Daniel Negreanu, aka “Kid Poker,” may be in his mid-thirties now, but compared to some of the legends of poker, his career has lasted one fourth as long. However, his results compare favorably to some of the best poker players to ever grace this great game. He has won four World Series of Poker Bracelets, most recently in 2008, and has also won two World Poker Tour (WP) Events. On top of those six major championships, he has won dozens of other tournaments. Since he became a professional poker player he has won more major poker tournaments than anyone else in history, resulting in nearly 12 million dollars in tournament cashes. Also, while it is impossible to know how much he has won at cash games, Negreanu is a regular at “Bobby’s Room” at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which spreads the richest stakes games in the world. Still, while Negreanu would be known for these outstanding results alone, it is his contributions to the game that have made him one of the most recognizable faces in the game today – hence his inclusion into the Pokerology Hall of Fame.

When “Kid Poker” truly was a kid, at around 15 years old, poker was the furthest thing from his mind. Negreanu liked to gamble, but his game of choice was snooker. After realizing there was not much money in snooker he changed his focus to a somewhat similar game, with a lot more money to be made – pool. Negreanu started skipping school for the pool halls, eventually dropping out. It was in these pool halls that Negreanu started playing poker, and using his fake ID he would play at the local casinos in his hometown of Toronto, Canada. At this time Negreanu has said he liked to gamble on everything, but despite this he was still making a decent living at poker, even before he was legally allowed to enter a casino.

When Negreanu did turn 21 he did not stick around in Canada for long, instead deciding to try his luck in “America’s Playground,” Las Vegas. Believe it or not, in short order Negreanu was sent back to Canada broke, having been taken to school by the professionals. While there, he received advice, saying he would have to cut back on other vices (such as gambling on craps and sports) if he were to succeed in the shark infested waters of Las Vegas. Negreanu returned to Toronto and pulled together another bankroll and made his way back to Vegas, this time with a new attitude. The rest, they say, is history.

All poker players have their prerogative to be accessible or not. Even the great Doyle Brunson, arguably the greatest ambassador the game has ever had, has said there have been times he wished he had not published his poker changing strategy book “Super System,” because he said it has cost him millions of dollars and forced him to change his game. That has not derailed Negreanu from following in Brunson’s footsteps, even contributed to Brunson’s “Super System 2,” writing the Triple Draw section, despite being one of the youngest professionals featured in the game.

In the summer of 2008, Negreanu published what has been called this generation’s ‘Super System’. Just like that book, “Power Hold’em Strategy” featured professionals giving their expert poker opinions on different topics. Appearing alongside Negreanu in the book are Evelyn Ng, Doyle’s son, Todd, Eric Lindgren, Paul Wasicka, and David Williams, a virtual who’s who in the world of poker today. The player who seemed to go most in-depth, talking about his own style, was Negreanu himself. He talks of his “small ball” style, which requires a player seeing a ton of hands and winning a lot of small pots. He states that you have to be able to read situations well to play poker like this, and as a preliminary search on any internet search engine will show you, Negreanu is second to none when it comes to reading poker players. There are videos of past poker tournaments where his opponents are virtually starting at “Kid Poker” with their mouth open because he has put them on the exact two cards they have in the hole.

On top of contributing many of his secrets to the general poker population through his book, he has also made himself easily reachable via a number of other mediums. He is a regular contributor to Card Player Magazine. He has also been known to stop by some of the better known poker forum communities and talk shop. Finally, his blog on Full Contact Poker is among the most read poker blogs. He updates it 3 to 4 times a week, and addresses some readers’ questions from time to time. Finally, while this may not seem like a big thing, he will even take the time to talk to railbirds, often during big poker tournaments.

Anyone who plays online poker will be familiar with people begging for money in the chat box. Well Negreanu plays at PokerStars (where he is one of their sponsored pros), and what somehow started as a joke, poker players everywhere started sending Negreanu one cent via a PokerStars money transfer in hopes that it would turn their luck around. Negreanu has stated on his blog that he has received over a thousand dollars from this.

His generally good personality, and his willingness to talk to poker fans, has enabled him to join the lists as the next great ambassador that the game of poker needs. It is also with delight that we would like to welcome “Kid Poker” to the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

Related posts:

1. Doyle Brunson Profile
2. Eric Drache Profile
3. Chip Reese Profile

Do you ever get that feeling that you have seen someone before but you just can’t quite put your finger on where you saw that person? Linda Johnson is the kind of person that fits that description. If you are a poker player and have attended a few tournaments you may have noticed her calling the action. If you just watch poker on television, then you may have noticed her standing at the final table, announcing. However, Johnson did not earn the name “The First Lady of Poker” just by being an announcer for the WPT. No, her contributions to the game have been among the greatest the game has ever seen and that is why she is the newest member of the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

Linda Johnson was first introduced to the game of poker from her father. Her father made a fair amount of money from poker while he was in the Army, and tried to stress to his daughter that it was one of the few “gambling” games that you can make money at with a proper skill set. Johnson understood what her father was saying, but as soon as she left for college she forgot what her parents had taught her. Instead of playing poker, she would go play blackjack, and while with basic strategy you can almost make the game break even, her father was still alarmed when he found out her daughter had stopped playing poker. In a heart to heart kind of conversation, her father told her that with poker you can constantly make money, and with any other game in the casino that is not possible. This time, the advice stuck, and so begun Linda Johnson’s decent up the poker ladder.

