Famous Poker Legends

Chris Moneymaker

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:11:07 +0000

There is a man named Chris Moneymaker who managed to turn completely the poker world by winning the 2003 World Series of Poker. And yes, that is his real name. He turned the poker world upside down and on its ear by winning the World Series of Poker in 2003. Chris Moneymaker became a symbol of poker after 2003. This was also the year in which Internet poker became famous and many people won their way to the World Series of Poker events by playing online. That is exactly how Moneymaker did it as well. He won a $40 buy-in satellite event in a leading online poker site, and managed to enter into the poker’s big encirclement. His win isn’t only a symbol of the beginning of the Internet poker but also means that anybody can become a first-class poker player in the comfort of his or her home. Anybody can play poker with the best players from all over the world and
Moneymaker can play poker with the finest of them. He managed to win five days tough event. Chris Moneymaker is not grizzled Las Vegas professional.
In fact, his first poker tournament played in a brick-and-mortar casino was marked by the World Series of Poker. Big-money professionals, past champions, and other players were eliminated over the five-day tournament run. There were two players still standing in the end: Sammy Farha of Houston and Moneymaker. He won the event with the support of his cheering friends with a full house consisting of two 4’s and three 5’s. Sammy Farha was holding a jack and a 10, ending up with a pair of jacks. Moneymaker’s win helped to change the poker world and increased the popularity of the game. He said that he got lucky during the game and he was using his skill of bluffing many times during the tournament, but still he managed to win it. At that time he said that he was playing poker only from three years.
Far from Las Vegas, Moneymaker is a modest 27-year-old accountant from Tennessee who was working in two places in order to support his three-month old daughter and his wife when he won poker’s premier event and the first prize of $2.5 million. Then he took a route from complete anonymity of an Internet player to winner of poker’s most prestigious event. He really left a trace in history of poker. Because of that, he doesn’t have to work two jobs and his daughter’s future education is ensured. Now he is known all over the world. He also donated $25.000 of his winnings to cancer research.
He is one of the reasons more people to start playing online poker games since he was one of them and he managed to win. That gives most of us hope that anybody can do it- as long as you don’t depend only on luck.

Scotty Nguyen

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:10:24 +0000

Nguyen which is pronounced “win” came from South Vietnam in 1979 on a small boat through South Pacific. He was brought to the USA after he was picked up together with his family by a US naval vessel. Nguyen arrived practically without any money and after a while he settled down in Chicago.
He moved to Las Vegas at the age of 21 and began to work as a poker dealer. Nguyen started to play in his free time for low stakes and entered daily, small tournaments that were very common for Las Vegas. The skills of Nguyen over the next decade improved progressively, he quit dealing and started to play full time poker. His first big break came at 1997 World Series of Poker when he won the Omaha High-Low Split event. He returned the next year and defeated a then-record 350 opponents at the age of 35 and won the poker’s world championship.

Phil Hellmuth Jr.

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:09:20 +0000

The self-described “poker brat” is one of the poker’s most controversial and intriguing players. From time to time he demonstrates something that is very rare even amongst high stakes poker players- a level of ingenuity. Hellmuth is originally from Madison, Wisconsin. He is a university dean son. He started to play seriously poker when he was accepted at the University of Wisconsin and very soon after that he discovered he was more interested in playing poker than in studying. Hellmuth played his first World Series of Poker at the age of 24. He managed to shock the world of poker by becoming the youngest winner in the history of Binion’s annual classic and upsetting the two-time champion Johnny Chan. Hellmuth is well known for terrorizing with devastating hot streaks the poker circuit. In all Hall of Fame events at the Horseshoe in 1991 he finished in the top five. He won two years later an unprecedented three World Series of Poker events. In 1995 Hellmuth won the Hall of Fame championship as well. Amazingly, all of Hellmuth’s big wins have been in Texas Hold’em events having in mind that he usually plays all games. At the moment, Hellmuth lives in the Bay area of San Francisco. He can be seen at most important tournaments and he continues to play high-stakes poker.

Johnny Chan

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:08:32 +0000

Johnny Chan is known also as “the Oriental Express”. When he was 9 years old he arrived in the United States from China. His parents opened a restaurant in Houston. At the age of 21, Chan came to Las Vegas where he worked as a cook on Fremont Street. He played poker frequently after work. In time Chan made enough money to become a poker player on full-time basis and to quit the unsatisfactory job he had that time. He participated in the biggest games in Houston and Las Vegas for a decade before in 1987 he managed to win his first world championship. The year after, Chan won the title again. In 1989, Chan was shooting for his third championship, which would have been an extraordinary feat, but he finished on the second place. The winner of that tournament was Phil Hellmuth Jr. From that moment Chan mainly takes part only in the biggest games, even if in the 1998 he made an appearance in the poker movie “Rounders” with Matt Damon.

