A Timeline Of American Poker (1812-2012)

 

1812: Professional gambler and later anti-gambling activist Jonathan Harrington Green is born in Ohio. (His year of birth is also sometimes given as 1813).

1827: William Brisbane (William B. Dick), publisher and author of books on gambling, is born.

1829: Poker cheat George Devol is born at Ohio.

1829, December: Cowell refers to poker in his diary, which is not published until 1844.
This appears to be the first poker game ever reported in print, and was played on the steamboat Helen M’Gregor between Louiseville and New Orleans.

1831, February 12: John Morrissey is born at New York. Among his many other talents he became a gambler and a US Congressman.

1831, July 26: William Jermyn Conlin is born at Albany, New York. He is known by is stage name of William J. Florence, under which he publishes a book about poker.

1835: In Vicksburg, Mississippi, 5 suspected cardsharps are lynched by vigilantes.

1837: By this time, poker is played with a 53 card deck.

1844: Publication of Thirty Years Passed Among The Players In England And America by Joe Cowell; this is if not the the first then certainly one of the first books ever to mention poker. Joseph Leathley Cowell was born in Devonshire, England with the surname Witchett; he was an actor and comedian by profession.

1845, January: An Exposure Of The Art And Miseries Of Gambling is published by Jonathan Harrington Green.

1850, August 15: Doc Holliday is born. Holliday qualified as a dentist but became both a professional gambler and a gunman.

1851, February 17: Poker Alice (Alice Ivers) is born in Devon, England.

1855, May 11: Industrialist and compulsive gambler John Wayne Gates is born at Winfield, Illinois.

1860: Sylvester Shively is said to have won his wife (after a fashion) in a poker game on the River Queen on the Mississippi.

1864: 5 card stud is mentioned in the American Hoyle for the first time.

1865: Gerritt M. Evans publishes How Gamblers Win, a book that includes poker.

1866: The American Card Player is published. This book by William Brisbane covers many games including “straight and draw poker”.

1868, January: The Modern Pocket Hoyle is published by the author of The American Card Player. This is said to cover all the games of skill and chance played in America at that time, including draw poker, straight poker, stud poker and whiskey poker.

1868: The second edition of How Gamblers Win is published.

1868: This is the presumed date of publication of Gamblers’ Tricks With Cards, Exposed And Explained by Jonathan Harrington Green.

1870: Brett Harte publishes Plain Language From Truthful James, better known as The Heathen Chinee, a satirical poem about a poker game involving Truthful James and Ah Sin, a Chinese immigrant. It is set to music by Chas Towner.

1871: Robert C. Schenck of Ohio introduces poker to England. On arriving in London as American Ambassador he is asked about the game by Queen Victoria.

1871, April: Wild Bill Hickok is appointed Sheriff of Abilene.

1871, August 20: The Newton General Massacre takes place. One of the largest gun fights ever in the old Wild West is said to have started over a poker game.

1873: Robert C. Schenck publishes A Flowery Path to Wealth: The Game of Draw Poker as Taught to the English Aristocracy.

1873, September: Doc Holliday moves to Dallas where initially he practises as a dentist, but soon becomes a professional gambler.

1875: This year sees the publication of a book with a very long title. Credited to Henry T. Winterblossom, Professor of Mathematics, it is called THE GAME OF DRAW-POKER, MATHEMATICALLY ILLUSTRATED; BEING A COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE GAME, GIVING THE PROSPECTIVE VALUE OF EACH HAND BEFORE AND AFTER THE DRAW, AND THE TRUE METHOD OF DISCARDING AND DRAWING, WITH A THOROUGH ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT OF THE GAME AS PLAYED AT THE PRESENT DAY BY GENTLEMEN.

1876, August 2: Wild Bill Hickok is shot in the back and killed while playing draw poker. He is holding 2 black aces and 2 black 8s #ndash; the dead man’s hand.

1877: The firm T.B. Peterson publishes the second edition of The Laws And Practice Of The Game Of Euchre which includes a section on draw poker. Its author, Charles Henry Wharton, died in 1872.

1877, March 1: Jack McCall is hanged for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok.

1878: Doc Holliday stabs a man to death after catching him cheating at poker, although Ed Bailey was going for his gun.

1878, May 1: John Morrissey dies.

