Bad boys bad boys/
Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when
they come for you?
-"Cops" Theme
[This is a work of poker fiction set ten thousand hands in the future. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.]
Gertrude Stein coined the term "Lost Generation" to describe the cynical and disillusioned writers and artists that gathered together in Paris in the aftermath of The War to End All Wars.
Stein and her life partner Alice B. Toklas-already notorious for their bohemian lifestyle-scandalized Paris, where polite society frowned upon jeux de carte poker, by regularly hosting high stakes poker games for the Lost Generation. The game included, at one time or another, F. Scott Fitzgerald ("A sweet man but a terrible poker player"), Ernest Hemingway ("A terrible man but a sweet poker player"), and Ezra Pound ("A terrible man and a terrible poker player"). In this manner the Lost Generation, nibbling no doubt on Alice B. Toklas' brownies, played away the Roaring 20's.
Poker's Lost Generation were the cynical and disillusioned no-limit hold 'em players that gathered at Las Vegas' tournament tables in the aftermath of the Crystal Casino suicide bombing that decimated poker's ranks.
The word decimation is Latin for "removal of a tenth." Ancient Rome practiced decimation as a form of military discipline, putting one out of ten soldiers to death as punishment for mutiny or cowardice. In modern usage decimation has taken on the broader meaning of an extreme and sudden reduction in a specific population.
Like the extreme and sudden reduction in the number of world class professional poker players.
Many of the world class professional poker players murdered in the Las Vegas Crystal Casino's poker room carried with them to their graves not only their famous poker nicknames-"The Gentle Man," "Texas Slick," "Oklahoma Fats"-but their care and respect for the game itself. Those killed in the blast were remembered as the best of the best. Some of those who followed are remembered as the worst of the worst.
The poker world had to suddenly make do with a second-string team made up of not-ready-for-prime-time poker players, many of whom proved themselves not just not-ready, but not-pleasant, and not-disciplined.
Soon unprofessional poker players nicknamed "The Nut Crusher," "The Fat Brat," and "Willy the Whiner" became synonymous with a new push-and-shove, swear-and-dare brand of poker that turned off many traditional fans. "Why," asked PokerNewsweekly, "has hold 'em suddenly gone bad ass?"
The surly and sometimes violent behavior of these players caused the sensation seeking tabloid press to name them The Bad Ass Boys of Poker.
The baddest of Poker's Bad Ass Boys was Ivan Jakes, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, whose infamous swearing and shouting poker room temper tantrums had more than once seen him ejected, kicking-and-screaming, from the poker room.
No one poker player typifies poker's lost generation more than Jakes who, prior to the extreme and sudden reduction in the number of true world class professional poker players, was a habitual dead money poker tournament troublemaker.
Without good competition in front of him, Ivan The Terrible, an all-in-all-the-time, fist-full-of-chips player, soon found himself within sight of the money at the nationally televised 2020 King of Poker Tournament. Busting out on the bubble on a no-odds/no-cards double inside straight draw, Jakes went into a berserk rage, climbed up on his chair and, screaming obscenities, urinated all over the table.
This was the beginning of what soon became known as the Poker Freak Show.
(To be continued in the next issue of Poker Player)
