History

By Wendeen H. Eolis

Any poker player worth his salt knows better than to say, “When I win, it is skill, and when I lose, it is luck,” but until the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, by and large, the poker community ignored the significant legal conundrums now playing out as high drama in the US Department of Justice’s vigorous prosecution of online poker.

by Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire - @taopauly
 

 By Sean Chaffin

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s mark on poker stands the test of time.  His “Dogs Playing Poker” works have been the inspiration for coffee mugs, posters, neckties, movies, video games, websites, and much more. His paintings have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars and their place has been secured in popular American lore.

While Coolidge remains an obscurity in the art world, his works are some of the most well-known pieces of Americana.

An Editorial: By Stanley R. Sludikoff

Six score years ago a vibrant American gaming industry was erased from the scene by a scandal.  It was the second time that happened in US history.  This one was due to a corrupt Louisiana Lottery that was national in scope.  The operators were a gang of crooks.  The result was a series of laws by Congress that pretty much killed gaming for nearly 5 decades in this country.

It took a long time for gaming to come back and it has now grown to massive proportions with the majority of states having lotteries and casinos.

by Paul “Dr. Pauly” McGuire

The 1981 World Series of Poker main event was the first poker tournament poker I watched on television. Fifteen years ago I sat in my apartment in New York City, flipping through the slim pickings of late-late night television and eventually stopped on ESPN2. I watched the final table of the 1981 main event, which was hosted by legendary sportscaster Curt Gowdy.

 I had never seen a poker tournament before. I sat in awe and wonderment at the action as Stu Ungar held on to win his second main event in a row after he beat out Perry Green, a furrier from Alaska. Ungar faded a field of 75 players—nine tables—to win $375,000.

In the second part of our year-end wrap up, we look at the list of those people and events that were good for poker in 2010. Here is the nice list.

Michael Mizrachi. Mizrachi almost accomplished the impossible, but even falling tantalizingly short, he had a memorable year. He won the first event of this year’s WSOP, the prestigious $50,000 players’ championship, and then went on to make the final table of the main event. Had he won that event he would have been the first player to complete the poker hat trick. Even with his pocket threes blow-up that led to a disappointing fifth place finish, Mizrachi had a tremendous WSOP. And with his three brothers all cashing at the main event, a first for one family, 2001 could easily be called the year of the Mizrachis.

BELLAGIO CHIP THIEF ARRESTED

The down-on-his-luck son of a Las Vegas municipal judge was arrested February 2, alleged to be the motorcycle-riding robber who burst into the Bellagio, brandished a pistol, and fled with approximately $1.5 million in casino chips grabbed from a craps table. Anthony Corleo, 29, has been accused of armed robbery and is also a suspect in at least one other Las Vegas casino heist. Corleo, formerly of Pueblo, Colorado, declared bankruptcy in 2009 after running failed disk-jockey and limo-service businesses, and moved in with his father, George Assad, a controversial Las Vegas judge.

I covered the final table of the 2010 WSOP main event, otherwise known as the November Nine, and sat in the orchestra pit with some of the press corps. We were all buzzing with excitement after we witnessed a hand—pocket nines versus A-Q—that conjured up flashbacks of the final table bubble at the 2003 WSOP main event.
 

I covered the final table of the 2010 WSOP main event, otherwise known as the November Nine, and sat in the orchestra pit with some of the press corps. We were all buzzing with excitement after we witnessed a hand—pocket nines versus A-Q—that conjured up flashbacks of the final table bubble at the 2003 WSOP main event. Let’s step into our time machine to May 2003. Before poker exploded on the internet and created an international tsunami, the most prestigious tournament in the world was held in the shadows of Downtown Las Vegas.

In 1986, Mike Caro wrote a poker book called Poker for Women, A Course in Destroying Male Opponents at Poker." Today and in my next column I'll talk about some poker women from the past and present and touch on some of Mike's poker tips for women.

Past poker women. The first women of poker hit the scene in the Wild West days. Calamity Jane was one of the first women to sit across the poker table from men and made the queen of spades famous. Today, it's called the "Calamity Jane."