Old-time Vegas poker players will remember different games they played over the years: the infamous razz at the Stardust in the ’70s, 7-stud at Caesars and later the Mirage, and PLO at the Golden Nugget in the ’80s. Personally, I spent untold hours at the 4-8 limit Omaha straight high game at the Nugget, before moving on to the 5-10 PLO there. But my favorite game of all was the “Moss game” at the Horseshoe.
Johnny Moss was a poker legend. His contemporaries, almost to a man, call him the best player of his generation. (How he would fare against today’s generation is a matter for conjecture.) When the Golden Nugget closed its poker room in 1988, the Binions decided to open a poker room for the first time other than during the WSOP. The feature game was 10-20 limit hold ’em, which at the time was the biggest steady limit hold ’em game in town. Johnny was long-time best friends with Benny Binion, whose son Jack made sure Johnny was taken care of. He employed Johnny to host the 10-20 game and gave him a room at the Horseshoe. Johnny started and played in the game almost every day.
There were some great things about that game. The rake was $2 max, the lowest in town. They tried to raise it to $3 and Johnny threw a fit, so it stayed at $2 until his death. We loved Johnny for that and wished he’d live forever, but when he died in 1995, the rake was raised pretty much the next day. We also loved him because every game needs a live one, and strange as it might seem, the greatest player of his generation was it. He was never a limit player in his heyday and his poker skills had eroded with age. But he still had that innate poker sense and cunning that made him great, and I learned a lot from observing him.
Johnny could be very crusty and downright mean, as I’m sure a lot of dealers from those days will attest. He wasn’t that different from a lot of the road gamblers. They were tough guys who weren’t real warm and fuzzy. But Johnny liked me and I sat with him while waiting for the game to start. He told me stories of his days on the road. How he sat in the stands at high school football games and bet $50k or more on the outcome, and that most of the players were in their 20s and were playing mostly so gamblers had something good to bet on. How he took up golf because there were so many suckers became a low-digit player who could beat almost anyone around, except Titanic Thompson. He’d led a pretty amazing life and the opportunity to hear his stories of a bygone time were priceless. I was sad to see him go.
The list of players who cut their teeth in that game is pretty much a who’s who of stars from that era. Scotty Nuygen, Jennifer Harmon, Chau Giang, Todd Brunson, and Eli Elezira come to mind, as well as a host of cash-game pros who aren’t public names, but are well known in the poker community. There was a camaraderie among the players and dealers, and I think everyone who played that game on a regular basis became a much better player.
When Johnny died, the game lost its luster. I moved on to others, such as the PLO at the Shoe and the HORSE games that were starting to catch on around town. But ask any limit hold ’em player who was around at that time and I’m sure you’ll hear some great stories about the Moss game.
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I dealt to Johnny at the WSOP in 80′ and 81′. I even have some pictures.
Thank you for sharing those old memories with us. I was one of the guys that came into town when the Mirage had just opened and the poker room at Caesars was about to close. I witnessed the revival of the Golden Nugget Poker Room which looked very nice until 3 years ago (hopefully it still has enough action). And there was a poker room at Binion’s that had cash games only during the WSOP. Even the Plaza tried to run games but eventually failed. I like to read about the old times as the modern style poker is so different. These super heroes with their headsets and sun shades on are kind of getting on my nerves. Back then the people would a bit communicate and not only play around with their smartphones or shuffle their chips like magicians.
I liked to play 7-card stud straight high in the 90s and spent most of my vacation time at the Mirage in the 10-20 game, sometimes higher. When Bellagio opened, I think they took the “odd limits”. So the 10-20 and 20-40 remained at the Mirage whereas the 30-60 and 15/30 was played at the Bellagio. It was great to play that game as it was a kind of memory game unlike the todays popular NOL Hold’em thing that everybody plays.
It would be nice to have a poker room that offers these kinds of games again as it would put more colors into the games and make it more interesting. If you walk into a poker room today, it’s not what kind of game you would like to play , but more like….you like to play 1-2 or 2-5….
From Switzerland
Boris
I totally agree with Boris. What happened to all of the other poker games. I used to come out and visit Las Vegas (I live here now) and loved playing 7 card stud. It was a fun game for me and I was good at it. I still don’t like Hold ‘Em. To me it is just not a fun game and involves way too much luck (and poor players sucking you out when they make their flush on the River.)
The Moneymaker Miracle was the death knell for the old-school limit games. Everybody wanted to play no-limit like they saw on TV. I hate NL cash games. There was one NL game in town prior to 2003. I was a horrible, tight game where the regulars just sat around and waited for a live one to sit down. Unfortunately, when limit games finally made a comeback, it wasn’t the games I liked but badigi, badacy, razzdugi and those other stupid (to me) games. It’s why I rarely play anymore.
clearly the worst games today are the super tight 1-2 nol games, redrock style. Oftentimes I wonder what’s the point even sitting down. Almost each and every local has been playing 30-40 hours per week for the plast 10+ years so they defintely know how the ball rolls. Then, if you finally happen to win a 24 dollar pot which has been raked 3-4 dollars, you are to tip the dealer another buck or so and all that’s left for you is some peanut change money to keep you going for the next 60 minutes paying the blinds if you get lucky. Late at nights when you are playing the same stuff on the Strip at any given casino there’s a greater chance for a small winner. Day games in the locals’ casinos definetely are waste of time. I prefer playing Deuces Wild machines and having fun doing any time.
From Switzerland
Boris
The biggest lie in poker is the “Career Earnings” stat.
I’d like many of these ‘pros’ to post their “NET PROFIT” stats. And I’m talking about just poker playing income. Not what they get paid by sponsors, backers, etc. I’m confident you’ll discover many of these so called ‘pros’ are actually losing players.
making a living playing poker as its only source of income must be brutally hard. Imagine those people saying…”as soon as I am up 200 I quit for the day”. And in fact I have the feeling that some players go by this plan. What do you do however if you can’t meet this goal today? Let’s say you get flopped your set and it gets hammered down by the river? Next rebuy and same thing? What to do then? how about the 200 dollars up and then quit plan? No good , hu? I’ve been in many poker games where the people played hit-and-run poker. made me sick with all those people walking and waiting for the live one to return to the table. I don’t like playing short handed and thus paying more rake than usual.
With all these things together I came to the conclusion that playing poker for a living must be brutally hard to be successful. I rather stick with my daytime job.
From Switzerland
Boris
I also would love to see 7 card stud, straight, hi-lo, hi-lo replace back at poker rooms. I’ve never really embraced Hold’em…..just not enough excitement for me.. I remember 7 card stud games at the MGM that were populated by visitors…..the guys that played poker once a week with their friends. It was much more fun than the Stardust where you had 10cent antes and after the first 3 cards were dealt, 6 guys would drop. I was novice than and I found out that those 6 guys earned their living at those games. Not my experience at the MGM. Likely it will not return but at least I got to play my favorite game on the Strip
Poker rooms will spread any game that will fill, but, sadly, there’s not much demand for the old-style limit games any more. There’s a sporadic 7-stud game, but not much else along those lines.
Before the Suncoast closed its poker room about 4 years ago, they had a 7-stud game , once per week I think. I had the feeling that the dealers were not very much used to it. Dealing seemed to some of them like a new art. Compare this to the late 90s at the Mirage when the dealers were so fast and competent. It was big fun sitting in the 10/20 and 20/40 game, although it was a tough bread-and-butter to win something.
From Switzerland
Boris