For those of you who don't know, Johnny Moss was the "old man of poker". He won the first 3 World Series of Poker tournaments. He is credited for really putting poker 'out there' for the world to see.
Benny Binion set up a match between Johnny and Nick the Greek where they were going to play for big bucks and the general public in Vegas was allowed to watch. (and watch they did!)
Now, I heard the story from Johnny.....and I read about it in the card-playing history books. :)
I started traveling to and from Vegas when I was a young guy in my 20's.
I believe the first time I went, I stayed at the Rio which is located slightly West of the infamous strip.
I played at the Mirage, because that was really the only place to play on the strip. (at least if you wanted to play medium to high limit poker)
I suppose I could turn this one story into two stories by telling you all about my very first trip to Vegas. :)
I got into town late evening as I recall and took a shuttle to the hotel. I didn't go out that first night. I just wanted to get rested up for some poker the next day. To this day, I have never played poker the day that I arrived in Vegas. It's not superstition or anything... I simply want to be well-rested and playing the best poker that I can...so I get a good night's sleep.
Well, the next day around noon, I headed down to the Mirage and got into what I thought was a really good 20-40 limit HE game. I had come to Vegas with about $2500 as I recall and was intent on at least doubling it. Little did I know how difficult that would be.
Looking back, I was probably playing in one of the toughest games in town....
There were some players playing in that game...that I didn't know...but over the next few years, I would get to know.... You can see them regularly on the Game show network playing in the High Stakes Poker game...and not infrequently at the final table at major poker tournaments as well.
About 1:00 or 2:00 AM that first night, I found myself with every bit of money that I had come with on the table. I had only a few hundred bucks left...
I got dealt JJ and was soon involved in a monster pot. I had every single last chip in the pot before it was over, and I proceeded to win the pot for $1100 or $1200.
To shorten the story up, I played all night long that first night and stumbled home about 9:00 in the morning and if I recall correctly I was about a $100 winner. That was probably the toughest 100 bucks I've ever made in my life. I stayed in Vegas for several more days and by the time I went home, I had about $4500 in my pocket. I hadn't quite doubled it, but I was a happy camper. I'd made 2 grand in about 4 days I think...and that seemed like good money to me...
I also made it downtown to Binion's Horseshoe on that first trip and I felt right at home. It had that old-school feeling where people were relaxed...they weren't in suits and ties...and they were playin' some good old-fashioned poker. They were smokin' cigars and drinkin' beer & mixes...
That's always a good thing to see if you're a professional poker player. :)
This first trip downtown might've been the first time that I played with Johnny Moss, but I can't remember for certain.
Now, to shorten this story up...over the many, many, trips that I made to Las Vegas, Johnny Moss & I became pretty good friends. I think he recognized that I was a good young poker player, and I respected him for the legend that he was. He appreciated that I think. Many of the younger players didn't respect him much. I just thought he had earned my respect for the things he had accomplished when he was younger. (and well into his 70's)
To some degree, he kind of treated me like a son. It wasn't quite that intimate, but we had a good relationship. If he was having one of his bouts with gout or another sickness, I would sit with him and let him unload a bit on me. Johnny was already a fairly old man in the late 80's/early 90's and he did have health issues. I knew from stories and books that he had lived life in the extremely fast lane, nearly all his life.
Well, one day we were just chit-chatting/visiting and he was sharing a story with me (of which he literally had 1000's) about when he had taken Nick the Greek on, in a poker game, at the Horseshoe in 1979.
Johnny told me that he had lost a huge pot to Nick the Greek on the last card. (They were playing 5-card Stud, No limit) He told me that Nick had paid a huge amount of money to see that last card and was a huge underdog, but he got lucky and spiked it so Johnny lost a massive pot.
Johnny said after that pot, he felt really good, because he knew that he was a better player than Nick and because of the way Nick had played that hand, Johnny had no doubt that he would take all of his money.
Well, that part of the story is pretty much how history has recorded it, but then Johnny went on to tell me that over the course of the next 5 months, he beat Nick the Greek out of over 4 Million dollars.
I don't think anybody knows for sure how much he won, but it's a fact that he won an awful lot. (especially considering it was in 1979)
Since hearing that story, I've had the opportunity to read up a little bit on Johnny and he probably was telling the truth. It was an honor for me to get to know Johnny on a very personal level and play with him at the poker table 100's of times. Even though he was old, I saw moments of complete brilliance, where he was thinking leap years ahead of his opponents.
Most people playing the game with him simply couldn't appreciate some of the moves he made during the course of a game, because to put it bluntly....they didn't understand the advanced thinking behind the moves...
Johnny was notorious for all of his winning prop bets and for his many losing bets at the craps table.
He said he had lost at least 8 million in 4 years playing the dice....
He was a true gambler....and some people say the worlds greatest card player of all times.
To me, he was just a cool old man, who I liked to visit with... and listen too... and learn from....
He passed away in 1997 I believe and along with his passing, in my opinion, a complete era seemed to drift quietly into oblivion....
Sometimes I wish those simple... good old days could come back....
BTW, we did make it to MPLS this past weekend and I had winning days every single day that I played, (3 x's) so it was a very good trip....and my wife was even able to yell "BINGO" twice over the course of 3 sessions. That made her happy....and as we all know.... When mama's happy, everybody's happy!
Benny Binion set up a match between Johnny and Nick the Greek where they were going to play for big bucks and the general public in Vegas was allowed to watch. (and watch they did!)
Now, I heard the story from Johnny.....and I read about it in the card-playing history books. :)
I started traveling to and from Vegas when I was a young guy in my 20's.
I believe the first time I went, I stayed at the Rio which is located slightly West of the infamous strip.
