Mary Jo White: Online Poker’s Protector

When the Black Friday indictments against the three largest internet poker companies and their founders were announced on April 15, 2011 by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, it was done with great fanfare. Now two years later, the case has essentially ended with a whimper. This led me to wonder what happened.

In researching the government’s record of prosecuting internet gambling, a name kept coming up, and it was Mary Jo White, ironically herself the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993-2002. In her position as a federal prosecutor for Manhattan, she oversaw the prosecution of John Gotti, the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City, and the terrorists responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

However, one case in particular stood out in my research. According to an article entitled “The Story of How the U.S. Government Waged War Against the Online Gambling Industry” on the website bettingmarket.com, “the first federal charges for Internet gambling were filed on March 18, 1998 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, charging Jay Cohen with conspiracy to violate the Wire Wager Act, 18 U.S.C. 1084(a), and seven substantive counts of violating, and aiding and abetting violations of, the Wire Wager Act, in connection with his operation of World Sports Exchange (WSEX).” Cohen was eventually found guilty of violating all three clauses of Section 1084(a) of the Wire Act and sentenced to nearly two years’ imprisonment.

The article further states that, “At the time of Cohen’s trial Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said that the case showed that operators of illegal sports books who took bets from Americans could not avoid the federal wager law by simply moving their business offshore:

‘An Internet communication is no different than a telephone call for purpose of liability under the Wire Wager Act,’ she said. ‘As this case demonstrates, persons convicted of operating Internet sports books offshore face very serious consequences–imprisonment and thousands of dollars in fines.’

How times have changed. Fast forward to April 15, 2011, the day dubbed Black Friday by the poker world. Exactly one week later on April 22, 2011, Pokernewsdaily.com reported that PokerStars had retained the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton and specifically the firm’s litigation chair Mary Jo White, who had now returned to private practice. How ironic that a federal prosecutor who took such a tough stance against internet gambling in the 90’s was now defending the largest online poker company in the world.

A side note to this story is that on December 23, 2011, the Friday before Christmas, U.S. Deputy Attorney James Cole announced, “The Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (“OLC”) has analyzed the scope of the Wire Act…and concluded that it is limited only to sports betting.”

What convenient timing. At a time when the three largest online poker companies were under indictment, the DOJ decided to make a seismic shift in policy regarding internet gambling and chose to make the announcement in such a low-key manner as to make it seem the DOJ was hoping no one would notice.

Newly-confirmed Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) wrote the 13-page legal opinion on the matter dated September 20, 2011 (but curiously not released until three months later). Being in the office only ninety days, she authored one of the most sweeping reinterpretations of a law that had been used to fight organized crime for fifty years. Even Bharara in his Black Friday indictments against the online poker companies did not include any Wire Act violations. This softening of the DOJ’s stance on the Wire Act could be viewed as paving the way for the eventual regulation of online gambling in the U.S.

On July 10, 2012, PokerStars filed motions to dismiss the charges against them. On July 31, 2012, PokerStars announced it had settled the Black Friday civil case with the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ agreed to dismiss all civil charges against PokerStars without any admission of wrongdoing. It would be fair to assume Mary Jo White had a significant role in these negotiations. A September 2012 article from Bluff magazine entitled “Let’s Make a Deal” outlines the terms of the settlement. In the end, PokerStars will end up paying $547 million to the U.S. government in four installments. But perhaps, most significant, the government and Full Tilt agreed to transfer all of Full Tilt’s assets to PokerStars which only solidified the company’s dominant position in the online poker market.

Mary Jo White has now triumphantly returned to serve her government once again. On April 8, 2013 White was confirmed by the Senate as the 31st Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. An article from Rolling Stone magazine titled “Mary Jo White to Head SEC Puts Fox in Charge of Hen House” dated January 25, 2013 asserts White used her influence to protect Wall Street CEO’s from prosecution.

In her confirmation hearing, she stated that in her past work representing Wall Street firms she was ethically bound to represent those firms’ best interests, but she assured the Senate Banking Committee that as SEC chair the American people will be her client. Based on her track record of protecting powerful clients, do you believe her?

Robert Turner is a legendary poker player and billiard marketing expert, best known for inventing and creating the game of Omaha poker and introducing it to Nevada in 1982 and to California in 1986. He also created the Legends of Poker for the Bicycle Casino and the National Championship of Poker for Hollywood Park Casino both in 1995.

