As a poker semi-celebrity, the most frequent questions I am asked (besides, did your dad teach you how to play poker? or, is Phil Hellmuth as big a crybaby in real life as he is on TV?) are about the Big Game. So, when the Shulmans approached me and asked if I would write a column on the topic of my choice, I figured the Big Game was the natural decision. So, here we go. …
I'll start with a brief history of what is now the biggest ongoing poker game in the world. Notice that I say biggest ongoing game. This is because occasionally, usually during a tournament or when special guests visit, there is a sporadic game bigger than the Big Game. It's usually double the Big Game, although it's been as high as $100,000-$200,000. These games have either the exact same lineup as the Big Game or one or two additional players who show up a few times a year to get their poker fix.
The Big Game, as we know it today, started a little over 10 years ago in the Mirage poker room. The biggest regular games were $75-$150 stud and $50-$100 hold'em and Omaha eight-or-better. Whenever we started bigger games, they were only one game and broke as soon as the "live one" quit. The live one had to dictate to us what game we would play, as we had no solidarity and could never agree on a game. Stud players wanted to play stud, hold'em players (which I was) hold'em, Omaha players Omaha …
While we often played two games, someone finally came up with the great idea to play the five most popular games, H.O.R.S.E. (hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, razz, stud, and stud eight-or-better). Now, no specialist had an advantage, as we played basically all the games played in Vegas at that time, for an equal amount of time, 30 minutes each game. Amount of time eventually changed to actually counting an equal number of hands for each game. We changed from time to hand counts because the Omaha eight-or-better crybaby players of the day complained that we got more than twice the number of hold'em hands in 30 minutes as Omaha hands.
The limit we started off on was $150-$300. Within a year the usual limit was $200-$400. Over the next three years or so the limit bounced between $200-$400 and $400-$800, depending on who was in the game or who had started the game. The game was usually either H.O.R.S.E. or H.O.S.E.; many players didn't like razz, thinking it too simplistic a game. (I don't share this opinion, by the way. Some of the best games I've ever played in were razz.)
Over the next few years three things would happen to the Big Game that would swell its limits to more than 10 times its original limit. Each of these events was bigger than the last. The first: Jay Bachman and Larry Flynt, both highly successful businessmen and occasional stud players, decided to take up poker almost full time; Larry in LA and Jay in Las Vegas. Unfortunately for me, Larry's pre-Hustler game was closely guarded from top players. Chip, my father, and I were never able to get in despite constant lobbying.
Jay, however, loved us, and seemed unable to get enough of our action. He agreed to raise the limit to $500-$1,000, where it stayed for some time, and to try mixed games. He discovered he loved stud high-low, no qualifier. This is a game where you basically cannot start with big cards and have any hope of scooping a pot and, subsequently, survive in the game. Jay never caught on to this and pumped a lot of money into the Big Game. I remember winning $78,000 my second or third time playing, and almost never losing. If I missed all of my scoop draws for the night, I would break about even, but if I hit a few of them - bingo!
The second windfall to the Big Game was via another occasional high-stakes player, Howard Mann. Howard gave this next massive infusion into the Big Game not by losing a huge amount of money, but by constantly touting a stock that he and his father, Alfred, were heavily involved in, Mini Med. Almost all of us bought it and we all made great money when it went up more than 40 times what it started at. I shouldn't say "we all made great money," I guess. My father was the one exception. He actually waited to buy it until it had already doubled many times over, and then sold it when it took a temporary dip along with the rest of the market.
I wish I had 10 percent of the money my dad's lost at business; I might retire. Speaking of which, Bobby Buckler, a one-time high-limit player, made so much money in Mini Med, he did just that, retired from poker. Rumor had his capital gain at eight figures. I myself made a score in the seven-figure range, along with a dozen or so of my compatriots. Thanks, Howard!
The third and final boon to the Big Game is the stuff of legend. Books have been written about it and I dare say that it has been discussed in every poker room on planet Earth. I'm speaking of none other than Andy Beal, the Texas billionaire banker. I could write a whole book on this, and practically did.
The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King is a great telling of this story. I spent many hours with author Michael Craig and he hits the nail on the head with his account of the biggest series of poker games ever. I highly recommend it.
This final infusion into the Big Game was the biggest, adding somewhere in the mid-eight-figure range to the bankrolls of the "Corporation." If you wondered where that term came from, Andy wanted to play so high (as high as $100,000-$200,000) that the players in the Big Game, and even some players not in it, had to pool our money to play his limits. And by the way, don't feel too sorry for Andy. He makes that several times over in the course of a year.
Now you know some of the history of the Big Game. In the next few issues I'll give you a brief profile of most of the regulars who play in it. After that, I'll write about some of the more memorable hands that I've witnessed over the past 20 years or so. It'll be a fun ride, so I hope you come along.
