Jack Straus

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Jack Straus
Jack Straus (1974)
Jack Straus (1974)
  Personal information  
Date of birth June 16, 1930
place of birth United StatesUnited States Travis
date of death 17th August 1988
Place of death United StatesUnited States los Angeles
Nickname Treetop
Live Poker Tournament Achievements
Highest prize money $ 520,000
Total prize money $ 830,269
World Series of Poker
Bracelets 2
Cashes 4th
Best main event Victory ( 1982 )

Jack Straus (born June 16, 1930 in Travis , Texas , † August 17, 1988 in Los Angeles , California ) was a professional American poker player . Because of its size, it was nicknamed Treetop . Straus won the Main Event of the World Series of Poker in 1982 and secured a total of two bracelets in this tournament series.

Poker career

Career

Straus began playing the World Series of Poker (WSOP) at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas in the early 1970s . In May 1973 he reached at a tournament of the variant 2-7 Draw Lowball No Limit the heads-up against Aubrey Day . After around 20 hours of play, the two agreed on a draw, which meant that both players received their first bracelet . In 1982 Straus won the WSOP main event for $ 520,000 and his second bracelet .

What was remarkable about this win was that Straus only had a single $ 500 chip left. This resulted in the motto A Chip and a Chair (in German : A Chip and a Chair ).

Straus is also known for one of the biggest bluffs ever. While winning several big pots in a row in a high stakes No Limit Texas Hold'em cash game , he decided to raise his next starting hand , 7 2 . After an opponent called the raise, the flop came 7 3 3 , which was a good flop for Straus' hand. So he bet and his opponent raised the bid. Straus suspected a higher pair in the opponent and tried to represent the third 3 . There was a 2 on the turn , which was no help to Straus, as only the best two pairs count in poker. Even so, he wagered a large amount of money, knowing that his opponent had the better hand and he could hardly improve his. Straus informed his opponent that he would show him one of his cards for $ 25. He accepted the offer and Straus showed him his 2 . After a while his opponent came to the conclusion that Straus would have to hold 2 2 and got out. This bluff is also dealt with in the film High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story .

Straus died of a heart attack in August 1988 . He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame that same year . During his career, he won around $ 830,000 in official live poker tournaments.

Bracelets

year Buy-in (in $ ) competition Attendees Prize money (in $)
1973 0.3000 Deuce to Seven Draw 011
033,000shared with Aubrey Day
1982 10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship 104 520,000

Web links

Commons : Jack Straus  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. Men of Action: Jack 'Treetop' Straus on cardplayer.com from August 13, 2013, accessed on March 17, 2016 (English).
  2. A Poker Game That's Not for Pikers on nytimes.com, May 19, 1973, accessed December 23, 2019.
  3. Jack Straus in the Hendon Mob Poker Database, accessed February 24, 2020.