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Poker Stories
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Nothing spawns tall tales like a high-stakes poker game in a smoke-filled back
room. Even video poker has spawned a few tall tales. If you're familiar with
Urban Legends, then you know that many a tall tale has woven itself into our
collective conscious as truth. Have you heard the one about…
The Big One that Got Away
Legend has it that one overeager video player received a Royal Flush on the
initial deal. The odds of this deal are over 1 in 600,000. The odds of getting
a Royal Flush even after the discard are over 1 in 40,000. This fellow was one
happy camper. With a heart beating like the French national anthem and
adrenaline rushing through his veins, he called the attendant to the machine as
he pushed the deal button. Immediately after pushing the deal button, he
realized that he had not held his cards before dealing, and his fortune
evaporated right before his eyes. While this story has made the rounds for
years, it's most probably not true. IGT, the largest video poker machine
manufacturer, has incorporated safety measures to freeze the machine when a
player hits a Royal Flush. Whenever a player hits a Royal Flush, it remains
until the attendant resets the machine.
Gather Round for the Real Ones
If you haven't spent your entire life beneath a rock, you've heard the names
Wild Bill Hickok and Nick the Greek. You probably know interesting facts about
these men other than what they share in common—their passion for poker—and how
one lost his life to poker while the other lost merely a $2,000,000 fortune to
the same game.
Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler Hickok, known for his legendary marksmanship met his untimely fate
at the hands of Jack McCall. McCall worked on behalf of the Deadwood
underworld, a group that would stop at nothing to see that Wild Bill Hickok
lost his bid for Marshall. One day, at a local saloon, Hickok joined a poker
game in the back room. He always chose a seat facing the door, but that
particular day, the only empty chair was the one which placed his back to the
door. McCall, who worked for the saloon from time to time, entered the saloon
and managed to walk into the backroom undetected where the men were playing
poker. No one paid the least bit to attention to McCall until he shot Hickok
dead with a single shot to the back of the head from close range. Hickok's hand
fell to floor, and among his cards were a pair or Aces (suit undetermined) and
a pair of eights (suit undermined), and that hand has been known as Dead Man's
Hand ever since.
Nick the Greek
Nicholas Andrea Dandolos immigrated to Chicago when he was 18 years old. After
a failed romance, he moved to Montreal where a jockey befriended him and helped
him win a half million dollars in six months. He moved back to Chicago and
promptly lost his entire fortune, but through his card playing, he further
tweaked his skill at figuring out odds. Legend after legend grew around Nick
the Greek's gambling ability; one credits him with winning an entire Los
Angeles city block. One summer, Dandolos and Johnny Moss, another high-stakes
poker player entered into a poker marathon that lasted for five months. Moss
took Dandolos for $2,000,000, and at the conclusion of the marathon, Nick the
Greek turned to Moss and said, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." With that,
Nick the Greek left the table and went to sleep.
--< Watchdog
>--
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