In the year 2000, he created World Team Poker, the first professional league for poker. He created Live at the Bike, the first live gaming site broadcast on the internet in 2002. He is currently working with his new companies Crown Digital Games developing unique mobile apps and Vision Poker, a poker marketing and managing group. He has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry.

Follow Robert on Twitter @thechipburner. Robert can also be reached at robertchipburnerturner@gmail.com.

The Man Who Lost $127 Million: Responsible Gambling and the Duty of Care

Putting a 24-hour casino in every home comes with great responsibility. Ensuring a safe, responsible gambling experience should be of paramount importance. Online gambling companies talk incessantly about revenue, but it is everyone’s responsibility–from regulatory bodies to operators, from governments to the citizens themselves–to require that all proper consumer protections and safeguards are in place before online gambling can go live. It is imperative that all stakeholders in online gambling be well versed not just in its benefits but in its pitfalls as well.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic illustrations of what happens when a gaming company puts revenue before responsibility is the case of Terrance Watanabe who is reported to have lost most of his personal fortune recklessly gambling in Las Vegas. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal published December 5, 2009, “During a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007, Terrance Watanabe managed to lose nearly $127 million. The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history.” While Steve Wynn is reported to have barred Watanabe from his casino for compulsive gambling, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. welcomed him and derived 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from him that year.

This case showed such an egregious lack of sound business judgment on the part of Harrah’s, now Caesars Entertainment, that the company was fined $225,000 by New Jersey regulators in March of this year. Gary Thompson, Director of Corporate Communications for Caesars Entertainment said, “Because of the confidential settlement agreement we reached with Watanabe, neither he nor we can make any official comment.” However, he points out that Caesars hired an outside agency to investigate the situation and made procedural changes deemed necessary to prevent recurrences.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has taken a more proactive approach to responsible gaming and has expressed great concern over the potential spread of excessive gambling in his state. When he conditionally vetoed that state’s online gambling bill in February of this year, one of his main recommendations was to increase funding of compulsive gambling programs. In a statement released with his veto, Gov. Christie said his recommendations are intended to continue “the tradition in New Jersey of a fine, careful, and well-regulated implementation of gaming.” The operative word here is “careful.”

In the rush to reap the financial windfall online gambling companies promise, oftentimes the need for consumer safeguards is overlooked. Gov. Christie signed the bill into law once the Legislature agreed to his changes. It is the duty of all jurisdictions considering introducing gambling to its citizens, whether in brick-and-mortar or online casinos, to take such a thoughtful, measured approach to the issue. Doing any less could have devastating effects.

As Keith Whyte, Executive Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), states, “We are concerned that as jurisdictions race to legalize internet gambling, often in an attempt to boost their gaming tax revenues, they are neglecting serious problem gambling concerns. Without comprehensive responsible gaming policies, the massive expansion of internet and social gaming may exacerbate gambling addiction. Our IRG (Internet Responsible Gaming) standards incorporate best practices from around the world, and we strongly urge they be incorporated into online gaming legislation and regulation.”

There is no question problem gambling destroys lives. Organizations such as NCPG propose that a comprehensive public health strategy is the most ethical and cost-effective response to the gambling addiction issues raised by internet gambling. The universal adoption of responsible gaming standards by operators and regulators alike, in tangent with well-informed consumers, is an important aspect of this approach. Legislation and regulation of online gambling must keep up with the rapid pace of technology.

While I was marketing director for The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, I produced many successful events that created enormous revenue for the casino. The morning after one such event I drove into the parking lot of the casino and noticed an elderly woman crying into her hands. This image has haunted me to this day. I thought to myself, “Did I do this to her?”

This is the question all the stakeholders in online gambling should ask themselves. Let’s never forget there is a human face in front of that computer screen.

Resources for Problem Gambling:
National Council on Problem Gambling, http://www.ncpgambling.org, 1-800-522-4700
Gamblers Anonymous, http://www.gamblersanonymous.org, 1-855-222-5542

Robert Turner is a legendary poker player and billiard marketing expert, best known for inventing and creating the game of Omaha poker and introducing it to Nevada in 1982 and to California in 1986. He also created the Legends of Poker for the Bicycle Casino and the National Championship of Poker for Hollywood Park Casino both in 1995.