After having mopped up the competition from her co-workers at her job at the post office, the next logical step was moving to the casino. In the early 1970’s Johnson was considered as a bit of a joke from the casino regulars, all guys. In fact, almost everyone playing poker at the time was a male. Johnson immediately wiped the smirk off their faces, by finishing at the final table of a $44 dollar tournament, where she was also believed to be the first woman to ever participate in that tournament. Linda would go on to become a successful cash game player over the next 20 years, but as the years went by she could not help but feel there was something more she could do for the game.

In 1993 she began publishing CardPlayer Magazine, which has since become the most respected poker magazine on the market today. Up until relatively recently, poker was still regarded as a game played by cheats and conmen, so it was Johnson’s goal to bring poker into a positive light, concentrating on the good of the game, such as the competitive spirit, and the genuinely good people who play the game. People began to see her efforts, and Johnson became very well known within the poker community.

While attending the magazine, Johnson continued to play poker, winning a WSOP Bracelet in Razz in 1997. The cash of $96,000 was one of the highest cashes ever for a woman. Her competitive juices continued to flow, and in 2000 she left her position at the magazine to go back to being a professional poker. However, just a few weeks into her second life as a professional poker player, she was asked by a brand new poker circuit, by the name of “World Poker Tour,” to join them in some capacity. Johnson took the job as an in-studio announcer, and of course the launch of the WPT coincided with the biggest poker boom in history, making it a huge success. Johnson loved her new job, but had remembered a promise she had made to herself – if she ever became even more famous, she would help the game even more. Well, being on television weekly got her that fame, and she used it to her advantage.

Arguably one of the greatest organizations to ever be founded in terms of helping the game of poker grow is the Tournament Director’s Association. Before the TDA, many tournaments, even well known ones like the WSOP, did not have a set in stone rule list, which made it very hard for a poker tournament to run properly, especially considering some tournaments now have over 8,000 entrants. The TDA created a list of rules, and structure they hoped all casinos would follow, and for the most part, any tournament circuit that wants to be taken seriously has adopted these rules. Linda Johnson co-created the TDA, with the help of her best friend and fellow poker professional Jan Fisher, tournament director Matt Savage, and poker room manager David Lamb.

Over the last few years Johnson has also helped direct CardPlayer Poker Cruises, which are cruises specifically designed just to play poker. The idea of a poker cruise was met with funny looks at first, but they have since become great fun for beginners and advanced players alike. You get a chance to sit down with the best players in the world (if you dare) and see some beautiful spots around the world at the same time. Poker Cruises first appeared around 20 years ago, but have only since gained the popularity they have, and much of that can be attributed to Johnson’s experience.

Last year was a big year for Johnson. She started the charity “PokerGives.org” which makes it easy for professional players to contribute money to their favorite charities. She was also inducted into the World in Poker Hall of Fame for her tireless contributions to the game, which makes it a no brainer that she has been elected as one of the inaugural members of the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

Related posts:

1. Daniel Negreanu Profile
2. David Sklansky Profile
3. Doyle Brunson Profile

Almost all of the players in the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame seemingly knew from birth that they were poker players. That is not the case with the newest member of our Hall of Fame, Bob Ciaffone. Ciaffone spent his childhood, and a good portion of his young adult life, playing a variety of games including chess, bridge, and backgammon, but it was not until later that he turned to poker. Luckily for the poker community he discovered the game, because his contributions to the game have been immense. From coaching, to writing, to having some pretty fantastic World Series of Poker results, Ciaffone has truly done it all in the poker world.

Robert Ciaffone was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 10, 1940, but his family moved to Saginaw, Michigan when he was still an infant. While Ciaffone has traveled America playing poker and other games, his home to this day remains Saginaw. The first game Ciaffone loved was chess. When he was just four years old he started studying the game at a time when most are still learning their ABC’s. As a youth Ciaffone won many local and state chess championships. At around nine years old, Ciaffone began dabbling in poker with friends and family, realizing that the game was more than just luck, but for the most part he spent this time of his life focused on chess.

Ciaffone began playing bridge at the age of 15, a game he continues to play today. In fact, Ciaffone earned his nickname “The Coach” originally by being the coach of a Bridge Club in 1970. He also founded the “Cavendish North Bridge and Backgammon Club,” which existed from 1975 to 1980. Backgammon, as you will see, was yet another game Ciaffone would go on to master, but with some pushing from his parents he first went to college.

Ciaffone excelled at the University of Notre Dame. As a freshman he was near the top of his class in grades, but predictably, another game garnered the attention of the young Ciaffone. Pool was the culprit this time and just like all the other games, Ciaffone was very good at it. In pool halls around campus he would hustle students out of money. He began making so much money that he wondered why he was going to school. Despite an expected negative reaction from his parents, Ciaffone dropped out of school after just one year to pursue a career as a pool hustler. Ciaffone would eventually take classes to become a teacher, a job he did part-time, but he made the majority of his money playing pool in his early adult years. Eventually the game started to dry up, and he was off to find the next game that could support him.

