Remembering Paul Magriel: Part One

It was with great sadness that I learned my longtime friend, gaming companion and teacher Paul Magriel had passed away. Paul, aka X22, Quack-Quack, and even Professor Quack-Quack, was one of the most brilliant gaming minds I have ever encountered. His life can provide both inspiration and warning to those who want to devote their lives to games and gambling. He is a key ingredient in many great stories of games and gambling.

Let me begin by explaining the origin of his nickname, and the use he made of it to create a maniacal table image. Paul was involved in high-level mathematics at NYU and Princeton. He was a contemporary and friends with John Nash, and some of the other geniuses featured in the movie A Beautiful Mind. He became interested in the game of backgammon, which had become a jet set craze at the time and set out to analyze it scientifically. He recorded games and positions, then subjected them to close scrutiny, looking for clues to determine the best play.

Backgammon tournaments, like tennis, are played with a knock-out format. Winners advance, and losers are gone. In order to have positions to study, he decided to play a 64-player tournament with himself taking all 64 slots. Schizophrenic as this may sound, it served as an excellent source for his analytics. To keep his 64 selves separate, he named them X-1 through X-64. X-22 was the eventual winner, and he adopted that as his name. Backgammon is played with dice and the roll of two-two has many names to craps players. The roll of 2 twos is called Hard Four. (It is twice as hard to roll that total of 4 as it is to roll 3-1.) It is referred to as Little Joe from Kokomo, ducks, or quacks. So of course, Paul became Quack-Quack.

He brilliantly incorporated his nickname into his poker image creation. He would bet 2,200 and announce his bet as quack-quack. When he wanted to make a larger bet, he would bet double quack-quack, 4,400, or triple, 6,600. Dealers got so used to this, that in the middle stages of a tournament, he once announced a bet of Quack-Quack, and before he could reach for his chips, the dealer turned to the next player, and announced a bet of 22,000.

There is an amusing YouTube video of the 2009 WSOP main event when Paul knocked out Phil Helmuth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUF7UqftIzc). Phil had a red A-Q and Paul had red 7-7, an approximately 54 percent favorite. Phil raised to 1,600, Paul made it 6,600 (triple quack-quack,) and they got all-in. Phil who was already steaming, had a slight blow up after Paul’s sevens held up. Paul’s strange looks, bets in units of quack-quack, and weird table talk served to give him a wild table image. This was a huge advantage when he played a tight-aggressive style. It didn’t serve him so well when he drifted into periods of looser play or tried to bluff.

Returning to the story of his backgammon career during the 70s. At that time, the Mayfair in NYC was changing from a club featuring bridge with a little gin rummy to one featuring backgammon, with a little bridge. He quickly became the most knowledgeable player in the world. His skills far surpassed those of even the other top players. He was not a particularly good gambler, and enjoyed action and excitement too much for his own good. Most successful gamblers, who uncover a big advantage at something, want to make as much money as they can before the world catches up. Paul came from an academic background, so he wanted to teach and write. His friends and students quickly became almost as knowledgeable as he was, and we were better gamblers. He also wrote the definitive book on backgammon and a New York Times Backgammon column in the late 70s.

In poker he was the first to talk and write about the number of rounds a tournament player could survive without playing a hand, and before running out of chips. This became known as the M-Number. It is found by dividing your chip stack by the cost per round (antes and blinds.) Today it is more common, but less accurate, to hear players talk in terms of big blinds. This is less accurate because antes range from zero up to around 20 percent of the big blind. Playing 2000-4000 blinds with a 500 ante, you have a cost per round of 10,500. If your stack is 44,000 (double quack-quack) you have an M of about 4. This should give you a better sense of the urgency of getting involved soon than thinking that you have 11 big blinds left.

I will continue with more stories about and lessons from Paul Magriel in the next column. For now, take way the concept that if you have a wild table image, you want to be playing a relatively tight-aggressive style. Your bluffs are less likely to work, and your good hands are more likely to get paid off. ♠

Steve ‘Zee’ Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful gamesplayer. He has been a full-time gambler for over 35 years. With two WSOP bracelets and few million in tournament cashes, he is easing into retirement. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at some major tournaments and playing in cash games in Vegas. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A in New York City -The Library near Houston and Doc Holliday’s on 9th St. are his favorites.