Jack McCLelland — part II

I hope you all caught part one of my interview with the Poker Hall of Fame’s newest inductee, Jack McClelland (along with Daniel Negreanu). If not, check it out on Cardplayer.com. Or don’t. Each part of this interview can stand on its own. Jack takes us through our past and gives us a look at some of the most colorful characters that paved the way for the rest of us. I’m sure you’ve heard enough from me, so let’s get back to it!

Todd Brunson: Online poker was huge, then fell hard. Do you think it can make a comeback here in the US?

Jack McCelland: Well, I hope so. The sites that are legal like World Series of Poker online, boy, they are really struggling. Remember, my wife is from Warsaw, and we go over there once in a while. And we look at the websites like partypoker and there’s not that much going on. But then you go to PokerStars, and they have like a half million people.

That’s where the value is at, so that’s where everyone goes to play. They really have a lock on the industry outside of the United States.

TB: Well, it looks like they are trying to screw that up with everything they’re doing now.

JM: Well, when things were really rolling over here…They couldn’t leave well enough alone. They had to have parades during the WSOP and down Fremont Street. They had to put their logos on the sides of buildings in New York. And, you know, they were just forcing the politicians to do something about it. And they did.

And that cost a lot of our friends and family members. A lot of money. At the same time, the economy went down the tank and it’s made it where it’s gonna be tough for it to come back.

I mean, the WSOP has held up pretty well, but it has almost 50 years of history. But, other than that, I know a few years ago at the Bellagio, everyone was saying, “you gotta guarantee the tournaments. You gotta guarantee the tournaments!” But I said no. The only time the guarantee is good for the players is when you aren’t going to make the guarantee. And the only thing it was good for me would have been to guarantee I was gonna lose my job.

Different places have been guaranteeing $5 million here and $10 million there. I just saw where, a few months ago, down in Florida they guaranteed $10 million and only got $7.5 million. And I thought, “Well, I wonder who’s gonna be the new card room manager down there?” I don’t know if they have changed or not, but casinos just aren’t used to taking losses like that, especially in poker, which isn’t a huge money maker for the casino anyhow, unless you’re like the Bellagio and it brings in a lot of high rollers that play other games. Because of that, we brought a lot of value to the Bellagio until the economy crashed and people quit coming. And that really wasn’t our fault, but that’s how things worked out.

TB: Well, on a happier note; What was your favorite tournament of all time?

JM: Well, for 25 years I always played seven card stud and, even while I was working, I managed to play a few tournaments at the WSOP. I was fortunate enough to make two final tables in the $5,000 event. And those were a couple of the highlights of my career as a player. And then, I created a tournament in California at the Commerce called Heavenly Hold’em, which was all kinds of hold’em games and nothing else.

Right after my late wife Alma passed away, I went over and I was gonna talk to them about going back to work again. They had told me I could come back anytime. So I went over to play a tournament, the very first one was like a $200 buy in with rebuys. I always figured, I create the mouse traps, I don’t fall into them. So, I didn’t rebuy, but still managed to win the tournament for like $35,000. So that was a lot of fun, you know, stuff like that.

I always kind of wanted to be a player, but I was really brought up with a sense of duty and responsibility. When I was 25 years old, my mother (who had really bad emphysema) and I drove out to Vegas. We had everything we owned in the car with us. I didn’t know one person or have one contact.

I went to Blackjack school cause there weren’t any poker schools. When it came time to hire, they would hire the two prettiest girls and like one guy with exceptional talent, who was also good looking. They weren’t looking for any chubby guys from the country. And then they would just try and bore the rest of us to death. So that worked, and I quit.

After that I was a semi-pro bowler for a few years. I bowled four or five big events as well as a lot of smaller regional events. It took me about three years to figure out I was just about good enough to stay broke. Luckily, I was barely smart enough to realize it.

So my mother and I came out here and I decided I wanted to get into poker. I ran into a guy and he was working at the Sahara poker room, and he says, “well, you know, they hire sometimes if you play.” And you know, that’s what I was there for, to play, so I went down and played day and night and pestered the poker room manager Eddy Miller for a job. So, finally he gives me a job and I was called a shill dealer for about two years. I never made it though. After about a year, I was made a shift manager.

Then, after Del Webb passed away, they never paid much, but they allowed you to make money. But after he died, that changed. You couldn’t make your house payment, so I quit there. After that, I got hooked on tournaments. I played like 300 to 400 a year. I would take a shot in the World Series once in a while, but never had much luck.

Then Eric Drache called me a few times and wanted me to start working at the WSOP. It didn’t work out then, but in 1984 I went down and ran day shift for him. I worked a lot of hours and learned a lot about the tournaments. In a few months, I was running tournaments, and the next year I was the assistant tournament director. I was basically running all the tournaments by that point. And that’s how everything kinda bloomed from there.

Ya know, I was ambitious and dedicated. My mother had passed away, but I had gotten married to Alma. You know, you got responsibilities. I had played as high as $300-$600 a couple times, but I played mostly smaller limits because it dawned on me; you know, if you’re going to work and try and earn a couple hundred dollars a day, then you’re gonna sit down and play $30-$60. Well, if you win $3,000, you don’t wanna go to work. If you lose $3,000, you don’t wanna go to work. So, I just made the decision to make working my main focus and playing my secondary.

I’m sure we all know that feeling too well. We’ll pick back up next issue… ♠

Todd Brunson has been a professional poker player for more than 20 years. While primarily a cash-game player, he still has managed to win 18 major tournaments, for more than $4.2 million. He has won one bracelet and cashed 42 times at the World Series of Poker.