In the year 2000, he created World Team Poker, the first professional league for poker. He created Live at the Bike, the first live gaming site broadcast on the internet in 2002. He is currently working with his new companies Crown Digtial Games developing unique mobile apps and Vision Poker, a poker marketing and managing group. He has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry. Robert can be reached at robertaturner97@yahoo.com.

2000 Card Player Interview with Robert Turner–Part 2

By Dana Smith

Poker Promotions Wizard Robert Turner Makes a Few Predictions about the Future of Gaming in California, and Gives Some Suggestions on Getting Corporate Sponsorship for Poker Tournaments

It’s hard to talk poker these days without discussing the impact of Indian gaming, the meteoric rise of tournaments during the past decade, and the courting of corporate sponsorship, and what these developments portend for the future of gaming. Surely, few people have been privy to more information on poker than Robert Turner and even fewer have been as instrumental in its development and promotion in Southern California.

In 1987 the California state legislature approved Texas hold’em and seven-card stud in public cardrooms, thus allowing more games than just lowball and draw poker to be spread by the state’s casinos. Turner, who currently is an independent gaming consultant and professional poker player, was there when it happened, as he has been ever since.

Robert Turner: When I heard that hold’em and seven-card stud had been legalized in California, I was living in Alabama (I had moved back home after my stint in Las Vegas), and decided to fly to California, thinking that it was a nice state and the action might be good. I had met Marsha Waggoner and Yosh Nokano, who also were planning to go there; in fact, hundreds of poker players decided to move to California when it legalized hold’em.

The owner of the Eldorado Club in Gardena needed someone who knew a lot about the game to help him out, so he asked Marsha and me to become hosts. We put in a pot-limit hold’em game at the Eldorado, the first one that was spread in California. After three days of nonstop 2$/$5 pot-limit action, the owner insisted on increasing the rake to $5. I disagreed with him because I knew that $5 was too high a rake for such a small game, so he and I parted ways after a short time.

About that time, the owners of the Horseshoe Casino in Gardena visited the Eldorado to see all the poker action that Marsha and I had generated and asked if I could send them someone to do the same thing. Since I couldn’t get along with the Eldorado’s owner, I went to the Horseshoe myself and ended up becoming its general manager with a percentage ownership of the revenue.

I stayed there until 1989 when new ownership came in and closed the club for remodeling. However, they never were able to get their license, so they bought out my contract and I accepted a job as poker director at the Regency Casino in Bell, halfway between the Commerce and Bicycle Casinos. Beginning with three poker tables, our business began to build and at one point, we were taking customers away from the Bike.

In 1991 George Hardie sent John Sutton over to talk with me, asking if I would come to work for the Bicycle Casino as an executive host. It was an offer that I couldn’t refuse.

When I was promoted to Director of Marketing at the Bike, I convinced Hardie that the California card clubs needed to get into the entertainment business to expand their venues and bring in new customers, so we started staging concerts, billiard tournaments, and boxing events at the Bike, and they were very successful. Before the U.S. government came into the picture and took it over, the Bike had a tremendous business.

Then the Commerce Casino became very aggressive, building a showroom and banquet room. As the competition for customers grew in the Los Angeles area, these concerts, events and other promotions were the only ways the cardrooms could fight one another. They realized that, just like it is in Las Vegas, you always have to have something new going on, you can’t depend solely on the poker. When a city has only one cardroom, that’s really bad for the player base because there is no competition. Competition is what makes things happen, and it creates a better environment for players.

Dana Smith: With your outgoing personality and friendly attitude, you’ve always been a sort of people magnet, as far as I can see.

RT: Yes, I guess so. I’ve always looked at casinos a little differently. I thought, “Casinos are always being built and growing, and if I can bring them customers, they’ll always need me.” And in order to give poker players a voice in the industry, I formed the World Card Players Association so that we can network together. I am sorry to say that WCPA president Fred Wright, my attorney and best friend, recently passed away so we’re looking for a new president.

DS: The Diamond Jim Brady tournament probably was the Bike’s best-ever poker event. What ever happened to it?

