Poker Stars Past and Present, Real and Imagined

Poker is such an addicting game that even just watching it can hook you for hours on end. There’s so much subtlety, cleverness, drama, courage, guts, and patience mixed into every round that many people are just awed at home the game is able to bring all that out in players. Also, because it seems to have the perfect balance between skill and luck, it can leave even the most experienced and talented players at the edge of their seats. Now, what other sports or games can do that, or have such a profound effect on so many people, form so many different places and cultures around the world?

The Game of Celebrity

Because poker has become such a prestigious and popular game, an entire culture has been built around it, and there are people who might be considered as members of the poker hall of fame, who have changed the way that the game was played, or how people viewed the game, and the like. Who are some of these so-called poker stars?

Stars of Yesteryears

Perhaps two of the most well-known poker stars of old are James Butler (better known as “Wild Bill”) Hickock and Doyle Brunson. Strangely enough, the way that poker made these two men poker stars couldn't be more different. While Brunson became famous for spectacular wins, Hickock went down in the game’s annals of history precisely because of how badly his poker game ended.

One day in 1874, in the town of Deadwood, “Wild Bill” strolled into town, possibly looking for work as the town sheriff. Instead, he ended up playing poker. Unfortunately for him, he was shot in the back of the head and died with five cards in his hand (two aces, two eights, and another card that can no longer be determined today). This went down in history as the “Dead Man’s Hand.”

Brunson, on the other hand, became famous for winning two World Series Poker tournaments in a row (1976 and 1977), and what’s more, he did it with the exact same hand, a Ten-Two!

Fictional Stars

There are also fictional stars of poker. There’s Eric “The Kid” Stoner, of course, from the 1965 movie The Cincinnati Kid, starring Steve McQueen. In more recent years, in 2006, James Bond made his own way into the fictional stars’ hall of fame by challenging an international terrorist to a high stakes game of poker in the movie Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig in his first 007 movie ever.

Real-Life Professionals

Among the top poker professionals of today is Daniel Negreanu, who is famous for being the player who has earned the most money by playing poker ($14,147,876, in fact). Now, that’s a truly astounding figure! Coming in at a fairly close second is Phil Ivey, whose total poker earnings amount to $13,863, 862! Of course, there’s also the current World Poker Tour Championship, David Williams. There are so many present-day champs who have pulled off spectacular feats, and these are only three of them.