The primary high-stakes poker participant I interviewed was John “Austin Squatty” Jenkins. He was an erudite rare-book supplier 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. Earlier than 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 “Fortunate” Adams this previous week. A poker professional who, in 2017, had been charged with rape, fraud, and kidnapping (many of the costs had been dropped, although he was made to pay restitution). Adams is now being accused of scamming fellow poker gamers.
Today, the excellent news is that incidents resembling this one are extra the exception than the rule amongst card gamers.
Nevertheless it wasn’t all the time like that.
Doyle Brunson as soon as informed 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 Nineteen Seventies New York Occasions article, a crooked participant with a nickname so racist that it might by no means fly at the moment was depicted slipping playing cards right into a Binion’s Horseshoe poker sport, and the infraction was widespread sufficient that others on the desk laughed it off.
Relying on what facet of belongings you had been on, that will or might not have been worse than the plan that was hatched at a World Sequence 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 a number of tales with Russ Hamilton – together with a whopper for Sports activities Illustrated that had him hustling a bunch of his associates at golf – earlier than he turned 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.
Throughout one among 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 after 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.
Colourful as guys like Devilfish might need been, I’ve to determine that they don’t seem to be terribly missed by trustworthy gamers. Grinders who stick with on-line poker can relaxation simple realizing their chips (and kneecaps) are secure each time they purchase in.
In a sport as financially perilous as poker, issues are so significantly better – for gamers, although perhaps not for story-hungry journalists searching for colourful characters to put in writing about – with the vast majority of majorly unhealthy actors out of the big-time motion.
Michael Kaplan is a journalist primarily based in New York Metropolis. He’s the creator of 5 books (“The Benefit Gamers” out quickly) and has labored for publications that embody Wired, GQ and the New York Publish. He has written extensively on expertise, playing, and enterprise — with a selected curiosity in spots the place all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Solar and Phil Ivey is at the moment in improvement as a function movie.