By the mid-70’s Ciaffone was a high stakes backgammon player, like fellow Pokerology.com Hall of Fame inductee, Dan Harrington. This time period is considered the golden age of backgammon, and there was a lot of money to be made, most of which Ciaffone won. Traveling the country, Ciaffone supported himself by playing and winning most of the premier high stakes backgammon tournaments. He also sought out games against other elite players for big bucks. Backgammon started to dry out, much like pool did, and that was when Ciaffone finally made his way to the poker table.

Remembering his days as a bridge coach, Ciaffone realized he had a knack for teaching people how to play games. While playing poker he began writing books as well. In 1984 he published “Omaha Hold’em Poker.” The book is now in its 3rd edition and had been renamed “Omaha Poker,” but it is still considered the main book you should read if you are new to Omaha. The last edition, published in 2006, added 20 new pages on Pot-Limit Omaha, a game that is gaining in popularity every year.

Also in 1984, Ciaffone published “Robert’s Rules of Poker.” This book was a precursor to what the goals of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) are today, including unified rules for all poker tournaments, and proper etiquette guidelines. The book is also believed to be the first publication to document the rules of every type of poker and to be available to the general public. Ciaffone applauded the work of the TDA, and has since joined forces with them. “Robert’s Rules of Poker” was originally available to purchase, but now the entire rulebook is available for free. Since the book was first published 25 years ago, nearly all major casinos, including the World Series of Poker, follow the rules that were originally set forth in this breakthrough publication.

Ciaffone also has a handful of great tournament results to his resume, including finishing third in the 1987 WSOP Main Event for $125,000. Ciaffone has finished in the money of six WSOP events, but his students have finished in the money of countless more. Perhaps his most famous pupil, Dr. Bruce Van Horn, finished second in the 1996 Main Event, earning himself $600,000.

On top of his books and poker playing, Ciaffone is arguably the number one authority on poker laws in the United States. Ciaffone founded the Fair Laws of Poker, or FLOP (naturally). The purpose of FLOP is to bring awareness to citizens about just how out of date some poker laws are. Many of the laws date back to the 1800s when poker was seen as a cheaters and conmen game. It is Ciaffone’s hope that FLOP will push state legislatures to make poker laws both up to date and fair. To date, Ciaffone still feels that not one single state has a proper set of rules on file.

While it may have taken a while for Ciaffone to finally come to poker, it took him barely any time at all to make it a better game for all. That is why it took Pokerology.com even less time to make him our newest inductee into our Hall of Fame.

Related posts:

1. Dan Harrington Profile
2. Chip Reese Profile
3. TJ Cloutier Profile

Eric Drache may not be one of the most well known names in the poker world, but as you will learn, he’s helped make many poker players the most popular in the world. His contributions to poker are largely responsible for making the game the success it is today. Drache has been both on top of the mountain, and on the bottom looking up, but what he has done for the game cannot be denied.

Eric Drache first stepped into the poker scene in 1973 when he became the tournament director for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). In this day and age the job would be considered one of the best in poker, but during this time many of the professional poker players scoffed at the idea, wondering why the tournament even needed a director. After all, in the previous year the Main Event only had eight entrants and the entire series itself only had one other event, five-card stud. Drache immediately made his presence felt. In his first year he added four events to the series, and the number of entrants jumped to 13! However, Drache was just getting started.

By 1978 the Main Event entrants had jumped to 42, and it now had 11 total events, yet Drache still felt like something was missing. A day or two before the start of the 1978 WSOP main event, Drache was walking around the poker room when he noticed a full-ring cash game going on. He noticed that each player had at least $1,000 dollars on them. Drache has an idea that would change the game of poker forever. He went over to the table and told them that they should all leave just $1,000 on the table and play winner takes all. The winner, then, would have the $10,000 entry buy-in to the main event. This of course was the birth of the satellite tournament. The tournament that has given the likes of Chris Moneymaker the opportunity to turn $40 dollars into 2.5 million dollars, and countless others the chance to play in tournaments they otherwise couldn’t afford.

The birth of the satellite changed tournament poker forever. Since the introduction of satellites officially in 1979, the WSOP main event grew every year, with the exception of 1991 and 2006, where it peaked at a whopping 8,773 participants.

Drache’s other contributions to tournament poker made the game a more enjoyable experience for everyone. In the early 70’s, many tournaments seemed to “wing-it,” not having any idea when they were raising their blinds or if they should do antes, things that aren’t second guessed today because they are mostly run smoothly. Drache introduced ante structures and pressed for unified rules in all poker tournaments in Vegas, which took longer to accomplish, but has since become the norm for casinos everywhere. Drache also was the first to actually train dealers. In those days poker dealers usually came from other games in the casino, and often times were unable to keep up, or answer simple questions about the game because they didn’t know the answers. Drache saw to it that the dealers became properly trained and were able to deal with simple to moderate issues that arrived at the table during a tournament. Once again, a small change went a long way.