1879: In Kentucky, the judge presiding over the case of Smith v Brown asks where is one of the lawyers. He is told: “Pilkings is for the plaintiff; but I left him just now over in the tavern, playing a game of poker. He’s got a sucker there, and he’s sure to skin him if he only has time.”

1879: Poker #ndash; Its Laws and Practice, by Alfred Percy is published.

1880: Robert C. Schenck publishes Draw. Rules for Playing Poker.

1880: John Blackbridge publishes The Complete Poker Player.

1881: A Treatise On Jack Pot Poker by Jack Abbott is published at New Orleans.

1881, October: Doc Holliday wins $40,000 playing 5 card stud in a Dodge City game.

1882, January 1: An article by E.A. Thomas in The North American Review on the jury system reports that one case involving thousands of dollars was decided by a game of draw poker #ndash; thankfully a civil case.

1882, July: Dr Montreville Hedges and William F. Scott are charged with swindling Francis P. Weed out of an enormous sum at draw poker.

1883: The newspaper Texas Siftings exposes financial corruption in the Lone Star State. Some legislators were invited to poker games where they were allowed to “win” large sums of money for awarding contracts to leasers. This sort of thing had been going on since 1871.

1883, April 27: Nick The Greek (Dandolos Nicholas Andreas) is born on the Island of Crete.

1883: Talk Of Uncle George On Draw Poker is published.

1883, October 26: Judge Noonan of the Court of Criminal Correction, St Louis, rules that while draw poker requires a great deal of skill, it is “so thoroughly imbued with the element of chance that it comes under the gambling law”.

1886, June: The first known useage of the phrase “ace in the hole”; it appears in the Iowa newspaper The New Era.

1886, December 26: According to the New York Times, Thomas Bowen (1835-1906), the Senator for Colorado, is universally acknowledged at the most expert poker player in Washington.

1887: Jonathan Harrington Green dies.

1887: Forty Years A Gambler On The Mississippi is published by card cheat George Devol.

1887: Publication of The Game of Draw Poker for Poker Players by Denis Debedian; the book includes a contribution by Robert C. Schenck.

1887, November 8: Doc Holliday dies from tuberculosis at Glenwood Springs, Colorado aged only 36.

1890: On March 23, America’s first Ambassador of poker dies aged 80. Robert C. Schenck had also been a real ambassador, introducing the game to England in 1871.

1891: Hand-Book On Poker is written by W.J. Florence. It is published at New York posthumously the following year.

1891, November 19: William Jermyn Florence dies. He and the other author William James Florence appear to have been two different people.

1892: Hand-Book On Poker is published.

1896: The Handbook Of Poker by William James Florence is published.

1899, February: The great American inventor Thomas Edison releases one of the first silent films: Poker At Dawson City.

1900: JACK POTS: STORIES OF THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME is published by Eugene Edwards, Illustrated by Ike Morgan.

1901, September 5: William Brisbane dies.

1901, November: A member of the American Bar is caught cheating at poker in the Manhattan Club and is compelled to resign. From the club, not from the Bar!

1901: The Nevada Legislature legalises poker.

1902, June 4: Mrs Eliza Ross of Cincinnati brings a legal action against the Jacksonian Club of Omaha for maintaining a “poker joint” on its premises.

1902, December 8: Bridge player and poker author Oswald Jacoby is born.

1903: George Devol dies.

1903, March 4: Magician and author of popular gambling books John Scarne is born at Steubenville, Ohio.

1903, September 8: George Sturgis Coffin is born – the man who formulated the official rules of poker.

1904, November 20: Benny Binion is born near Dallas.

1905: R.P. Foster publishes Practical Poker.

1906: Shakespeare On Poker is published at Denver, a book that is not to be taken too seriously.

1906: Stand Pat or Poker Stories from the Mississippi is published by David A. Curtis, Illustrated by Henry Roth.

1906, January 27: Bill Boyd is born.

December 1906: A poker game between two Indiana miners ends with one of them dead. Louis Shulley accused William Watson of cheating him. Both men drew revolvers, and Watson was killed.

1907, May 14: Johnny Moss is born at Marshall, Texas.

1908, March 2: Gambler and murder victim Dick Giles is born.

1909: Nevada passes a new gambling law which among other things makes it illegal to play or deal poker.

1909, August 7: Bridge player and New York Times contributor Albert H. Morehead is born.

1910: Warren Tubbs, the second husband of Poker Alice, dies during a blizzard. She pawns her wedding ring to bury him, and ends up returning to poker.