RT: Hardie owned the rights to the Diamond Jim Brady so he took it with him when he left. He was the general manager of the Bicycle Club and when the government took it over, Hardie’s contract was not renewed. The Bike then asked me to come up with something equal to it, so we created the Legends of Poker (scheduled for August 3-28 this year). In our first outing, we had about 25 “legends”—including Tom McEvoy, Mike Sexton, Johnny Chan, Max Stern, and Susie Isaacs—whom we paid $1,000 each to act as hosts for the tournament. But when management changed at the Bicycle, it got away from our original concept, though I still think it was the best one because I always like to involve people in my projects.

Another great promotion that we had at the Bike was the Go for the Gold tournament that Dr. Jerry Buss hosted. Five percent of the proceeds were donated to the United Negro College Fund and Dr. Buss got Lakers’ player James Worthy to present the check for $20,000 to the Fund. The buy-in was $10,000 and instead of playing with tournament chips, we had an armored truck deliver $400,000 in Spanish gold coins, which were valued at a couple of thousand dollars each. And you know what? We didn’t lose a single coin!

DS: Where did you move from the Bicycle Casino?

RT: When Phyllis Caro left the club, I followed her to Hollywood Park in 1996 where I created the largest poker tournament in history, Poker’s Ultimate Challenge. It was a way to get new people involved in poker. You could only enter it by winning a $5 satellite and we guaranteed $100,000. How could anyone turn down such a deal—the possibility of winning $100,000 with only a $5 investment! Envision this: We ran 1,520 satellites and had 1,520 entrants in this tournament. It was so big that we had to run the tournament in shifts. We also gave each player a phone card or a tee shirt. The phone cards had photos of famous players on them and became collectibles.

One of the nicest things that anyone said to me was something that Mark Sterbins, the general manager at that time, told me on the Monday after the tournament had begun: “As the result of Poker’s Ultimate Challenge, Hollywood Park had turned the corner to profitability.” We immediately followed that event with another one, of course. When I left Hollywood Park, I went to work for MGM’s marketing office in Beverly Hills. Then the Bicycle Club asked me to return, so I went back to the Bike, but remained with MGM as an independent agent.

DS: So now you had a day job, a part-time job, and you also played poker. By that time you were a permanent resident of California?

RT: Yes, although my driver’s license still is from Alabama and I consider Alabama to be my home. You see, I never thought I would stay in California for very long, I was just passing through. In 1998 I joined John Sutton and his staff at Crystal Park. They brought me in to build the top section there and we hired some outstanding hosts for our high-limit games. We had Frank Henderson and his R.O.E. game, Tom McEvoy, Randy Watkins (now the personable manager of Lake Elsinore Casino), Randy Holland (the 2000 WSOP seven-card split champion), Kathy Keller Kolberg, Bill Gempel, Kwang Lee, and others—a great cast of hosts who probably did the best job that’s ever been done in California. Most of our hosts were top tournament players with outgoing personalities and that’s a major reason why tournaments became so successful at Crystal Park. In fact, I think the future of poker in California is going to be built around hosts.

DS: That’s when I first met you, and was impressed with your congeniality (plus the comped room, of course). What has been the highlight of your career so far?

RT: While I was at Hollywood Park, I also did some consulting work for Commerce Casino and created a pool tournament for the club called Legends of Pool. One of the things I am most proud of is that, at one time, Card Player was running ads for Legends of Pool at the Commerce Casino, Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino, and the National Championship of Poker at Hollywood Park Casino—so the California section of Card Player was filled with promotions that I had designed and marketed for the three major clubs there. That made me feel warm inside and probably was the apex of my career thus far.

Of course, none of these great events could’ve taken place without the help and hard work of other people and the vision of the owners. I am particularly grateful to Phyllis Caro, John Sutton, George Hardie, Jim Barbo, Denny Williams and Marsha Waggoner for their help to me in my career.

DS: You truly have been an innovator in the poker industry. Given your extensive background, what is your read on the future of gaming in California?

RT: The future of California gaming is a little unclear right now because of the passage of the new Indian legislation that allows tribes to offer complete gaming. I think that the major players in the gaming market will be building megaresorts. Lyle Berman (Grand Casinos) and Harrah’s already have signed contracts with tribal nations to build casinos in California and it wouldn’t surprise me if Steve Wynn also expanded to California. Look for the old face of California gaming to change, which can have a major impact on card rooms that offer poker only. I’m hoping that the California legislature will further change state laws to allow more gaming activities in poker rooms, which need it to have a chance to compete. If that doesn’t happen, it’s going to be very tough for card rooms to survive.

