Poker Interviews

An Interview with Max and Maria Stern April 25th 2001
By Mark Napolitano
From the WSOP 2001

I was delighted yesterday to have the opportunity to speak with Max and Maria Stern. For those of you who do not know Max and Maria, they are both world class tournament poker players. They have just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on April 16th (this was the start date of this years WSOP). They spend half of the year in Vegas and the other half in Costa Rica where Max practiced as a Doctor before retiring. They enjoy playing poker in both places. Both of them spend the whole year looking forward to the World Series of Poker. When they are not playing poker they enjoy spending time with their three children and eight grandchildren, soon to be nine.

They hold a very special record for the World Series of Poker. In 1997 Maria won a gold bracelet in the 7-Card Stud $1500 buy in event to put her into 4th position in the WSOP Women's top money list. In the same year Max won two bracelets, the $1500 No Limit Holdem event and the 7 Card Stud event. Although there are other couples in the poker world who both have bracelets Max and Maria are the only ones to have won them in the same year.

Maria began playing poker back in 1991 after traveling with her husband for many years to poker tournaments all over the world. Her 1st game of choice then was 7 Card Stud. She has since gone on to play No Limit Holdem at the top level too. Maria's favorite game remains 7 Card Stud. Her career began at the Golden Nugget and soon she was playing regularly in tournaments at the Alladin and the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. She won several tournaments at these venues. In 1994 she finished 4th in the Ladies World Championship, held every year during the World Series of Poker.

In their record breaking year (1997) Maria had not intended playing any of the open events but Max finished 3rd in the Razz tournament and together they decided that they should take $50,000 of the winnings and stake Maria to play the tournaments. It turned out to be a very good investment when Maria won the Stud event and $150,000 along with the bracelet.

Max had started playing at the World Series of Poker back in 1985 and had finished in the money several times before winning his first bracelet in the Omaha Hi/Lo $2500 event in 1995. He also finished in the money in two other events that same year.

In 1998, The couple traveled to Baden to play in the European Stud Championship. They both made the finals. I am not sure but this is most likely another record.

This is a remarkable record from two of the nicest people I have met in the poker world. My final question to them was "what would you like to see for the future of poker?" They were both in agreement with their answer. They would love to see the game become a major sport and be recognized as such by the worlds media. They would like to see more women playing poker and Max explained to me he felt that Rounders the movie, although more entertaining than many other poker related movies, did not show poker in it's true light. It gave the impression that poker was played in a world of violence and gangsters. This is not the case and they would love to see this image changed. He also made it clear that he thought Matt Damon was a terrific actor.

As you know, I am filming all the final tables at the WSOP and I hope to see both of them there during this years event. Hopefully there will be another bracelet for them as their 40th wedding anniversary present.

Thank you for your time Max and Maria and as I usually sign off to all my friends,

Be Lucky,

Mark