESPN’s live coverage of the final rounds on Saturday, August 23.

McNatt has been playing for almost twenty years but got serious about it five years ago.

He has played in numerous “invitation-only” poker, blackjack and golf tournaments that have opened doors to major sporting events and allowed him to rub shoulders with a list of sport and entertainment celebrities that is staggering.

“I played in the Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament for the past two years with people like Emmitt Smith, Tony Romo, Jerry Rice, Digger Phelps, Michael Jordan, John Elway, Charles Barkley, Johnny Bench and Ben Roethlisberger, among others,” he told me.

“I went to Eddie Murphy’s birthday party a couple of years ago during a pre-season NFL ‘meet-and-greet’ at Planet Hollywood and got to play with Warren Moon, Lawrence Taylor, Marshall Faulk, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Burt Reynolds.”

His most memorable celebrity run-in, though, was in January, 2007 when he was invited to the Mirage in Las Vegas to play in the Garth Brooks “Teammates for Kids” $100,000 Celebrity Poker Tournament.

“When I was young I did lighting for concerts and turned Garth down when he was in Stillwater and just getting started in music,” he said. “It was a $150.00 job.”

“My wife, my mother and I got to meet him and Trisha Yearwood at a special reception and we had a good laugh about that.”

Also included in the deal was a private concert by Garth and Tricia, complete with lighting.

I asked Fred what his wife Allison does when he goes to these tournaments. He responded that she used to go with him a lot but now she just stays here and looks after things at home.

The McNatts have a son, Justin, a freshman at CHS, and a family tradition of helping. Fred’s father, Gene, donated the land for the Ninnekah HS baseball complex and passed away two weeks before getting to see the large scoreboard he donated to the program installed two summers ago.

“I lost my dad in May of 2006 and I go outside, look up at the heavens and talk to him every time before I play,” he told us.

Most recently, McNatt qualified for the World Series of Blackjack to be played in November at the Dallas Winstar, finishing 72nd out of a field of 8,600 players.

Next up, though, is the World Series of Poker and he’ll play on Thursday, Aug. 21st. The tournament wraps up on Saturday with the winner claiming a $2 million dollar first prize.

There will be a “send-off” party for McNatt at A&E Grill next Wednesday evening from 7:30 until 10 p.m. and “everyone’s invited.”