Fun Facts
Fyodor Dostoevsky, who won and lost fortunes at the roulette table, wrote that gamblers are not actually addicted to winning - they’re actually addicted to losing.
One of the greatest poker players to ever live was a gentleman by the name of Johnny Moss. He played poker for a living at a time when it could be a very dangerous profession-robberies, card cheats, police raids.
In 1949 he was part of a special poker game at Benny Binion’s Horseshoe Casino. Benny was a feared gangster who had settled down to run a respectable joint. There were only two players in this game- Johnny Moss and Nick “The Greek” Dandolos. It was played in the front window of the casino as a publicity stunt.
The game ran for five months, the two players only stopping to sleep every 4 or 5 days. Finally, Nick the Greek, after losing what is purported to be close to 2 million dollars, said, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”
Two Million Dollars. In today’s dollars, that’s 23 million.
Near the end of his life, Johnny Moss was interviewed by a local paper. He was asked how he felt he had done financially in his over 60 years of playing poker. He replied, “Well, I guess I broke even.”
The original Roxy Theatre ended up in the hands of Theatre Network because of a poker game. A business partner of Nancy Powers, whom the upstairs theatre is named after, played poker with a number of Edmonton businessmen. One night he lost a big bet. The bet was that if he was the loser of the evening, he would have to buy the Roxy Theatre, which one of the players owned. He lost, and Nancy and her partners had to buy it. As Nancy said, “A bet’s a bet.” She later donated the Roxy to Theatre Network.