The first high-stakes poker participant I interviewed was John “Austin Squatty” Jenkins. He was an erudite rare-book vendor who performed big-money maintain’em. His contradictory pursuits made the Texan scholar story-worthy.
Then the reality got here out. The man emerged as a revenge-bent snitch, a con artist, and an arsonist. Before my story ran, Squatty was discovered alongside the Colorado River with a bullet in his head.
I considered him and different card-playing rogues after studying about Lenard “Lucky” Adams this previous week. A poker professional who, in 2017, had been charged with rape, fraud, and kidnapping (many of the fees have been dropped, although he was made to pay restitution). Adams is now being accused of scamming fellow poker gamers.
These days, the excellent news is that incidents similar to this one are extra the exception than the rule amongst card gamers.
But it wasn’t all the time like that.
Doyle Brunson as soon as advised my writing companion (on the e book Aces and Kings) about taking part in in video games the place he actually put his life in danger. Rounders used to traverse the southwest with weapons of their vehicles to fend off hijackers. In a Seventies New York Times article, a crooked participant with a nickname so racist that it could by no means fly immediately was depicted slipping playing cards right into a Binion’s Horseshoe poker recreation, and the infraction was frequent sufficient that others on the desk laughed it off.
Depending on what facet of stuff you have been on, which will or might not have been worse than the plan that was hatched at a World Series of Poker desk, for Charles Harrelson (dad of Woody) to homicide a federal decide on behalf of the marijuana smuggler Jimmy Chagra. He did the job and was paid off with money stuffed right into a Pampers field.
I did just a few tales with Russ Hamilton – together with a whopper for Sports Illustrated that had him hustling a bunch of his buddies at golf – earlier than he grew to become a poker site pariah amid allegations that he was concerned with a brutal on-line dishonest rip-off.
The final poker villain I frolicked with was the infamous David “Devilfish” Ulliott. He did jail time, performed mediocre-at-best guitar, and will have been a 3rd Kray twin. He wasn’t precisely a extremely trusted poker participant, although I believe the previous break-in artist was extra angle shooter and self-centered hustler than out-and-out cheater.
During one in every of my final encounters with him, over dinner on the outdated Horseshoe steakhouse, he tried strongarming me into shopping for a diamond and known as me fats once I refused to pony up cash for the suspect jewel. On the upside, he additionally paid for dinner and gave me greater than my share of juicy tales.
Colorful as guys like Devilfish might need been, I’ve to determine that they aren’t terribly missed by sincere gamers. Grinders who keep on with on-line poker can relaxation simple figuring out their chips (and kneecaps) are protected each time they purchase in.
In a recreation as financially perilous as poker, issues are so a lot better – for gamers, although perhaps not for story-hungry journalists in search of colourful characters to put in writing about – with the vast majority of majorly dangerous actors out of the big-time motion.
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based mostly in New York City. He is the writer of 5 books (“The Advantage Players” out quickly) and has labored for publications that embody Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on know-how, playing, and enterprise — with a selected curiosity in spots the place all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is presently in improvement as a characteristic movie.