DS: Your thought is that when the tribal nations open full casinos, they will negatively impact cardrooms that are not allowed to offer full gaming?

RT: Right. It really puts a burden on even the major card clubs and in the coming years, some of them will not make it. Only the card rooms that are able to keep up the pace and are innovative in their promotions will survive. Gaming will become more and more a “people” business, which means developing player relations.

California clubs will have to hire a lot of casino hosts, and because of this added expense, they will not attain the bottom line they used to enjoy. When a new casino opens in Las Vegas, it doesn’t hire new hosts and then train them, it hires experienced hosts who can bring in customers. In essence, the casinos feed on each others’ clientele. I believe that California casinos are going to have to follow Las Vegas’ lead—they will have to hire veteran hosts who are well liked and can attract new players as well as maintain the loyal customer base.

DS: It seems to me that the changing gaming scene in California also will affect Las Vegas.

RT: Yes, it will have a major impact on Nevada. Right now, the largest resort on the boards in California is a Lyle Berman project near San Diego. Donald Trump’s commitment to gaming in Palm Springs is around $50 million. But these projects are only the tip of the iceberg. The expansion of gaming in California probably will create 50,000 to 100,000 new jobs in the state. Over the next couple of years, you’ll see tremendous strides being taken—gaming will be the biggest thing that’s ever happened on the West coast. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day you picked up a newspaper and read the headline, “Steve Wynn has Just Signed a Contract to Construct the Largest Resort Ever Built,” with 10,000 rooms and three golf courses located between Los Angeles and San Diego—that is, if Lyle Berman doesn’t beat him to the punch. With so many new states coming on board, we’ve already seen tremendous growth in poker over the past 10 years. And in the future, poker is going to explode.

I believe that California is the new frontier. With the opening of the Hawaiian Gardens casino, new ownership at the Bicycle Club, and a hotel opening at the Commerce Casino, the greater Los Angeles area will be “the” place to play, a player’s heaven, with hotels onsite or nearby, free food for top section players, and 100,000 to 200,000 players in action each month, along with 5,000 local tournament players. And gambling in the Gardena area may go full circle with the opening of the Hustler casino on the former Eldorado site and the Normandie Casino still going strong.

Deciding which club to play at today is similar to how shopping for the lowest prices on gasoline was a few years ago. Some clubs are lowering their menu prices to $1 to compete, others are lowering collections, and some are adding money to their tournament prize funds. The bottom line is that players are getting the best of it.

DS: Big-time efforts currently are underway to obtain corporate sponsorship for poker tournaments. What are your thoughts?

RT: First of all, I believe that the WSOP has been making a mistake for the past 31 years in not actively soliciting corporate sponsorship. From the beginning, the marketing department at the Horseshoe should’ve hired an outside marketing firm to solicit corporate backing. If the WSOP could get as little as $100,000 in sponsorship money, it would help the players tremendously. Even beach volleyball gets $50,000 or more per event in corporate money.

DS: You have gotten sponsors for past events in California. How did you do that?

RT: When we held the Diamond Jim Brady at the Bicycle Club, I was able to get Ford-Mercury-Lincoln as a sponsor. I was lucky to find someone in the Ford corporate offices at 7:00 one night and was so happy that I forgot to write down his name. I told this unknown person that we probably would have 5,000 entries and that the event would be widely advertised. About a week later, the Western Region Marketing Director called and told me to shop around to find the best price on a car and then bill Detroit for $15,000 promotional money.

Several beer companies also donated $5,000 in nonalcoholic products and services for our charity event at the Bike, and Robinsons-May has supplied make-overs for our women’s tournaments. In fact, I’ve never been turned down by a vendor. I think that the WSOP and other major tournaments can put some pressure on vendors such as Coca Cola and Kraft Foods to help fund the event as sponsors. At the least, food vendors could throw a pre-tournament party that could contribute as much as $50,000 in food products to the players’ welfare. You see, some vendors will donate products and services rather than money.