Drache would then take over as tournament director for the Golden Nugget, before being recruited by Steve Wynn, who was opening “The Mirage” – the biggest hotel on the strip at the time. Nowadays poker is popular in many hotels on the Las Vegas strip, but back then poker was hardly available there. Wynn entrusted Drache with nearly every single aspect of the poker room, including where to put it in the casino, and the recruitment of players to the game. The poker room was of course a smash hit, and in turn introduced poker to a brand new crowd of people, the people who only stayed on the strip when visiting Las Vegas.

Unfortunately Drache ran into some legal troubles in the early 80’s. Drache was prosecuted for the IRS for failure to pay taxes and as a result also lost his gaming license. Drache stepped away from the game he loved so much for over a decade, and moved to the Los Angeles area. There he got married and had two kids, and was content, but that’s when poker came calling back. Larry Flint, owner of the Hustler Casino not too far from where Drache lived at the time, had just opened a poker room and asked him to help. Like he did at The Mirage, he situated the poker room where he thought best, and also brought in many high stakes players to check out the new casino. Despite being out of the limelight for a decade, many of his old Vegas friends were happy to see him.

Since then, Drache has had his hand in a number of projects. Most notably have been NBC’s “National Heads-Up Challenge” and Game Show Network’s “High Stakes Poker.” This past November he made his return to the WSOP, this time as a producer for the Pay-Per-View coverage of the final table of the main event.

Drache is largely responsible for helping the game grow from a few men sitting around a table at the first few years of the WSOP, to millions of people playing poker daily both in casinos and online. He helped branch poker from downtown Las Vegas, where it was seen as a “seedy” game, to putting it right in the middle of the strip for everyone to see. Plus, his early rules he put in place as a tournament director continue to be used today. Not many people can say they changed an aspect of poker, and Drache changed many things, all in a positive manner – in particular as the inventor of the satellite tournament format. That’s why Drache was an easy pick to be inducted into the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

Related posts:

1. Linda Johnson Profile
2. Dan Harrington Profile
3. Doyle Brunson Profile

In the history of all popular sports and games that are played worldwide, it’s not very often that a single person comes along and changes the way the sport or game is played. Mike Caro’s contributions to the game of poker have put him among that very elite group. It’s true that before Caro came along poker players were able to get reads or tells on their opponents, but they most likely were not sure of the psychology behind what they were looking at, or if what they were looking at were indeed “true.” However, his book, “Caro’s Book of Tells,” is just the tip of the iceberg of what Caro has contributed to the game of poker.

Caro was born in Joplin, MO in 1944, and almost from the cradle took an interest in all types of games. In 1978 Caro was asked to contribute to Doyle Brunson’s smash hit “Super System” – and contribute he did. Caro was first asked to write the section on draw poker, as Brunson believed him to be the best draw poker player in the world, a sentiment that many still feel is true about Caro today. But, what really stood out about his contributions to the book were the 50 statistical charts and graphs he contributed. Up until that point nobody had seen, or possibly even imagined, the percentages and odds that go into every poker hand. Because of that, and his “mad scientist” look, poker pros started calling him “The Mad Genius of Poker” – a name that has stuck.

In 1984 Caro introduced a computer program that was one of the first to truly play like a professional. The computers name was Orac, which is simply Caro, spelled backwards. By all historical accounts the Orac machine was the first serious attempt at producing an Artificial Intelligence poker player. Orac was introduced at that year’s World Series of Poker, as it was met with by surprise by the professionals, commenting on how hard it was to defeat, if they could defeat it at all.

From here Caro would go on to contribute more software to poker, the likes nobody had ever created before. In 1987 he introduced “Mike Caro’s Poker Engine.” In short, it could analyze every single hand of poker, and give you the odds on each of them winning against all other hands. He presented this software to the University of Nevada the same year, and they were so impressed that they felt all poker related casino games could make good use of this data. Since around 1984, Caro has held a number of jobs at brick and mortar casino rooms, including the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles, California, and has helped organize a ton of poker tournaments, including his first attempt at it, the “World Poker Finals” at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. He also created and marketed what is widely regarded as the first readily available poker software for players anywhere, The Poker Probe. The first Poker Probe was released in 1990, and has been updated periodically in the years since. It is still believed to be a must have poker tool for anyone really looking to take their game to the next level.

Despite all his scientific contributions to the game, it is his psychological contribution that is probably the most well known among poker players. Caro believes that most poker players can break even, and that it will be psychology that will take you to that next level. In his book “Caro’s Book of Tells,” he tells readers (and later, watchers of the DVD by the same title) what to look for in their opponents to see if they are bluffing or indeed telling the truth. He also added a section on how to tell if people are on to you, and gives you even more poker tells to look for. The book changed live poker forever, and has been called numerous times one of the top ten poker books of all time. By seeing how influential it was, it is easy to see why.