1911, July: manufacturer Charles Jacobs files suit against his wife claiming living with her had become unbearable since she fell under the influence of poker. In another case, Siegmund Kneitel was being divorced by his wife. Recently, he was alleged to have played continuously for 5 days and nights returning home exhausted and penniless. He had pawned her rings to make a fresh start, and had won several thousand dollars.

1911, August 9: John Wayne Gates (Bet-A-Million Gates) dies in Paris following an operation to remove a tumour.

1912, February 27: The short film Strip Poker is released; this appears to be the first use of that phrase.

1913, April 10: The comedy film A Game Of Poker is released.

1914: The Darktown Poker Club is published by the Jerome H. Remick company and recorded for the first time the same year.

1915, March 4:: Comedy actor Roscoe Arbuckle stars in the short Fatty’s Reckless Fling.

1916, December 4: No fewer than 21 poker players are due in court after a police raid on a game at 6019 Harper Avenue, Chicago after neighbours complained about the noise.

1917, September: Edward H. Wright, Assistant Corporation Counsel of Chicago, is one of a number of people arrested in a gambling raid on a private home. He was said to have been playing stud.

1918, February: An inquiry concerning the Merchants’ Club reported in the New York Times hears that “tired” businessmen would occasionally seek recreation in a game of poker; these are said to be dollar limit games, “a mere trifle” for the well-to-do.

1919, November 22: An op-ed in The Evening Missourian newspaper condemns poker as one of the worse curses that has ever struck the country, and rails at university students who are neglecting their education in order to play it.

1920, June 26: Seven men are convicted of playing in an illegal poker game at a Boston hotel. They are fined $5 each and ordered to pay costs. The proprietor is cleared.

1921, March 18: The Washington Times reports a court in Georgia has heard that valuable express shipments have been stolen from trains by messengers to settle gambling debts. More than fifty people are said to be facing conspiracy charges.

1922, April: Chicago police are said to be starting a war on women poker players following the arrest of a Mrs Minnie Mysseki.

1923, April 30: In State v Staples, an attorney who prosecuted an accused for engaging in an illegal stud game is denied his fee on a legal technicality.

1924, September 18: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decides the case of Ford v State, a case involving an illegal poker game in an hotel. The defendants have mixed fortunes.

1925: Hold ’Em is played for the first time, in Dallas, but it will be decades before it catches on.

1926, March 13: Smith v State is heard by the Oklahoma Court of Appeals. The court finds in favour of a group of farmers who had been convicted of “gaming by playing a game of poker” on private property after a night time raid by the legal authorities without warrant. The seizure of the deck of cards is said to have been unreasonable; the money was not found.

1927, January 12: Hal Fowler is born.

1927, May 26: Nineteen year old Coleman Shaffer is shot dead by David Hicks during “a bitter argument mixed with poker and drinking” in West Virginia. The following November, his killer is given a five year sentence for second degree murder.

1928: Frank Crumit records his own composition Dolan’s Poker Party.

1928, November 4: Arnold Rothstein is shot during a business meeting in New York, and dies the following day. His murder is thought to have resulted from his losing $320,000 in a three day poker game and failing to pay up, claiming it had been fixed.

1928, December 31: Amarillo Slim Preston is born.

1929: Blind Blake records Poker Woman Blues.

1929, January 29: Puggy Pearson is born.

1930, February 27: Poker Alice dies at Rapid City, South Dakota.

1930, June 16: Jack Straus is born.

1931, March 7: Sailor Roberts is born.

1931, August 14: A story appears in the Davis County Clipper about a shoe shop that had a notice in the window “Shoes sold on Poker Terms”. The accompanying anecdote is bizarre enough to be true.

1931: How To Play Stud Poker by George Henry Fisher is published.

1931, March 19: Nevada legalises gambling again, including both draw and stud poker.

1932: Prison inmates in Nevada are permitted to gamble, including playing poker.

1933: How To Win At Stud Poker by George Henry Fisher is published.

1933, August 10: Godfather of Poker Doyle Brunson is born in Texas.

1934: Poker: How To Play And Win by Maurice Ellinger is published.

1935, January 2: Gambler Dick Giles is murdered in Arizona after leaving a poker game at a club.

1936: In Gardena, Los Angeles, draw poker is legalised. Ernie Primm opens a card club at the Embassy Palace.