DS: Sounds like a tasty idea to me. Thanks, Robert, for your marketing insights and for a personal story that has been like a trip through the looking glass of poker.

Robert Turner is a legendary poker player and billiard marketing expert, best known for inventing and creating the game of Omaha poker and introducing it to Nevada in 1982 and to California in 1986. He also created the Legends of Poker for the Bicycle Casino and the National Championship of Poker for Hollywood Park Casino both in 1995.

In the year 2000, he created World Team Poker, the first professional league for poker. He created Live at the Bike, the first live gaming site broadcast on the internet in 2002. He is currently working with his new companies Crown Digtial Games developing unique mobile apps and Vision Poker, a poker marketing and managing group. He has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry. Robert can be reached at robertaturner97@yahoo.com.

2000 Card Player Interview with Robert Turner–Part 1

By Dana Smith

Of all the poker people I’ve interviewed over the years, few are as charismatic as Robert “Chip Burner” Turner. His rise from playing low-limit poker in his hometown in the South to glory on the tournament trail to becoming one of the poker industry’s most prolific innovators, has been a journey that has led him to honor and fame in the poker world. Besides all that, he’s one of the truly nice guys of poker who always has a handshake, a smile, and a bit of humor to offer everyone he meets, even laughing off his nickname, which was given to him partly as a tribute to what some of his peers perceive as playing rather fast.

Turner had just placed seventh in the $1,500 Omaha high-low event at the World Series of Poker when I tracked him down at Binion’s Horseshoe for what was to become an interview in which I learned a lot, not only about the man but about the history of tournament poker during the past 25 years, a history that Turner has played a role in shaping. We began by talking Southern, as in Alabama, and how he got into poker as a teenager.

Robert Turner: I’m from Huntsville, Alabama, where NASA’s management center is located. It’s the high-tech oasis of the South, sort of the brain trust of NASA. When German scientists came to the U.S. at the end of WWII, they almost all ended up in Huntsville. When I was 17 years old and just out of high school, I already had worked my way up to managing a clothing store there, managed a small restaurant on weekends, and took business courses at night. One day a friend of mine invited me to a 50-cent/$1 poker game with a $20 buy in. In that game, I noticed that a guy was holding out cards. I didn’t know exactly what to do about it, so I called him outside and said, “I’m stuck $30 in this game and I think that you should give me back my money because you have cards in your lap.”

“I don’t mind giving back your $30. You’ve got a lot of class for a 17-year-old,” he answered. Then he talked to me for about an hour, giving me his version of “Gambling 101” from a cheater’s viewpoint, trying to convince me that cheating was okay, that it was just business as usual. “We didn’t mean to harm you,” he explained. “It’s just that we’re cheats and that’s what we do. Leopards can’t change their spots, you know!”

Of course, even back then I knew that you don’t have to cheat to win. Soon I began playing in $5 poker games in Huntsville, most of which were held in private homes or motel rooms. We played a lot of crazy games like criss-cross and high-low games, things like that, and I seemed to lose all the time. One day I thought, “Why can’t I start my own home game? Being the guy who takes $1 or $2 out of every hand seems to be the right side to be on.” So, in 1967 I rented an apartment and started my own game at my apartment at age 18. I invited a few friends over and was surprised when about 30 people showed up, a lot of them engineers, and we played $10-$20 hold’em. And I cut $2 per hand. I had taken the day off from work and had started the game at 2:00 in the afternoon. Suddenly it was time for me to go to work the next morning and the game was still full. I counted the money that I had cut from the game won and it added up to $3,000!

“I’m working at the store for $230 a week when I can run a game and play poker one night a week and make $3,000?!” I’m thinking. But I also figured that it probably wouldn’t last. Looking around the room, I noticed an engineer who looked like an honest guy. I knew that he owned his own company, so I pulled him aside and asked, “How would you like to be my partner?”

“Partner? What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“I have to go to work,” I answered, “so if you’ll just rake the pot while I’m gone, you can keep half of what you cut.” To my surprise, the game lasted 60 days without breaking up! It went right around the clock while I went back and forth to work, with my partner cutting the pot while I was gone.

Dana Smith: Sounds like an instant success story, your first of many in the poker business.