Despite these great things, there are even more ways Caro has contributed to making poker better. He holds numerous seminars a year, where he teaches players the things he has written about in his poker books (11 books, so far.) So with Mike Caro’s contributions to the poker world in two of the most sought after books in its field, it is easy to see why Caro is a unanimous choice to be inducted to the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

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1. David Sklansky Profile
2. Doyle Brunson Profile
3. Daniel Negreanu Profile

The players we have chosen to represent the Pokerology.com have all been great contributors to the game in some capacity. They have made it better, brought something to the game, or in some cases, changed the way poker was played. Despite all of their great contributions to the game of poker, David Sklansky is arguably the greatest “nuts and bolts” contributor the game has ever seen, introducing odds and percentages to the world of poker, a concept that was vaguely, if ever, mentioned, before Sklansky came around. His tireless work has made him one of the most respected authorities in the game when it comes to the math side of poker. Without failing to mention, he is a great poker player as well.

David Sklansky was interested in the theory of poker before he probably even understood what the theory of poker was. He was born into a math world, with his father being a mathematics professor at Columbia University, one of the most prestigious colleges in America. The apple did not fall far from the tree, because even in his childhood he could see that having just a basic idea of math could put you at an advantage over your opponents. As you will see though, what Sklansky has contributed to poker has been far from basic math.

Although his favorite game is poker, and also the one to which he has made the most contributions, at one time or another Sklansky has made his living from a variety of games. Even his first job after college was a bit of a gambler, taking a job as an actuary for a business. In short, it was his job to provide a set of statistical data in an attempt to make the most money for the company he was working with. Sklansky has also made a living from blackjack, betting on horses, and sports betting, and is a recognized expert on all of these subjects.

But, David Sklansky’s bread and butter is poker. How about this for success – in the first three World Series of Poker Events in which he ever played, Sklansky won the bracelet. Those events were in Draw, Mixed Doubles, and Limit Omaha, showing he has various forms of poker down pat. While he has never won another bracelet since those three, he has gone on to make 21 finishes in the money. He also took a long absence from poker to become a writer on the game, so both of these numbers could potentially and would most likely be higher. Between 1982 and 1991 he was always a favorite at any poker tournament, but he walked away from the game for almost a decade for his writing. Interestingly enough, during his sabbatical he contributed more to the game than when he was playing.

Not all his poker books were written during the near decade he took off from the game. In fact, his 1976 “Hold’em Poker” was the first book widely published on the subject. While “SuperSystem” is regarded as the end all and be all of poker books, Sklansky was writing about the secrets of the game three years before Doyle Brunson’s book hit the shelves. Brunson respected Sklansky’s abilities so much that when he wrote he started his book in 1979 he asked Sklansky to write the section on Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, a great honor, as the book featured the true poker greats of the era.

While Sklansky has written or contributed to over a dozen poker books, his greatest work is usually considered “The Theory of Poker,” published in 1994. It may be assumed that because he is a “math guy” and a true genius that his style of writing may be hard for the general population to read and understand. That is not the case with Sklansky. One of the reasons his works have gained so much popularity is because he makes even the most difficult topics easy to read. Despite being over 15 years old now, this is one of the poker books you automatically think of when a person new to poker asks you what book they should read. It starts off with basic math, or “theory” of poker games, and goes into a number of other topics, including playing position, which up until that point had not been considered. Sklanky’s other well known books include “Tournament Poker for Advanced Players,” “No Limit Hold’em: Theory and Practice,” and “Gambling for a Living.”

When the poker boom occurred, Sklansky came back to the table and for the most part continued right where he left off. In his first WSOP after his break, in 2001, he made the final table in a Razz tournament, finishing ninth. The next year he did even better, finishing fifth in the Omaha Limit event. The years 2007 and 2008 were also successful ones for Sklansky on the biggest stage of poker, finishing in the money of five events, which included three final tables. Sklansky has once again decided to limit his tournament play, only playing select events, but in tournament he plays in, including any form of poker, he is a threat to win.

Sklansky has made it his life goal to understand and teach the game of poker. It is only obvious that Pokerology.com would have a person who has done so much for the game in its Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

Related posts:

1. TJ Cloutier Profile
2. Doyle Brunson Profile
3. Bob Ciaffone Profile

Chip Reese’s time on earth was unfortunately cut short, but while he was here he represented the game of poker with a passion and love for the game that will have a hard time ever being matched again. His physical contributions to the game may not amount to as much as some of the other players in the Pokerology Hall of Fame, however he left a positive impact on many of the best poker players of his time. In 1979 his best friend Doyle Brunson called him one of the two best poker players in the world, and this was not that long into Reese’s career. By the time he passed away he was considered by Brunson, among many, as the best cash game player in the history of poker. For most of his career Reese made the personal choice to stay out of the spotlight, but there is only so long you can be in hiding before poker fans realize how good of player you really are.

David Edward Reese was born March 28, 1951 in the small town of Centerville, Ohio. When he had just started school he came down with rheumatic fever, a type of inflammatory disease that sometimes arises after another illness such as strep throat. The illness kept Reese home from school for almost an entire year. His mom introduced Reese to a variety of games, including backgammon and bridge, but the game that stuck out most in young Reese’s mind was poker. When he returned to school the next year he was only six years old, but that did not keep him from playing poker against the fifth-graders. Instead of using money, Reese would use baseball cards, and by the time he was done with elementary school he’d built up a nice collection.

