What are the 10 most fascinating poker stories and who are the people in them that made history?

As any sport poker has his legends and myths, and anybody who played poker for a longer period of time has some interesting stories to tell. This is what you get when you combine possibilities form a 52 card deck at a table while trying to make some money. Being a gambling game it means that it involves a lot of money and automatically makes the stories more interesting for the listener. In this article I will present you ten interesting stories involving poker.

10. It is told that the former President of America, Richard Nixon started his career in politics with money from poker.  During the World War 2 while he was in the Navy he won enough money to support is first political campaign. Poker was not a good combination with politics and in 1952 he decided to give up poker when he was in competition with Eisenhower. Beside money Nixon wrote in his autobiography that he learn how to read people.

9. Poker Alice. This story is about a women from the old wet who moved from England to Colorado in 1860s. In Colorado he married an engineer who was playing poker a local level.  She was going with him at games and eventually learned the game and started to play it to earn money after his husband died. She was quite famous back then being able to earn $5000 and then she moved in New York to retire. While playing poker he become more though shooting two men with a gun. Alice the gamer was different from Alice the women who was teaching classes for ladies and refused to play games on Sunday.

8 Nuts.  Another interesting story is how the term a nut player appeared. In the old west people were betting on their horses and wagons which in that time was very important. When they were betting on the wagons they had to take out the nuts from the wheels and put in the pot, because if they lose they could not run. When they where doing that it means that they had a strong pair in their hands and to think twice before betting against them.

7.William Canada Bill Jones was a player back in the 1800s along the Mississippi River. Despite his appearance he was one of the best con players of all time. His advantage was that due to his look and squeaking voice everybody took him as a fool with gave him an advantage. He loved the game to much that’s why even when he knew that the game is crooked he couldn’t say no to a lovely game of poker. This love for the game made him lose all his money and die penniless.

6.  For a better understanding of this story you need to know how difficult is for a player to reach the final table in a World Series tournament. Doyle Brunson a  pro player had the performance of winning two years in a row the World Series with the same cards at the final game. 10 and 2 became known as the Doyle Brunson hand. It’s interesting the fact that he got the same cards and still won with them even though there are consider to be low hands.

5. Slim Preston a poker legend from Amarillo had quote that make him famous. He said that by any chances a women would won the World Series of Poker he would cut his own throat. Like any quote that you make sometimes it can back fire on you. During a tournament in which Slim was in there was a women who made the clear statement that she will won this competition. Fortunately for him he lose but she was very close of making him to respect his word.

4. Arnold Rothstein’s dead. Arnold was one of the biggest gambler who ever lived in New York. He was a brilliant underworld figure who turn the Mafia in a true organization. We was charged of fixing the baseball championship  and the World Series of poker in 1919. His way of working inspired many movie and book characters. We was found dead in hotel room in New York while playing a game of poker.

3. Chris Moneymaker by his real name, had left his mark very visible in the poker world.  Being a 27 year old accountant after winning the World Series of Poker we was known as the Cinderella of poker. He won in 2003 $ 2.5 million at the final table. Until now nothing special, there were other winners o the Word Series, but Chris, at that tournament he was at the first live tournament in his life and beside that he started to play poker only three years before.  He won in the final with a full house against Sam Farha.

2 Nick the Greek against Johnny Moss. This legendary game of poker last for five months and in the end Moss won $4 million. This all happened in 1949 in Las Vegas and the competition is considered to be the precursor of the World Series of Poker.  Later one when World Series of Poker started in 1970, Johnny Moss  was the first player who won this competition three times.

1 The dead man’s hand. This story goes back in time  when poker was forming into the game it is today. In 1876 on second of August in the South Dakota city the well know legend Wild Bill was killed during a game of poker by his opponent Jack McCall. Even though there are not many details about this event, what it’s known is that when Bill was killed he had in his hand two pairs, black 8s and black aces and since then this combination is called the Dead Man’s Hand.

This are just a couple of stories about the fascinating world of poker. Every player has his own stories, maybe not as interesting as this, but  as long as you play you will have stories to tell.