1937, June 2: Four men are arrest at the Embassy Palace in Gardena for playing draw poker. The case is dismissed by the Attorney General of California.

1938: Lew Brice #ndash; the brother of actress Fanny Brice #ndash; wins $150,000 from Englishman Harry T. Clifton then loses it back on the flip of a coin.

1939, October 13: T.J. Cloutier is born.

1940: William E. Baxter Junior is born.

1940: Oswald Jacoby On Poker is published. This first edition contains no mention of Texas Hold ’Em.

1941, August 6: Lyle Berman is born.

1942, November 1: Publisher, pornographer and poker player Larry Flynt is born.

1943, January 19: Medical doctor turned poker profesional Lee Nelson is born.

1944: Mike Caro, the mad genius of poker, is born in California.

1944: Princeton University Press publishes Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior by Johann von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. The book uses poker as a model.

1944, November 14: Professional player and poker author Tom McAvoy is born.

1945: George Coffin formulates his 130 laws of poker.

1945, December 6: Poker player and author Dan Harrington is born.

1946: Reportedly, Richard Nixon finances his first political campaign with money he won playing poker the while serving in the US Navy during World War II.

1946, March 6: President Truman takes British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the cleaners in a poker game played on a train from Washington to Fulton, Missouri.

1946, July 1: Mathematician, backgammon player and poker theorist Paul Magriel is born.

1946, August 30: The Golden Nugget casino opens in Las Vegas.

1947: The second edition of Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior is published.

1948: A revised edition of Oswald Jacoby On Poker is published.

1948: Dennis Waterman is born.

1949: Between January and May, Nick The Greek and Johnny Moss play a lengthy heads-up match as a tourist attraction.

1949: Universal-International releases Cheating In Gambling, a short documentary featuring John Scarne.

1949, July 4: Harry S. Truman was an enthusiastic poker player, but appears to have been photographed only once playing the game while President, aboard the Williamsburg.

1950, April 13: Benny Binion regains his gambling licence.

1951, March 28: Chip Reese is born.

1951, July 5: Brad Daugherty is born.

1952, July 29: Las Vegas resident and poker professional An Tran is born in Saigon.

1953: The third edition of Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior is published.

1953: Jesse Stone writes the hit song Losing Hand for Ray Charles.

1953: A researcher at the University of California concludes that women who play poker are better adjusted emotionally than those who don’t. His conclusions do not meet with universal approval.

1954, December 30: Barry Greenstein is born.

1955, December 28: Poker pundit Andy Glazer is born.

1956: The Official Laws Of Poker by George Coffin is published.

1957: Johnny Chan is born in China.

1957, September 13 : Gamblers Anonymous is founded in Los Angeles. Countless poker players have joined worldwide since.

1957, September 22: The first episode of the TV series Maverick is screened.

1958, September 16: Actress and poker player Jennifer Tilly is born.

1959, September-October: A Model For Real Poker by the American mathematician Donald J. Newman is published in the academic journal Operations Research.

1960, February 27: Mindy Trinidad is born. 1961: Professional poker player Amir Vahedi is born in Tehran.

1961, August 13: Actor, commentator and poker player Chad Brown is born.

1962, December 2: Professional poker player and future Las Vegas resident David Levi is born in Tel Aviv.

1963: The Cincinnati Kid by Richard Jessup is published.

1963: Howard Lederer is born.

1963, May 27: Dylan releases his Freewheelin’ album which includes the song Rambling Gambling Willie, about an epic poker game.

1964: The Gamblers Bookshop opens in Las Vegas.

1964, July 16: Phil Hellmuth is born.

1964, November 29: Jennifer Harman is born.

1965: The classic film The Cincinnati Kid is released with Steve McQueen as the young pretender and Edward G. Robinson as the old master who breaks him at the table.

1965, September 13: Annie Duke is born.

1966, September 16:: Henry Fonda and Joanne Woodward star in the classic Western A Big Hand For The Little Lady (later renamed Big Deal At Dodge City), a film with a surprising twist in the tail.

1966, October 5: Albert H. Morehead dies.

1966, December 25: Nick The Greek dies.

1967: Albert H. Morehead’s book The Complete Guide To Winning Poker is published posthumously.

1968: Ted Thackrey publishes Gambling Secrets Of Nick The Greek, with an introduction by Groucho Marx.

1968: Johnny Chan emigrates to the United States.

1968, November 22: Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin star in the Western 5 Card Stud.

