The Muck: Remembering the Good Old Days

Scott Blumstein

Poker, like most things, continues to evolve. Many players are classified by when they started playing (pre- or post-Chris Moneymaker), how they play (Gut instinct, Math, or GTO), and their poker spirit animal (fish or shark).

It's always fun to take a look back at poker back in the day and hear the stories from the legends in the game. In fact, at PokerNews we love looking back so much we do a throwback to the good old days on many Thursdays.

But it wasn't until we saw a tweet from2017 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Scott Blumstein, that we really started thinking about the things we love and miss about the game.

It's probably fair to say that if you've been playing poker for any length of time, there's something about poker that has you thinking fondly about the good old days.

Maybe, you miss seeing a favorite player regularly take to the felt.

Or maybe, it's the bricks of cold hard cash.

And we weren't the only ones that took a deep sigh after reading Blumstein's tweet and started taking a trip down memory lane. Here are just a few of the replies that came in response.

Who can forget the teaching videos from the good old days? Not Matthew Parvis, who reminded us of these gems in response to Ingram's tweet from above.

You know what we miss? We miss online poker in the U.S., watching Stu Ungar play, and when the WSOP prize money fit on the table. While we love the bigger prize pools, there's something pretty awesome about playing cards next to a stack of bricks.

But most of all, we also miss WSOP final tables at Binion's Horseshoe Casino. Those walls were witness to the game in its heyday. It was the first to cover their sawdust floors with carpet and the first to offer free drinks to players (thanks, Horseshoe!). Oh, the good old days.

It sort of makes us wonder what Johnny Lodden thinks.

While writing this article, one thing became crystal clear ... the good old days conjure up feelings in all of us. That and the fact that the age of players sharing memories of the past makes us feel really old.

Do you have a story about the good old days - a story that made you fall in love with the game? Ready. Set. Share.

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  • A simple tweet from 2017 WSOP Main Event winner @SBlum2711 got the poker world reminiscing.

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