I played at the Mirage, because that was really the only place to play on the strip. (at least if you wanted to play medium to high limit poker)
I suppose I could turn this one story into two stories by telling you all about my very first trip to Vegas. :)
I got into town late evening as I recall and took a shuttle to the hotel. I didn't go out that first night. I just wanted to get rested up for some poker the next day. To this day, I have never played poker the day that I arrived in Vegas. It's not superstition or anything... I simply want to be well-rested and playing the best poker that I can...so I get a good night's sleep.
Well, the next day around noon, I headed down to the Mirage and got into what I thought was a really good 20-40 limit HE game. I had come to Vegas with about $2500 as I recall and was intent on at least doubling it. Little did I know how difficult that would be.
Looking back, I was probably playing in one of the toughest games in town....
There were some players playing in that game...that I didn't know...but over the next few years, I would get to know.... You can see them regularly on the Game show network playing in the High Stakes Poker game...and not infrequently at the final table at major poker tournaments as well.
About 1:00 or 2:00 AM that first night, I found myself with every bit of money that I had come with on the table. I had only a few hundred bucks left...
I got dealt JJ and was soon involved in a monster pot. I had every single last chip in the pot before it was over, and I proceeded to win the pot for $1100 or $1200.
To shorten the story up, I played all night long that first night and stumbled home about 9:00 in the morning and if I recall correctly I was about a $100 winner. That was probably the toughest 100 bucks I've ever made in my life. I stayed in Vegas for several more days and by the time I went home, I had about $4500 in my pocket. I hadn't quite doubled it, but I was a happy camper. I'd made 2 grand in about 4 days I think...and that seemed like good money to me...
I also made it downtown to Binion's Horseshoe on that first trip and I felt right at home. It had that old-school feeling where people were relaxed...they weren't in suits and ties...and they were playin' some good old-fashioned poker. They were smokin' cigars and drinkin' beer & mixes...
That's always a good thing to see if you're a professional poker player. :)
This first trip downtown might've been the first time that I played with Johnny Moss, but I can't remember for certain.
Now, to shorten this story up...over the many, many, trips that I made to Las Vegas, Johnny Moss & I became pretty good friends. I think he recognized that I was a good young poker player, and I respected him for the legend that he was. He appreciated that I think. Many of the younger players didn't respect him much. I just thought he had earned my respect for the things he had accomplished when he was younger. (and well into his 70's)
To some degree, he kind of treated me like a son. It wasn't quite that intimate, but we had a good relationship. If he was having one of his bouts with gout or another sickness, I would sit with him and let him unload a bit on me. Johnny was already a fairly old man in the late 80's/early 90's and he did have health issues. I knew from stories and books that he had lived life in the extremely fast lane, nearly all his life.
Well, one day we were just chit-chatting/visiting and he was sharing a story with me (of which he literally had 1000's) about when he had taken Nick the Greek on, in a poker game, at the Horseshoe in 1979.
Johnny told me that he had lost a huge pot to Nick the Greek on the last card. (They were playing 5-card Stud, No limit) He told me that Nick had paid a huge amount of money to see that last card and was a huge underdog, but he got lucky and spiked it so Johnny lost a massive pot.
Johnny said after that pot, he felt really good, because he knew that he was a better player than Nick and because of the way Nick had played that hand, Johnny had no doubt that he would take all of his money.
Well, that part of the story is pretty much how history has recorded it, but then Johnny went on to tell me that over the course of the next 5 months, he beat Nick the Greek out of over 4 Million dollars.
I don't think anybody knows for sure how much he won, but it's a fact that he won an awful lot. (especially considering it was in 1979)
Since hearing that story, I've had the opportunity to read up a little bit on Johnny and he probably was telling the truth. It was an honor for me to get to know Johnny on a very personal level and play with him at the poker table 100's of times. Even though he was old, I saw moments of complete brilliance, where he was thinking leap years ahead of his opponents.
Most people playing the game with him simply couldn't appreciate some of the moves he made during the course of a game, because to put it bluntly....they didn't understand the advanced thinking behind the moves...
Johnny was notorious for all of his winning prop bets and for his many losing bets at the craps table.
He said he had lost at least 8 million in 4 years playing the dice....
He was a true gambler....and some people say the worlds greatest card player of all times.
To me, he was just a cool old man, who I liked to visit with... and listen too... and learn from....
He passed away in 1997 I believe and along with his passing, in my opinion, a complete era seemed to drift quietly into oblivion....
Sometimes I wish those simple... good old days could come back....
BTW, we did make it to MPLS this past weekend and I had winning days every single day that I played, (3 x's) so it was a very good trip....and my wife was even able to yell "BINGO" twice over the course of 3 sessions. That made her happy....and as we all know.... When mama's happy, everybody's happy!
One more interesting Johnny Moss story, taken from professional-poker.com
ReplyDeleteFor someone who lived and gambled into his 90s, there are thousands of Johnny Moss stories. One of my favorites has to be the time he played a heads-up golf match with a wealthy businessman. The guy was beating Moss pretty good in the first half of the match and Moss was down over a quarter of a million dollars. The mobsters who sponsored the event were in the gallery watching them play. They were furious since they’d bet on Johnny Moss. They decided that if the businessman won, they'd kill him instead of paying him the money. Lucky for that guy, Moss came from behind, birdied the last hole, and won. As they walked off the golf course, the angered business man mentioned to Moss, "You are the luckiest man alive." Moss laughed knowing that his victory saved the man's life and responded, "No sir, you are."
Darwin- You're a good story teller. I know next to nothing about poker, but now it's interesting...
ReplyDelete