Education came first in the Reese household, so David worked hard and got a scholarship to Dartmouth University, one of the premier colleges in America. He even turned down an offer from Harvard. Reese majored in economics, which was a good thing because he knew what to do with all the money he was winning in poker games against his fellow students, and even professors. Reese left such an impression on Dartmouth they named a card room after him in later years. Despite excelling in poker, Reese decided he was going to go to law school and was accepted by Stanford Law, another premier school.

A funny thing happened on the way to Stanford. Literally, on his way to attend the school Reese stopped in Las Vegas. The $400 bankroll he brought with him was just to have a little fun, but by the end of the trip Reese had won a tournament for $60,000. Almost immediately after winning he decided that he would not be attending Stanford after all. Reese called his friends and family and told them he would be moving to Las Vegas, and he never moved again.

Reese excelled in seven card-stud, and in 1979 the biggest legend of the game, Doyle Brunson, asked if Reese would write the stud section of his book “Super System”. Being that Reese had only been in Las Vegas for a couple of years this was about the biggest honor as you could get. Reese of course accepted, and it was here that Brunson called him one of the best young poker players. Additionally, by this time Reese had earned his nickname “Chip,” because more often than not he ended up with all the chips on the table by the end of the night.

Reese always considered himself a cash game player first and never really fully enjoyed poker tournaments. Although that didn’t stop him from excelling in them too. Reese won three World Series of Poker bracelets, the first in 1978 for the $1,000 Seven-Card Stud-split event, garnering the attention of Brunson. The second came in the $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud event in 1982, and his final bracelet came in 2006, in what is considered one of the greatest final tables of all time.

Reese took a long break from tournament action, but was compelled to return in 2004 when his kids started asking them why they did not see him on TV. In 2006 his kids would see him on TV at an epic final table that will be shown on television for as long as poker lives. It was the first year of the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Tournament. Some professionals had complained that “anyone” could win a bracelet now because of how many events the WSOP had grown to and they wanted an event that was just theirs. Reese made the tournament his when he outlasted eight of the biggest names in poker at the final table. Those with him at the final table in the order they finished were Andy Block, Phil Ivey, Jim Betchel, T.J. Cloutier, David Singer, Dewey Tomko, Brunson, and Patrick Antonious. The final table lasted over 12 hours, while the heads up battle alone lasted over seven hours.

More than 15 years before winning what most consider the toughest tournament ever, Reese was the youngest member ever elected to the Poker Hall of Fame. In 1991, at just 40 years old, Reese was entered into poker immortality.

Sadly on December 4, 2007 Reese passed away at his Las Vegas home after telling his family and friends he was suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms. Some of his friends, including Barry Greenstein, think the result of death may have been from a blood clot, due to gastric bypass surgery he’d had. Others think that it could even go way back to when he had rheumatic fever, as that illness has been known to cause heart valve defects. While we may never know the true cause of death we do know that Reese gave his all to poker while he was with us. As with anything, it is tough to speculate what could have been, but while he was here he showed what he was capable of in all forms of poker. It is our honor to enter Chip Reese into the inaugural class of the Pokerology Hall of Fame.

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In a poker world where terms like “best ever,” “greatest of all time,” and other types of accolades seem to come quite freely, it is hard to tell the true greats from the flash in the pans. T.J. Cloutier meets all those accolades and more. Cloutier has been making a living off of poker for nearly fifty years. If Doyle Brunson is considered the “Godfather of Poker,” then Cloutier should at least be considered his right hand man. Cloutier came up the same way Brunson did, back when “tough” poker games had another meaning. In those tough Texas cash games, winning a pot meant raking in your chips, and also watching your back to make sure no one else was coming after them with guns blazing. Luckily Cloutier made it out of those days and has been able to become one of the greatest tournament players and contributors the game of poker has ever seen.

Thomas James Cloutier was born October 13, 1939. Through his childhood and early adult years he made his home in Albany, California. Cloutier was a highly regarded athlete, earning himself a scholarship to the University of California Berkley to play football. While there he excelled, even getting a chance to play in the historic Rose Bowl in 1959. After graduating Cloutier had high hopes of signing on with the National Football League. Unfortunately for Cloutier his parents asked him to come back to Albany because they had run into financial trouble and needed their son’s help to try to make ends meet. But before Cloutier could even find a job, Uncle Sam called him, drafting him into the army.

If Cloutier had signed on with an NFL team straight out of college then someone else would have been writing about him going into that sports hall of fame. Instead he gets drafted to the army, and is introduced to poker. In the army he says he played the game to pass time because he still had high hopes of making it to the NFL, but he kept it in the back of his mind of how well he had done at the game. After the army he did end up playing professional football, but it was for the Canadian Football League, playing for teams in Montreal and Toronto. After a few years of football, injuries began to set in and he realized he would never play in the NFL.

An opportunity arose back home allowing him to buy a grocery store, so back to Albany he went. Shortly after opening the store it ran into money problems and it closed its doors. On a hunch, Cloutier traveled to Texas to get a job at an oil field, but it was not oil he would be cashing in on. Cloutier found a job on an oil rig, but it was the poker games he played with his co-workers on off days that really kept his attention. He found that he was making more money in one night at poker than he was at his “real job.” Cloutier quit his job at the oil rig and has never looked back.