1969, March 2: Ed Asner and Bill Bixby star in the half hour TV drama The Poker Game.

1970: The first World Series Of Poker is held at the Horseshoe casino, a very ad hoc affair with only 7 entries.

1970, September 30: George McGann – a very disreputable Texas gambler – is murdered at Lubbock, Texas.

1971, May 1-15: The second World Series Of Poker is held, a total of 5 tournaments.

1971, May: Bill Boyd wins the first of four consecutive bracelets for 5 Card Stud in the World Series Of Poker.

1972, May: Amarillo Slim wins the Main Event at the World Series Of Poker, pocketing $80,000. Nineteen years later the first prize will be $1,000,000.

1973: Doyle Brunson moves to Las Vegas.

1973, December 26: The Sting is released, a film which features a most improbable hand of draw poker.

1974, February 13: Gus Hansen is born in Denmark; he begins his poker playing career in California while an exchange student.

1974, July 26: Daniel Negreanu is born at Toronto, Canada.

1975: On his Hawaiian honeymoon, William E. Baxter ends up in Las Vegas. He and his new bride take up residence in a hotel there for nine months while he makes a living playing poker.

1975, November 21: Chris Moneymaker is born.

1976, February 1: Phil Ivey is born.

1976, June: Carly Simon’s Another Passenger album is released; it includes the track Riverboat Gambler, co-written with Jacob Brackman.

1976, August 11: Erick Lindgren is born.

1977, September: Wishbone Ash release the single Front Page News which is backed by the uptempo Diamond Jack. Although the band are from England, by this time they are tax exiles in the US; lead guitarists Andy Powell and Ted Turner relocate there permanently.

1978. March 6: Larry Flynt and his lawyer are shot by a sniper during a court case. Flynt is left paralysed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. His would-be assassin, serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, is executed on November 20, 2013.

1978, March 25: Erica Schoenberg is born.

1979: Hal Fowler becomes the first amateur to win the Main Event at the World Series Of Poker.

1979: The Poker Hall Of Fame is founded by Jack Binion, son of Benny Binion. Its first inductees include Wild Bill Hickok (1837-76); and Edmund Hoyle (1672-1769), the English author and pioneer of the official rules of card games.

1980, July 28: Jesse May – one of the voices of poker – is born.

1981: Oswald Jacoby On Poker is republished.

1982: The immortal phrase “A chip and a chair” is born when Jack Straus comes back from one chip to win the Main Event at the World Series Of Poker.

1983: Tom McAvoy wins the Main Event at the World Series Of Poker.

1984, June 27: Oswald Jacoby dies.

1984, September 14: The paperback edition of Scarne’s Guide To Modern Poker is published.

1985, March 22: Frank J. Sansone, President of the California Commerce Club, is convicted of bribing four officials of the City of Commerce with secret shares in a poker club. Later, he is given a six month sentence and fined $20,000.

1985, July 5: John Scarne dies at North Bergen, New Jersey.

1986, March 11: A court case by William Baxter and his wife leads to the decision that a gambler’s winnings are earned income for tax purposes, and are therefore taxable at a lower rate.

1987, May 22: The film Poker Alice is released.

1988, August: Jack Straus dies.

1989, January 20: Professional gambler and poker author Herbert Coddington is sentenced to death in California for murdering two elderly women. His other crimes include the murder of a 12 year old girl.

1989, November 1: Gambling is legalised in Deadwood when an actor dressed as Wild Bill Hickok shoots a revolver in the air.

1989, November 22: The Mirage casino opens in Las Vegas. Bill Boyd deals the first ever hand of poker there.

1989, December 25: Benny Binion dies.

1990: Mansour Mansoubi becomes the first non-American to win the World Series Of Poker Main Event, the Chinese-born Johnny Chan being an American citizen.

1990: The late Benny Binion is inducted into the Poker Hall Of Fame.

1991: Brad Daugherty wins the Main Event at the World Series Of Poker, a cool $1,000,000.

1992, August 28: The film Honeymoon In Vegas is released. The moral of this film is, if he truly loves you, ladies, he won’t “lose” you in a poker game.

1994, January 28: The film Tombstone is released in the UK; Val Kilmer plays poker player and gunman Doc Holliday. Other release dates can be found here.

1994, March 12: George Coffin dies.

1994, July 15: Maverick is released in the UK with Mel Gibson in the title role. Other release dates can be found here.