RT: Yes, it was—until one night around 10:00 when I returned home from work to my game and knocked on the door. One of my friends would look through the peephole, lift the bar on the inside of the door, and then open it. This time when the door opened, a robber put a gun to my head. Six hijackers wearing ski masks and green jumpsuits had stripped off everybody’s clothes and made them lay naked on the floor. With his gun at my temple, one of the bandits asked, “Who sent you, kid?”

“Nobody. I just came to play,” I answered. “I live here.”

“Who sent you?” he repeated, not believing it was my game since I was just a young kid.

Then he threw me to the floor and tied me up. After they had put all the money in a sheet and were getting ready to leave, one of the hijackers asked, “Who’s Robert Turner? Who lives here?” That scared us all to death. The place got real quiet, nobody said a word. Then he kicked a player in the head, demanding, “Who’s Robert Turner?”

I spoke up, “I’m Robert Turner and I live here,” sure that they were going to torture me.

“Well, your girlfriend’s on the phone,”the robber said. “What do you want me to tell her?”

Boy was I relieved!

DS: Maybe you should’ve had the bandit tell her that you were tied up at the moment. Seriously, what happened next?

RT: After the hijacking, the game slowed down quite a bit, although it still went about four or five days a week. I continued with the game until I was about 22 years old (I had quit my day job at the clothing store when I was 19 and was just playing poker). Then it became hard to get games going: There was some competition with some other home games in town, and the police started giving us a hard time. One day the sheriff’s department came in and announced, “We’re going to be your partner. Don’t plan on having any more games here unless you cut us in.” At that point, I decided to get out of the business and not have any more games in my home.

DS: And that’s when you moved to Las Vegas?

RT: Yes. In 1978 when I was in my early twenties, I went to work at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Vegas. Bill Boyd, the director of poker operations, asked me what kind of job I wanted and I answered, “Someone told me that they pay poker players just to play poker.” So, I took a 9-to-5 job—a real day job—as one of two props at the Nugget. Back in those days, they gave me casino money to help get games started (about $300 to play $10/$20 poker) and I would split my winnings with the house. They also paid me $50 a day salary, plus my insurance and meals, so it was a pretty good job.

DS: How did you get in with Bill Boyd, who was a poker pioneer and legend?

RT: Over the years I had been coming to Las Vegas for weekends and he had taken a liking to me, used to take me out to dinner. Let me tell you a funny story: They used to have a weekly tournament at the Nugget. I won it so many times that one day Mr. Boyd took me aside and said, “Robert, why don’t you take some time off from the tournaments? This doesn’t look right, let somebody else win it for a change.”

But going way back, I used to play poker at the Silver City and Union Plaza. The biggest win that I ever made happened when I was real young, about 23 years old. I had won $200 at the Plaza and took it over to the Golden Nugget where there was a $5 blind no-limit hold’em game. Playing in that game were Jack Straus, George Barnes, Mr. Boyd and Doyle Brunson. I wound up winning $25,000! That was the only rush of cards that I’ve ever had, like a gift from heaven. I’d never won that much money and it scared me. My pockets were full of black chips and I still had more money on the table than anyone else, so I left town with about $28,000 and change. That’s what started my serious gambling.

DS: You’ve been quite successful in tournament play. What was your greatest victory?

RT: Probably the most memorable run that I had occurred at the Super Bowl of Poker at Caesars Palace. In the first four events, I had two firsts and two seconds back-to-back.
But back to my job at the Nugget, in 1983 I asked Mr. Boyd to start spreading Omaha. I had been talking to a player from Seattle and told her that in the South, we played four-card poker. “I run a game in Washington,” she answered, “and we play a lot of four-card poker there.” So, Mr. Boyd cleared it with the Nevada Gaming Board, and we started our first Omaha game four-handed at $5/$10 limits. Although everybody there knew how to play the game, it was slow and boring at those limits so we raised them to $10/$20. The game started around 2:00 that afternoon and by 6:30 that night we had changed it to pot-limit. For 30 days the game went around the clock without breaking up. The World Series of Poker had started at Binion’s and a lot of players were crossing the street to the Nugget to play in our pot-limit Omaha game. When the Series was over, Mr. Boyd put Omaha on the regular schedule as a $2/$4 limit game, calling it “Nugget Hold’em.” That game never broke up either, and when the Nugget’s poker room closed, the game moved to the Horseshoe where it is still being played today at $4/$8 limits.

