Rebel, the Poker Playin' Canine

Rebel, our 9-pound gray poodle, knew more poker players than any other dog in the world. When we had our pot-limit and no-limit poker game in Dallas, all the players knew Rebel very well, because he was always at the game. Rebel loved to travel – the first poker tournament that he attended was hosted by Jack "Tree Top" Straus at the Marina Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1979 – and he was a ham. He loved wearing the custom-made clothes that Evelyn designed for him, including five cowboy hats and six pairs of sunglasses. We made a place for Rebel to sit between the two front seats in our van, and when we traveled, he looked out at the world from his special roost. Sometimes when we stopped at a red light, people in the car next to us gaped at Rebel all dressed up in his sunglasses, cowboy hat, and vest.

Benny Binion loved Rebel – he's the only dog in the history of the Horseshoe that Benny ever gave a private hotel room. Evelyn made an outfit for Rebel with a buffalo-hide jacket and cowboy hat that looked exactly like the clothes that Benny wore when the press photographed him. One time during the World Series of Poker, Benny, Evelyn, and I were eating dinner at the steak house. Benny had heard about Rebel's "Benny Binion outfit," as we called it, but he hadn't seen it.

"Evelyn, go get that dog and put them Benny Binion clothes on him. I wanna see how he looks in them," he said.

"Benny, you can't bring a dog into the steak house," I kidded.

"The hell I can't!" he said. "I own this sonnagun!"

When Evelyn brought Rebel to the restaurant all decked out in his Benny Binion getup, Benny insisted that he sit next to us in his own separate chair. As people wandered over to look at him, Rebel wouldn't even glance their way – he thought he was a movie star and remained aloof. When we finished dinner, Benny and Rebel and I had our picture taken together in front of the million-dollar display just inside the side entrance of the Horseshoe (see the photo in my column in the Oct. 26 issue of Card Player).

During the Series, Evelyn used to walk Rebel in the mornings, and then order a Dr. Pepper at the Horseshoe's antique mahogany bar. Dressed in one of his costumes, Rebel always sat on a barstool next to her. One morning, a lady saw Rebel sitting there like a statue and said to her husband, "Look at that stuffed toy dog over there." Wanting to prove that he wasn't a fake, Rebel turned his head and stared at her through his sunglasses, and she almost fainted.

One time when I was shooting craps at the Horseshoe with Rebel beside me giving me a helping paw, the Horseshoe's photographer snapped a photograph of us that used to hang on the wall near the pit. Everybody got a kick out of seeing Rebel in his cowboy hat shooting craps, and once again, my little canine ham drew a big crowd. That same year, the National Enquirer magazine was doing a shoot at the Horseshoe and took a picture of Rebel playing poker.

Rebel was born on Nov. 11, Armistice Day, and we always threw a birthday party for him in Dallas. I'm glad that we videotaped some of those parties, because they bring back some of the best memories of our lives. In 1995, just before his 18th birthday, we had to put Rebel to sleep. Evelyn and I were so sick about it that we tried to make a deal with the vet to put all three of us down at the same time. Rebel had a great life, and Evelyn and I have had better lives because of him. When Rebel died, we felt so low that we decided that we never wanted to own another pet – until something strange happened a short time later that changed our minds. But I'll save that story for another day.

Editor's note: Byron "Cowboy" Wolford is the author of Cowboys, Gamblers & Hustlers, which is available through Card Player. For more information, visit the web at www.pokerbooks.com.