Player's Stories

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"Mark, a most remarkable thing happened to me the summer of 1965"
By George Cronenbold

While visiting Las Vegas with friends, we toured the downtown area and passed thru the Horseshoe. We were looking at the "Million Dollars" encased in glass, when we came across a single table Poker Game. This was before limit hold-em was concocted by Bill Boyd and the ensuing casino hold-em explosion. To continue, these men were playing for a lot of money, especially to a young guy like me back then. As I watched, I saw a man bet $1,000 and another raise him all-in for $3,000 more before any cards were shown(flopped), the raiser had aces and the other had jacks the aces held up.

I continued to watch in awe and had a birds eye view as the seat in front of me was open, when out of the blue one of the players kind of leaned back pushed his cowboy hat back and with a real friendly smile said, "Why don't you sit down right there and play a hand or two". To which I obviously replied that I didn't have any money. He asked how much I had and I told him I only had 100 dollars. He said, "Well, you ought to sit right down there and you'll have a real good story to tell when you got back home". I thought about it for a minute and said "ok" (although I was really afraid of what I was doing).

I sat down right behind the button, started to get cards and watched (no forced blind in no limit). I had no sooner sat down when an old man standing behind me says, "Well kid, now you've got a chance to beat Amarillo Slim". I gave Amarillo a puzzled look and to my credit replied that I wasn't there to beat any one player I just wanted to play and win, this comment really pleased Slim and the rest of the players.

Looking back on it I'm sure that one of the other players was Sailor Roberts. But more than great players, they were really great promoters of the game of poker. It wasn't long before the big blind got to me at 35 dollars. I put it in and got my cards a Jack and an 8. Anyway, someone raised a couple of hundred. Slim called and two more behind him. When it got to me I put my remaining 65 dollars in and played all-in (of course I wasn't really aware of how all of this worked). They turned over the first 3 cards including a Jack. There was more betting, more cards, and I can't even remember how it went, except there was more money on the side. They turned up an 8 on the river and I won the center pot with two pair.

Well, that 500 dollars looked pretty good to me so I picked it up and started to leave. Slim knuckled his cowboy hat back and said, "Well, there he goes walkin and a skwakin. Tell 'em where you got it but not how easy it was". I kind of paused and he could see that I was a little hurt by this rebuff. Then he said, "You did right kid. You walk winner and you'll never go broke".

I played the next year at the Horseshoe and by then, they had 5 tables and I was playing low limit razz. They featured No limit hold-em in the room. I saw Slim at the Mexican restaurant across the hall, and he waggled his finger at me and asked how I'd been doing. Later on, I played in his tournaments at Caesars' Palace and he seemed to remember the situation. But one thing I will always remember is that he was right. I have always had this really great story to tell "Back Home".