In his tournament career TJ Cloutier has won over 60 major poker tournaments, an almost unheard of number. Cloutier has won six World Series of Poker championships, and has narrowly missed winning about a dozen more. Cloutier holds the distinction of being the only player in history to win a WSOP bracelet in all three variants of Omaha. He won the Omaha Hi event in 1987, Limit Omaha 8 or Better in 1994, and Pot Limit Omaha Hi in 1998. His remaining three bracelets came in Pot Limit Hold’em in 1994, Seven Card Razz in 2004 and No Limit Hold’em in 2005, netting him $657,100. Cloutier has narrowly missed winning the WSOP Main Event more than anyone in history, finishing in the top-5 four times, and twice coming 2nd. With nearly ten million dollars in poker tournament winnings, the poker community is lucky that he has published six strategy books.

All of these books, co-authored with Tom McEvoy, are considered must reads for any serious poker player. Perhaps his most popular book is “How To Win the Championship: Hold’em Strategies for the Final Table,” published in 2006. Unfairly, this book has been criticized because Cloutier has not won the “Main Event Championship.” Perhaps those people should take a look at his record to see that he has won over 60 major poker tournaments, all of which could be considered “Championships.” This book breaks down a tournament in sections, focusing on the last few tables, particularly the final table. Unlike a lot of hard to read poker books out there, this book talks about getting a feel for each specific player and situation as opposed to focusing so much on math. Cloutier has an easy to read style and it is almost like he is sitting at your kitchen table talking poker with you.

Cloutier’s other must get work is “Championship Omaha,” published in 2005. Who else would you want to get strategy from than the only man to win those three WSOP bracelets in three different Omaha events? With Omaha being the fastest growing poker variant, this book is one to read for those wanting to play tournament Omaha at a high level. This book touches on everything from starting hands to advanced tournament strategies.

As poker players, we are lucky that so many great players have openly shared their secrets and strategies on what made them elite. It’s one of the few games at which the general public can get better just by reading a book. It’s because of TJ Cloutier’s willingness to make the world of poker better by sharing his secrets that we are happy to introduce him into the Pokerology Hall of Fame.

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Dan Harrington may have quieted off during the last few years now that he’s in his mid 60’s, but his contributions to the game of poker will be felt long after we’re all gone. But don’t be fooled, even though his tournament schedule has slowed down over the last few years, he still plays great poker, as evidenced by his World Poker Tour victory, and $1,635,365 prize, in April of 2007, making him only one of five people to win a WSOP bracelet (he has two, both in 1995) and a WPT title. As you will learn though, Harrington has his name on more than just one elite list. His self-given nickname “Action Dan” comes off as a joke to some people because Harrington is known for being one of the tightest and most solid tournament poker players to ever sit at the felt. However, his series of “Harrington on Hold’em” books will make sure players are seeking action at tournament poker tables for years to come, and playing at a higher level than they would have previously.

Harrington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Boston. At nearly every poker tournament Harrington enters he is never far from Boston – the Boston Red Sox that is. His lucky green Red Sox hat has became one of the most noticeable staples on the tournament circuit. In fact, many poker players don’t even recognize Harrington without his hat.

As a youngster, Harrington was a bit of “jack of all trades”, when it came to games. His first game of choice, years before poker, was chess. In high school Harrington was one of the best players in the state, and as a young man he won the Massachusetts State Championship, which brought along with it the title of chess master. Harrington also went to Harvard Law School, where he first started playing poker. Two of the regulars at his poker games were fellow poor college students Bill Gates and Paul Allen. It’s my guess Harrington would love to have a crack at them at the poker table now that they are two of the richest men in the world.

A part of his life that Harrington prefers not to talk about is when he was a member of an M.I.T. team that found decided advantages in casino games, first in roulette and later in blackjack. This was decades before card-counting was made famous by the movie “21”. Harrington has said it was not nearly as glamorous as it is made out to be in books and movies. Harrington has simply said that those were “wild and crazy” times, and generally leaves it at that.

Dan Harrington first got into playing serious poker as one of the original members of the elite underground poker club, Mayfair, located in New York City. Other members of the Mayfair at the time included Howard Lederer and Erik Seidel. Eventually Harrington, who had originally joined the club to play Backgammon, took his poker game west to Las Vegas, and the rest as they say is history.

In 1995, Harrington won the WSOP Main Event, and a nice pay day of one million dollars. However most people in the poker world do not consider that his greatest achievement in poker. What many people consider one of biggest achievements is when he made the final table of back-to-back WSOP Main Events. For starters, it was the beginning of what is known as the “Poker Boom”, as entrees to the main event began to triple and quadruple from just a few years before. In 2003, Harrington finished 3rd out of 839 players, and the following year he finished 4th out of 2,576 players. There is debate on whether or not it is easier to win poker tournaments with a small group of elite players or an inflated field of players of all levels, but it cannot be debated that by making back-to-back final tables in this age of poker is something that puts Harrington in a class of his own. On top of the feat itself, Harrington was in his late 50’s when he achieved this accomplishment, showing the stamina of poker players half his age.

