Bryan ‘Sailor’ Roberts and Eric Drache Inducted Into Poker Hall of Fame

Poker is a game known for its accessibility. Beginners need not meet any certain skill level criteria to play with the top players in the world. Anyone with the cash and the stones to sit down at the table is more than welcome. However, not all aspects of the poker world are as inviting. Take for example, the Poker Hall of Fame.

Established in 1979, only 44 people have met the strict standards established for entry. In order to receive a nomination, a candidate must be at least 40 years old, played poker against top competition, played for high stakes, played well enough to earn the respect of their peers while standing the test of time. Non-players, or industry leaders, must have contributed to the overall growth of the game, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Seven poker legends, including Johnny Moss, Edmond Hoyle and “Wild Bill” Hickock were inducted in the hall’s inaugural year, but since then the honor has been limited to just one or two individuals per year. Other notables in the hall include Doyle Brunson (1988), “Chip” Reese (1991), “Amarillo Slim” Preston (1992), Stu Ungar (2001), Johnny Chan (2002), Crandell Addingon (2005), T.J. Cloutier (2006), Phil Hellmuth (2007) and Mike Sexton (2009).

This year, the honor goes to Bryan “Sailor” Roberts and Eric Drache. The two were formally inducted in a special ceremony at the Rio in Las Vegas prior to the conclusion of the World Series of Poker main event final table after being chosen from a group of ten nominees by votes from various poker media, as well as the 19 living members of the hall.

Other candidates this year included Chris Bjorin, David Chiu, Thor Hansen, George Hardie, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, John Juanda, Tom McEvoy and Scotty Nguyen.
Here’s a closer look at the class of 2012.

Eric Drache

As a longtime fixture of the poker community, Eric Drache is best known for his contributions to the game off the felt. Perhaps poetically, it was Drache who originally came up with the idea for the Poker Hall of Fame in the first place.
Drache also served as the WSOP’s tournament director in the 1970s and during a long career, he worked as the poker room manager at Bellagio, Golden Nugget and Mirage, helping to make Las Vegas one of the premier poker destinations in the world at a time when casinos were pushing the game into the smoky back corners of their properties.

In addition to serving as a consultant on numerous televised poker events and productions such as All In: The Poker Movie, Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker and Face the Ace, Drache was also responsible, in some part, for the poker boom. Had he not come up with the concept of satellite tournaments, perhaps Chris Moneymaker would not have parlayed a $40 buy-in into the 2003 WSOP main event title.

According to Drache, while trying to rustle up entrants for the 1978 series, he noticed a big cash game running at a nearby table. He walked over and realized that the ten players all had at least $1,000 sitting on the felt in front of them. Recognizing an opportunity, he suggested that the players pull their extra cash off the table and play the remainder as a winner-take-all event for a buy-in into the $10,000 main event. The players agreed and the satellite was born, allowing the WSOP to grow exponentially throughout the 1980s and 1990s before exploding in the 2000s after the introduction of online poker.

Jack McClelland, who worked along side Drache at the WSOP during the 1980s and now acts as the tournament director at Bellagio, credited him with being one of the first true tournament promoters at a time when the players were focusing almost exclusively on cash games.

“I’m thrilled with Eric’s induction into the Poker Hall of Fame,” said McClelland. “He’s done so much for the game that, for a long time, went unrecognized. There’s nobody more deserving. He was an innovator when it came to promotion. Not only was he hosting the games, but he was playing in them as well and was very friendly with everyone. There were a lot of times when he’d get the players to buy-in into the tournaments whether they wanted to or not.”

Drache fought for the uniform tournament structures that we see in today’s game, introducing clocks, antes and a set of unified rules. Incredibly, he was also the first to train employees to deal poker exclusively. Previously, they had just been pulled from the other casino games on the property.

An accomplished seven-card stud player, Drache has made five WSOP final tables, finishing runner-up on three different occasions.

“When I came into town in late 70s there was a poker magazine out that ranked the top ten players in the world,” recalled McClelland. “They had Eric in there at number six. The only problem, however, is that he was always playing in a game that featured the other five.”

When informed of his impending induction, Drache remained humble and praised his Hall of Fame counterpart, the late “Sailor” Roberts.

“I’m not only surprised and honored to have been selected, I’m also a bit embarrassed considering the other nominees,” said Drache. “When Jack Binion and myself worked on creating the Hall of Fame, I never considered myself a potential candidate. I’m particularly happy for the family of ‘Sailor’ Roberts. ‘Sailor,’ by everyone’s account, including my own personal observations, was a great player and played many games very well.”

Bryan “Sailor” Roberts

Perhaps best known by the public for his 1975 WSOP main event victory, Bryan “Sailor” Roberts is widely regarded by his peers as one of the best to ever play the game. Born in 1931, Roberts was a true rounder, playing poker and bridge as a traveling gambler, far from the cozy comforts that card rooms offer today.

After serving in the United States Navy during the Korean War, where he earned the nickname “Sailor,” Roberts became travel partners with Doyle Brunson and “Amarillo Slim” Preston, searching the country for backroom games that often required a loaded gun, as well as a keen understanding of the game.

“In a time fifty years ago when poker players relied on luck, ‘Sailor’ was developing sophisticated strategies that would enable him to make his own luck,” said Hall of Fame member Crandell Addington. “At a time in which professional poker players were viewed as outlaws and poker was illegal, he formed a partnership with Doyle and ‘Slim’ and they traveled across the country from poker game to poker game. They deployed advanced strategies unknown at the time that featured playing their opponents hands on many occasions rather than their own hands. More often than not, they got the money.”

At the time, it was important to master all of the games, because you never knew what kind of game you were walking into. Roberts was a card shark with poker, but he was truly unbeatable in contract or auction bridge.

Johnny Hughes, author of Famous Gamblers, Poker History and Texas Stories, wrote about a letter sent by Brunson concerning a match with Oswald Jacoby, considered to be the greatest bridge player of all time.

“We beat Oswald Jacoby and a man named Goodman in Waco,” said Brunson. “We beat all the gamblers, including Jacoby in ‘double dummy’ bridge.” In a conversation with Card Player, Brunson added, “Roberts was one the best [mixed games] players for 30 years, next to Billy Baxter, the best lowball player and next to ‘Chip’ Reese, the best all around player.”

When he finally made it to Las Vegas, Roberts made it count, winning his first WSOP bracelet in a 1974 Deuce-to-Seven Lowball event and his second in the 1975 main event. He final tabled the main event twice more, back in 1973 and 1982.

Unfortunately for Roberts, his skills on the felt didn’t translate into skills with an always dwindling bankroll. In his autobiography, Brunson pointed out that the reason had something to do with his unrelenting kindness.

“Sailor really had a heart of gold and was a genuinely colorful character, kind, caring and generous to a fault,” said Brunson. As Hughes explains in his book, Roberts “was up with a good bankroll about 12 times, and back broke. He would borrow money to loan it to some guy with dry pockets, down on his luck, who would never make ‘Sailor’ whole.”

Roberts passed away in 1995 at the age of 64.