The Seniors of Poker

Gentleman Gambler
By "Oklahoma Johnny" Hale

Take it from a gambler who’s been playing high-stakes poker in Las Vegas for more than three decades — not all the shows are on the stage. The bad boys, the better boys, the brash, the brave and the brilliant all have had their debuts and debacles on the neon stage of Sin City playing their roles of hero and villain with elan, enjoying the ecstasy of victory and suffering the agony of defeat.

"Oklahoma Johnny" Hale has played with them all, beaten most of them and lost to a few who got lucky enough to pile up their chips faster than he did. In this account of his life and times as a Gentleman Gambler, Johnny takes you with him on his odyssey from poor country boy to the battlefields of Korea to unprecedented success in the construction business to near bankruptcy to gambling in Las Vegas and playing the World Series of Poker.

Travel with Johnny from the expensive home games around Tulsa in the ‘60s to the fast-playing poker tables in the glitzy casinos of Vegas and get the inside scoop on how the cheats beat the suckers and the casinos, how card sharps fleece the innocent, and how smart gamblers can get the best of it by following his sage advice.

"Oklahoma Johnny" tells you about the $2 million pot that was played at the Aladdin, the hijack that came down in a Tulsa cardroom, the scams that were pulled on unsuspecting junketeers, and the famous gamblers he has gone to war with on the chip-laden battlefields of $1 million poker tournaments. Relive the life and times of a Gentleman Gambler with the world-class player who’s been there, done that "Oklahoma Johnny" Hale, the Elder Statesman of Poker and the creator of the Seniors World Championship of Poker.