Poker Legends

Here you will find stories about players that have achieved legendary status in the game of poker. Tales from the 1970's and 80's when poker was in its infancy can also be found here. Stories about the history of the game of poker are also available in this category.

• From the Poker Vaults: Sam Angel, Part 2

  April 30, 2009,

  By the early 1980s, 'Suitcase' Sam Angel’s financial hardship was most readily observed in the quality of jewelry he peddled. Some customers actually complained...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Sam Angel, Part 1

  April 23, 2009,

  In the Las Vegas of yesteryear, a world teeming with vivid characters, none was more striking than 'Suitcase' Sam Angel...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: The History of the WSOP’s Payout Structure

  April 16, 2009,

  In an era when the main event of the World Series of Poker routinely pays the top 600-plus finishers, it’s hard to imagine the event ever being winner-take-all. From 1970 to 1977, however...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Layne Flack, Part 1

  April 02, 2009,

  Poker is such an integral part of Layne Flack's being he often peppers his speech with Mickey McDermott-like phrases such as, "Life is like a poker game....

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: Mainstream Magazines on the Poker Boom

  March 31, 2009,

  Poker's standing in popular culture was affected considerably by the so-called "boom" many observers suggest mostly resulted from three factors: the televised debut of the World Poker Tour (six years ago this week), Chris...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Crandell Addington, Part II

  March 26, 2009,

  In addition to fattening his bankroll, Crandell Addington's decision to move west with Tom Moore in 1967 would have an even greater impact on his poker career, for it was his connection with Moore that secured him an invitation...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Crandell Addington, Part I

  March 19, 2009,

  While newspapermen started writing about the World Series of Poker during its very first year, Benny Binion's tournament wasn't captured on film until 1973, when CBS News made a documentary narrated by...

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: Wild Bill Hickok and the Dead Man's Hand

  March 17, 2009,

  When Harrah's Entertainment acquired the World Series of Poker from Binion's Horseshoe in 2004, it also took over the business of managing the Poker Hall of Fame, first created by Benny Binion in 1979. The Poker Hall of Fame...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker, Part II

  March 12, 2009,

  By the mid-1980s, Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker was firmly ensconced as the second biggest poker tournament in the world. In 1984, the field for the main event was actually big enough to force Slim to change...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker, Part I

  March 05, 2009,

  Once upon a time poker tournaments with $10,000 buy-ins were as rare as blizzards in Las Vegas. In fact, from 1972 to 1978 the main event of the World Series of Poker was the only tournament in the world that could lay claim...

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: Hold'em Hand Nicknames

  March 03, 2009,

  Among poker's many attractions is the way the game manages to produce a seemingly inexhaustible fund of stories. Poker is fun to play, but fun to talk about playing, too, with particular hands usually the focus for such tales...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: Austin Squatty

  February 26, 2009,

  One of the most alluring aspects of poker is that many of its most colorful practitioners are just as well known for their exploits away from the tables. One such player from poker's past was John Homes Jenkins III...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: The Mayfair Club, Part 2

  February 19, 2009,

  By the late 1980s, the Mayfair Club had firmly established itself as the finest poker club in all of New York City. What differentiated it from the many other underground establishments in the "Five Boroughs" was the unique...

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: Mark Twain

  February 17, 2009,

  Poker players have long been aware that the great American humorist and fiction writer Mark Twain was an avid poker player. He reportedly learned the game as a boy in Mississippi, and as an adult gained a reputation...

   

• From the Poker Vaults: The Mayfair Club, Part 1

  February 12, 2009,

  In the early 1980s, very few people outside of a small community of bridge and backgammon players in New York City had ever heard of the Mayfair Club. Founded in the 1940s by Harry "Fishy" Fishbein, winner of twelve national...

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: Damon and Norton Enter the 1998 WSOP

  February 03, 2009,

  One of the dozens of much-remembered lines among poker players coming from John Dahl's 1998 film 'Rounders' features Matt Damon's character, Mike McDermott, explaining to his girlfriend, Jo (Gretchen Moll), with some animation...

   

• The PokerNews Top 10: The Top 10 Prop Bets

  January 28, 2009,

  With high-stakes poker players, the action hardly ever stops once the river card is dealt, the tournament finds a winner, or the table's biggest fish racks up for the night. Proposition bets are a favorite pastime for many...

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: The Films of W.C. Fields

  January 20, 2009,

  The image of W.C. Fields, stealthily peering out from under a stovepipe top hat over a carefully-protected hand of cards, is one of the more iconic images of poker playing to come from American cinema. Indeed, for many...

   

• Women's Poker Spotlight: 'Poker Alice'

  January 08, 2009,

  When we think of the pioneers of women's poker, names like Barbara Enright, Susie Isaacs and Linda Johnson come to mind as ladies who paved our way to becoming not only the fastest growing demographic of poker but also a more...

   

• Poker & Pop Culture: Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler'

  December 30, 2008,

  'On a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for nowhere...' -- Thus begins what has to be the single most recognizable poker-themed song in American popular music. By 1978, country music star Kenny Rogers had already established...

   

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