In addition to be being one of the best ambassadors of poker, Harrington’s greatest contribution to this game is the books he has co-authored with Bill Robertie. Much like Doyle Brunson did with his “Super System”, Harrington gave away many of the secrets that has helped him win over six million dollars in tournament poker with the publication of “Harrington on Hold’em: Volume 1: Strategic Play” and “Harrington on Hold’em: Volume 2: The Endgame.” These poker books, published in 2004 and 2005 respectfully, are written in a way that almost anyone can understand, which was a nice change from the technical and analytical poker books that were making there way to the market. One of the most talked about things in the books was the position of starting hands. Harrington’s starting hand requirements are one of the most quoted things on strategic poker websites and poker forums alike. Harrington has since published books on cash games, which are also a must have for any wannabe cash game players.

When you combine his genuinely nice personality, and the contributions he has made to the game in book form, it’s a no brainer that he will one day be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. But in the meantime we are happy to induct him to the Pokerology Hall of Fame for his efforts at and away from the poker table.

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There was a time in Doyle Brunson’s life when he thought that if he would be making any Hall of Fame it would be for playing basketball, not a card game. That’s right, the most recognizable poker player on the planet originally had plans for suiting up for the Lakers, but a knee injury and fate changed Brunson’s course in life, and he has instead become perhaps the biggest contributor to the game of poker that has ever existed.

The fact that Brunson is still around today is a small miracle considering the poker games he played in during the 1950’s. Brunson earned his poker stripes playing outlaws, thieves, and other equally as shady people riding up and down what he has called “Bloodthirsty Highway.” The games today are hard enough, but imagine being Doyle Brunson, where he not only had to worry about winning some money to support his family but also had to be worried about being robbed, hijacked, or even worse. Luckily he met up with some guys and they all agreed to watch each other’s back. Oh, and not to mention they were pretty good at poker themselves. They were Sailor Roberts and “Amarillo” Slim Preston. Between the three, they went on to win a combined 16 World Series of Poker bracelets, with Brunson claiming 10 of them.

Two of the 10 bracelets Doyle won came at the most prestigious of the WSOP events, the World Championship. Not to be outdone by his friends Preston and Roberts, who won the Main Event in 1972 and 1975, respectively, Brunson won back-to-back titles in 1976 and 1977, the first repeat winner of the event in its modern day form. Johnny Moss did indeed win the first two WSOP Main Events, but in the first year, 1970, he was voted by his peers as the best player.

The year following his second WSOP World Championship victory Doyle Brunson, published the most influential poker book of all time, “Super System: A Course in Power Poker”. It also originally had the subtitle “How I Won a Million Dollars Playing Poker.” At first the book was self-published, but over time it became the most sought after poker strategy guide in the world. Super System was the first book ever written by a well-known professional player, giving insights into how Doyle Brunson became the best poker player of his era. The book was also co-authored by such well known pros as the late Chip Reese, Mike Caro, David Sklansky, and Bobby Baldwin. The book was not well received by most professional poker pros, with many wondering how a poker champion could even think of giving away his secrets. In many interviews since Super System’s publication, Brunson has seemed to agree with his pros, saying if he had the chance he may not have published the book because he believes it cost him money and it forced him to make changes to his game. However, overtime Brunson’s fellow pros saw that it brought more poker players into the game, and in turn created more money to be made. Super System has become so widely regarded that to many professionals it is simply known as “The Bible of Poker.”

In 1984, Brunson published, “According to Doyle,” which has since had the title changed to “Poker Wisdom of a Champion.” This book was more anecdotal than advice giving, but it gave a glimpse into Brunson’s easy going personality, which has also contributed to his worldwide fame. Then in 2004, the long awaited and anticipated Super System II was published, and while it has not been quite as well regarded as the original, it is still a must read for aspiring poker players everywhere. Also, like the first book, it had co-authors writing about the games in which they have achieved the most success. Players gracing the pages of Super System 2 are modern day poker greats; Daniel Negreanu, Lyle Berman, Johnny Chan, and Jennifer Harman.

Brunson could have been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame the moment Super System was published, but instead had to wait until 1988 to be inducted. Brunson was not only inducted into the Hall of Fame because of his poker books or his successes at the poker table (including being the first player to ever win a million dollars in poker tournaments), he was enshrined for helping make poker a respectable game. Sure, the small Texas games he participated in during his early days were not exactly on the up and up, but with time Brunson showed that poker could be a game for everyone.

In truth, the poker gods could not have created a better ambassador for their game. Brunson is easily one of the most genuine poker players to ever sit down at the table, and when you combine that with the fact that he is also easily one of the best players to sit at the table, you can realize why he has been good for the game. There are many great poker players in the history of this great game, but very few have the ability to promote the game away from the table. If Chris Moneymaker and online poker were responsible for the modern day “Poker Boom,” then it was Brunson himself that was largely responsible for poker’s first “boom.”

It is simple to see why Doyle Brunson, “The Godfather of Poker,” was an easy choice as our first inductee into the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.

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