ORAC – The World’s First Poker Bot
Anyone who is into poker bots will probably know exactly what I’m talking about here, because ORAC was the first ever attempt at a poker bot. Created by Mike “Mad Genius” Caro in 1984, this poker bot could actually be dubbed as the father of all poker bots. So who is Mike Caro? Well, his Wikipedia...
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The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 3)
Stu Ungar was a gambling prodigy: breaking records, defeating champions, and becoming the best at every card game he ever played. However, his private life was in shambles. His father died when he was a young boy, he grew up mean and tough on the streets, and in 1986, even his marriage to long-time love Madeline...
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The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 2)
Stuey the Kid (also called Stu Ungar) was one of the best poker players in history. However, his interest in poker was actually prompted by his genius in gin rummy. He was so good that casinos banned him from playing, because nobody wanted to join a table where he was seated. This led him to start playing poker. He...
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The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 1)
He was called “Stuey the Kid”, and was one of the best poker and gin rummy players in history. Unfortunately, his skill at the tables was matched only by a string of poor personal decisions that left him in debt. When he was found dead in 1998, at just 45 years old, he had lost all of the $33 million...
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Famous (Often Amusing) Poker Quotes
We all have our heroes and people we look up to. Whether it be in “real life” or on the game floor, there are people we consider our role models. Poker is not an exception, and when we look up to people we watch their every move and look out for their every word. Just to lighten things up a bit, here are some...
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Poker Movies: The Sting
I remember watching The Sting when I wasn’t much into poker yet. In fact, I think when I saw it (simply because my dad had a video and wanted to watch it, so everyone else had to) I didn’t even know how to play poker. Despite that fact, the movie captured the interest of everyone in the room and we all...
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Poker Movies: The Cincinnati Kid
Though movies are not exactly an accurate reflection of reality, we have to admit that we can pick up a thing or two from them. More so, we can have a good time while we are it. The same thing goes for poker movies. We see the exceptional highs and lows of a poker game in these movies. We see brilliant moves that...
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What Is The Appeal Of Poker?
Poker is one of the most popular card games in the world. Like other “vying” games, players make bets which are combined into a central pot. This money is then given to the player with the best hand (or, as is often the case, the player who manages to bluff everyone despite having a lousy hand, and wins because...
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Doyle Brunson – Texas Dolly
One of the members of the Texas Rounders, Doyle Brunson is a name legendary in the world of poker. Anyone who is really into the game will certainly know who he is. Also known as Texas Dolly, Doyle Brunson was born on August 10, 1933 in Longworth, Texas. It seemed at first that Doyle Brunson would live a “normal”...
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Amarillo Slim – The First Poker TV Star
Amarillo Slim wasn’t always known by this name. Born Thomas Austin Preston, Jr. in December 21, 1938 in Johnson, Arkansas, the first time he won the Main Event of the World Series of Poker was in 1972. Yet before he became famous for his tournament poker skills, Amarillo Slim was already quite well known in...
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Stu Ungar – Gambler, Addict, Loser, Legend
If you chance upon a cluster of people at a party chitchatting about great poker players, there would be no doubt that you would hear the name Stu Ungar come up at least once. There are a lot of people in the poker world who actually consider Stu Ungar the greatest poker player of all time – second to none....
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The History Of Poker Chips
In a recent post, I talked about how you can start your own home game. One of the requisites of doing this however, is having the right equipment and what is the most vital piece of equipment for poker? Chips, poker chips that is. For the uninitiated, once you’ve seen poker chips (even on TV), they’re all...
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How Poker Developed Over The Ages
Historians can’t quite agree how the game of poker emerged. They think the name of the game may have originated from the French word “poque”, a variation of the German “pochen” or “to knock” or “to brag”. This may refer to how bluffing is an integral part of the game—you pretend to have great...
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Poker Alice – The First Great Female Poker Player
Poker was a popular pastime in the days of the Wild West, and Hollywood pays homage to this sport in many films that either revolve around poker or feature it in one of its scenes. What Hollywood doesn’t tell you is that not all the poker players were men. Sure, it was a macho society where gambling was almost...
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Poker Goes To Hollywood (Part 2)
Hollywood tends to distort poker with stereotypes and really stupid moves and tricks described by scriptwriters who obviously know nothing about the game. But once in a while, you come across a movie that does a decent job of bringing the excitement of poker to the big screen. Here are a few films to rent, enjoy,...
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Poker Goes To Hollywood (Part 1)
Many movies incorporate the high-stakes, fast-action world of poker — hoping, perhaps, to spice up their plot and add edgy glamour to their characters. Unfortunately, many of those gambling scenes border on the ridiculous. Think of the downright ludicrous House of Games, the painfully stilted Honeymoon in Vegas,...
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Why Einstein Would’ve Made a Good Poker Player
Thanks to cheesy Hollywood movies, some people think that poker is all about mindgames: outwitting the opponents, making a cool bluff. Take the phrase “poker faced”: expressionless, unreadable. They get the impression that Poker is about knowing how to tell a good lie. Well, possibly, but some “mindgames”...
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