Jack Straus: 'If Money Is Your God, You Can Forget No-Limit Poker'

  Jack Strauss’ poker career was rather short. He began to play at the WSOP in the early 70s and in 1988 he died of a heart attack. But even his death was a part of a poker game. This heart attack happened during a high stackes game.  After that he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. But it’s not because of his death. Jack Straus had won at the WSOP in 1982. This was one of the most remarkable wins in WSOP history. Before the final table battle Jack Straus went all-in and lost… in fact, he thought that he went all-in. But when he was going to leave the table he discovered that he has overlooked one $500 chip. And before that he hadn’t said that he was “all-in”. So… he was allowed to continue the game. And as you know, he won then.  As a player Jack Straus was known for his creativity at the table, for his willingness to risk… to risk all he had. I think this is what helped him back in 1982. Jack once said: "If money is your god, you can forget no-limit poker, because it's going to hurt you too much to turn loose of it. The way I feel about those little pieces of green paper is, you can't take them with you and they may not have much value in five years time, but right now I can trade them in for pleasure, or to bring pleasure to other people. If they had wanted you to hold on to money, they'd have made it with handles on."