1995, June 23: Sailor Roberts dies.

1995, December 16: Johnny Moss dies.

1996: The flash game Texas Hold ’Em is released.

1997: British poker player Marcus Bebb-Jones murders his wife and dumps her body in a Colorado national park. Twelve years later he is extradited to the United States, and after accepting a plea bargain is given a 20 year sentence for second degree murder.

1997, November 21: Bill Boyd dies at the age of 91.

1998, November 20: Matt Damon stars in Rounders, released in the UK on this date. Other release dates can be found here.

1998, November 22: Stu Ungur is found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room. In his lifetime he had won probably $30 million gambling. He died broke.

1998, November 26: Stu Ungur is buried in Las Vegas. Fellow gamblers pay for his funeral.

1999, September: How We Learned to Cheat at Online Poker: A Study in Software Security by Brad Arkin, Frank Hill, Scott Marks, Matt Schmid and Thomas John Walls is published.

2000, November 7: Hal Fowler dies.

2001: Bucking The Tiger is published, an historical novel which includes Doc Holliday who therein describes 5 card stud as “the only true game”.

2001, March: Billionaire Andy Beal walks into the Bellagio, Las Vegas, and announces he wants to play the best one by one, heads up with $20,000-$40,000 limits.

2003, April: Andy Beal returns to the Bellagio and offers to play heads-up hold ’em $30,000-$60,000. Jennifer Harman is the woman of the hour.

2003: Chris Moneymaker becomes the first on-line qualifier to win the Main Event at the World Series Of Poker.

2004: Woman Poker Player magazine is founded.

2004: Jennifer Harman misses the World Series after having her second kidney transplant.

2004, July 4: Andy Glazer dies in Los Angeles aged only 48.

2004, September 7: Andy Glazer’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Poker is published posthumously.

October 2004: The first issue of Bluff magazine is published.

2004, October 18: Cardoza publish the second edition of Doyle Brunson’s treatise on poker strategy. Super System 2 includes contributions from Jennifer Harman and Daniel Negreanu among others.

2005: In the World Series, Jennifer Harman loses with queens full to a straight flush.

2005: Barry Greenstein publishes An Ace On The River: An Advanced Poker Guide.

2005, May: Poker is legalised in Alaska, even though it has been played there since the Gold Rush.

2006: Gus Hansen wins a $575,000 pot against Daniel Negreanu #ndash; quads v full house #ndash; in a high stakes, televised poker game.

2006, February: Andy Beal returns to the Bellagio again he loses even more money after being $10,000,000 ahead at one point.

2006, April 12: Puggy Pearson dies.

2006, July 29: One Of A Kind: The Rise And Fall Of Stu Ungar is screened, a 45 minute documentary.

2007: Ghosts at the Table: The amazing story of Poker ...the world’s most popular game, by Des Wilson, is published in the UK. Among other things this book raises points of controversy about the hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot in the back on August 2, 1876.

2007, April 13: Chiropractor and professional poker player William Gustafik is murdered by his wife, Jill Rockcastle. On November 19, 2008 she is given a sentence of 10 years to life.

2007, December 4, 2007: Chip Reese dies aged 56.

2008, March 7: Ernest Scherer III, who was described as a professional poker player, murders his parents hoping to collect his inheritance to pay off his gambling debts. Three years later he is given life without parole.

2008, April 4: The Grand is released in the USA, a comedy film about a poker tournament.

2008, September 4: The paperback edition of Ghosts At The Table is published in the UK.

2008, October 9: Mindy Trinidad dies from leukemia aged only 48.

2008, October 16: The Poker Club is released.

2009, May 27-July 15: The 40th World Series Of Poker is held in Las Vegas.

2009, October: The owner of an underground poker club in Denver pleads guilty to racketeering. In December, Jeffrey Castardi is given a sixteen year sentence.

2010, January 8: Amir Vahedi dies at his home in Las Vegas, aged 38.

2011, April 15: The American Government shuts down on-line poker sites in what becomes known as Black Friday.

2011, May 29: Erick Lindgren marries fellow poker player Erica Schoenberg.

2012, April 29: Amarillo Slim Preston dies.

2012, July 3: British player Sam Trickett places second in a WSOP tournament winning $10,112,001 which makes him Britain’s all-time most successful poker player. After the tournament he is beaten up by a group of men, though not robbed.

Back To Articles Index