Doyle Brunson

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:07:23 +0000

“Texas Dolly” or Doyle Brunson was born in 1933 in Longworth, West Texas. He was scouted by the former Minneapolis Lakers and earned a full basketball scholarship for Hardin-Simmons University. Brunson crushed his knee and the history of his life changed forever. Brunson, who earned a degree in education, toured the underground gambling in the South like many of his poker competitors. He won hundreds of thousands of dollars while getting robbed many times and dodging the law. In 1976 and 1977 Brunson won the world back-to-back poker championships. In 1980 he managed to finish second. He won six totals World Series of Poker events, as well as his most recent victory in the Seven-Card Stud Razz event in 1998. By making the final table at the inaugural Tournament of Champions in 1999, Brunson defied again the odds by vanquishing practically 500 other poker players. Brunson is valued for his contributions to the development of poker. He wrote a book published in 1978 which many people call the “Bible” of Poker: “How I Won A Million Dollars Playing Poker”, known also as “Super/System: A course in Power Poker”. He also wrote a very popular column, which for more than a decade ran in Gambling Times magazine. Today Brunson lives in Las Vegas and he is still taking part almost every day in the biggest Bellagio’s games.

“Amarillo Slim” Preston

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:07:00 +0000

Amarillo Slim is most probably the best-known poker player in the world. His natural charm and down-home style have made him a household name. His full name is Thomas Austin Preston and he was born in Arkansas. He took his outstanding name many years later after he bought with his gambling winnings a ranch in West Texas. When he was young, Preston made most of his money as a pool hustler not at the poker table. Preston won over $100,000 in cash while traveling around the West Coast during a stint in the navy. Slim’s love for gambling introduced him to other legendary players of that time including Johnny Moss, Brian “Sailor” Roberts, and Doyle Brunson. In 1972 Slim won the World Series of Poker and continued to be in the poker world a dominant force for a very long time. Slim’s true genius has been marketing himself with homespun quips and colorful yarns and that have amused audiences of millions and attracted the new generations to the game of poker. Slim has numerous television and radio appearances. He also organized the second-largest tournament - the Super Bowl of Poker. At present, Slim lives in his namesake Amarillo and you can see him in many big poker tournaments.

Benny Binion

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:04:57 +0000

Binion’s first love was poker. During the 30’s Benny Binion started by running illegal gambling rackets and bootlegging in Dallas. He is one of the Las Vegas’s last true founders. He arrived in Las Vegas in 1946 and bought the dilapidated Eldorado Casino. Then he renamed the casino to Binion’s Horseshoe and soon after that it became the gambling activity epicenter. The Horseshoe was built mostly for real serious gamblers and not for common tourists.

For many decades, Binion would accept from anyone who walked into his casino a wager of any size. He was willing to make the ultimate gamble. There are many true stories in Binion’s life about high rollers with a lot of money at the craps table, riding on a single roll. In 1970 Binion decided to try and duplicate the success of the match between Johnny Moss and Nick Dandalos 20 years ago. He invited to the Horseshoe the top poker players for what he thought to be the world championship. This is how the World Series of Poker was born. Nowadays, more than 30 years later, the yearly event at Binion’s Horseshoe remains as the world greatest poker event and every serious poker player dreams to be a part of it. Benny Binion passed away in 1989. His family continues to manage the casino.

Jack “Treetop” Straus

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:04:08 +0000

Jack Straus was called “Treetop” because he was two meters tall and had a big bushy beard. He was a really lovable man and had a reputation for betting every single dollar in his pocket every day. Straus carried around thousands of dollars which were placed chaotically in a brown paper bag. There were many cases in which he managed to lose the bag and he was left flat broke. He wasn’t upset when this happened, he just make comments like “Such is life.” Straus was one of the best No-Limit Texas Hold’em players of his time. In 1982 he won poker’s world championship. For years, the Frontier Casino in Las Vegas organized a major tournament in his name, which attracted poker’s best players. In 1988 he died from a heart attack while participating in a high-stakes poker game in Los Angelis. Straus died doing what he loved best - playing poker.

Johnny Moss

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:03:16 +0000

Johnny Moss was known also as “The Grand Old Man”. He continued playing poker until his 89th birthday. He was playing poker his entire life. Johnny Moss was originally from Texas. During the Great Depression he played in backrooms and illegal gambling halls of the South and after some time he earned his respect as one of the best poker professionals in the world. Moss was the pioneer who turned the game into a spectator event. He participated in the duel on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas in 1949. That was the greatest heads-up poker match of all-time, when he faced in a 21-week marathon of Five-Card Stud, Nick “the Greek” Dandalos. Later on Moss took over the Dunes poker room and moved to Las Vegas which for many years was the Mecca for high-stakes poker. He won three times the World Series of Poker (he is the only player who has as many victories as Stu Ungar). He died in 1997.

Stu Ungar

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:00:48 +0000

Stuey “the Kid” Ungar rush into the Las Vegas poker scene in the end of the 70’s like a hurricane. His specialty was conventional poker strategy. After Ungar, poker hasn’t been the same. There are a few interesting facts in Ungar’s life before he became a famous poker player. He grew up in NY and from an early age he learnt the card games. Ungar’s talent was so devastating that by the time he was a teenager, he had problems finding opponents that will dare to play for money. Because of that, at the age of 24 Ungar moved to Las Vegas and right away he started to play the biggest poker games he could find.
Ungar won three times each the Super Bowl of Poker and the World Series of Poker. Unfortunately, the mastermind that created him also managed to destroy him. Ungar’s lifestyle was as flashy as his character at the table, his eccentricities amplified to devastating losses and astronomical wins. He was brilliant at the poker table but also troubled with personal problems that he created by himself. His destructive life ended tragically at the age of 45 in 1998.