이것이 인생이다 ㅣ 어느 도박사의 올인 / 우리나라 최고 타짜가 된 주방장 [인생실험] KBS 2004.02.17 방송

Mr. Jang Byeong-yun (50), who was Korea's top Hwatu (Korean playing cards) expert. After falling into gambling at the age of 21, he traveled to gambling dens across the country until he was 33, earning a reputation as a "master" who won as much as 1.7 billion won in a single game. After neglecting his wife and children and practicing until his hands were raw, there was no one who could match Jang Byeong-yun when it came to Hwatu and cards. To forget the pain of anxious moments in life-or-death gambling dens, he even turned to drugs... Jang Byeong-yun fell endlessly into the abyss of life. He was a diligent chef. He started playing Hwatu with the vain dream of winning a fortune! Eventually, the truth he realized was that the gambling den... is ultimately a place of death and destruction. Having gone to the brink of death, Mr. Jang Byeong-yun chose to live his own life. Now, while running a chicken manure business in Sancheong, North Gyeongsang Province, Jang Byeong-yun guides people who have fallen into gambling and drug addiction. Here is the story of his life! 2. Main Content It was gambling that started just for fun. In 1975, Byeong-yun, a diligent restaurant chef, moved to Seoul due to his impoverished circumstances. Hearing that he could earn more money, Byeong-yun transferred to a position as a chef at a hostess bar. The customers at the bar were throwing money around. Having lived a hardworking life, Byeong-yun began to think that he could make money easily... The gambling world tempted him. "Just for fun..." "A professional gambler's eyes must be faster than their hands!!" Byeong-yun poured the money he had saved while working as a chef into the gambling table. However, Byeong-yun only kept losing money and belatedly realized that it was a rigged game. Byeong-yun learns how to cheat by meeting a professional gambler. "Your eyes must be faster than your hands!" Consumed by the thought of recouping his losses, Byeong-yun abandoned his family and clung to Hwatu (Korean playing cards) until his hands became blistered and cracked. Only after making a fortune did Byeong-yun return home after several months. But his wife was not there. A neighbor tells Byeong-yun the news that his daughter has been adopted to the United States through Holt Children's Welfare, leaving Byeong-yun in shock. He was sinking deeper and deeper into the dark swamp of gambling and drugs. With even his family gone, Byeong-yun fell into gambling and women, leading an increasingly dissolute life. Hwatu and cards! Byeong-yun had become the top professional gambler, unrivaled in the country. Since the stakes were high, the gambling table was always filled with a deadly tension between the skilled Hwatu masters, the "Tazza"... And yet, someone reached out to Byeong-yun with the temptation of drugs. "Think of it as a fatigue recovery drink and drink it all down. You said today is a really important game, right?" A gambling den where life and death hang in the balance... The choice to survive in that place! It was my life. A knife fight broke out with a Tazza over the stakes, and Byeong-yun fell uncontrollably into the abyss of his life. After serving time in prison for drugs, Byeong-yun eventually returned to his hometown in a state of complete ruin. Byeong-yun, trembling uncontrollably from drug addiction. Watching her son like this, his mother weeps, her shoulders shaking, unable to say a word. At that moment, only one path appears before Byeong-yun. Death... Having stood at that threshold, Byeong-yun chooses a new life. Byeong-yun realized it belatedly. That the gambling world is a place of death and death, leaving nothing but regret...