DS: You moved back to Huntsville after working at the Nugget for a while, but continued visiting Las Vegas. On one of your trips, you experienced a sort of “supernatural” event. Tell us about it.

RT: I had flown to Vegas on a limited bankroll to play a gin rummy tournament at the Union Plaza and then planned to travel up to Lake Tahoe to play the Super Bowl of Poker. I won $300 in the gin tournament and took a taxi to the airport to fly to Tahoe. As the cab was passing by the rescue mission on Las Vegas Blvd., the sun was setting and a hoard of people were lined up for a free meal. When I saw all those hungry people lined up to eat, I said a silent prayer to myself: “Lord, just let me win some money at Lake Tahoe and I’ll come back here and give this mission some money.” As the cabby pulled up to the stop sign in front of Bob Stupak’s old place, he turned around and said to me, “It’s no accident that you got into my cab. God is with you.” That is the scariest, most startling thing that anybody has ever said to me.

DS: He seems to have read your thoughts. What happened next?

RT: When I arrived at Tahoe, all the hotel rooms were sold out. I was walking around wondering if I should try to check in to a motel or just stay up all night and wait for the tournament to start when I ran into a guy from Alabama. “I have an extra bed in my room,” he said. “Here’s the key.” That’s nice, I thought, and then I noticed Cissy Bottoms playing in a shorthanded $15/$30 hold’em game. The floorman notice me and asked, “Robert, why don’t you hang around and help us get this game going?” With only $300 extra money, I really didn’t have a bankroll big enough to play, but I sat down in the game anyway. I won two hands, netted about $300, and the game broke up. By then it was 1:00 in the morning, I had won money, and I had a place to sleep. “Hey, this trip’s okay so far,” I’m thinking. That’s when things really got strange.

The next morning I’m waiting in line to sign up for the tournament, with Johnny Chan standing next to me. I had won some events at the Stardust and he knew me from that, so we starting talking about taking a piece of each other’s action in the tournament.

“Well, there are 200 players in this tournament, but it only pays three spots, so why don’t we just split whatever we get out of it?” Johnny suggested. That was fine with me. When it came down to three players left in the event, Johnny and I were still there! The third man said, “Hey, guys, I know you’re friends, so give me a break.” So, we chopped the $100,000 prize money three ways. That was a tournament in which everything clicked.

When I left Tahoe, I went back to the mission and donated some money to it.

DS: Looks like it turned into a win-win situation. As a top player, Robert, what do you see as a major key to success in winning tournaments?

RT: I think that it is very important for players to realize that tournaments are “on the clock,” with just so many minutes to play in each round. Let’s say that it’s 4:00 in the afternoon and you’re on a rush. You know that by 8:00, the tournament will have gotten down to the last three tables, the money tables. If you can judge where you are in the chip status, you can pace your play accordingly and hang on to get into the money. Of course, I wish I had followed my own advice this year at the WSOP when I blew the lead with 12 players left and went to the final table with only $20,000. Maybe that’s why they call me “Chip Burner” Turner.

DS: Could be! But obviously you’ve used your own advice to your advantage on many other occasions, winning the Best All-Around Player award at the Diamond Jim Brady in 1993 and repeating that title this March at the Winning of the Green at the Bike. Certainly your success cannot have been all luck, as tournament play requires both skill and luck.

RT: I’ve been real lucky all my life, not just in tournaments but in everything else as well. A lot of good things have happened to me and even now, at age 52, good things are still happening. The love of my life, Charity Perry, and I have a new baby boy named Jaden—you oughta see him, he’s gorgeous! I am happily looking forward to July 29 when Charity, who is from Birmingham, Alabama, and I are getting married. And my beautiful daughter Tammy (from a former marriage) has always been close to me; she is a driving force in my life. Even if nothing else good ever comes my way again, I have been amply rewarded.

Editor’s Note: In the second part of this interview, Turner discusses the future of gaming in California and corporate sponsorship for tournaments.

When Robert Turner speaks we should listen by George Epstein–Gaming Today

http://gamingtoday.com/articles/article/40518-When_Robert_Turner_speaks_we_should_listen

The Red Menace of Ireland–In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, a tribute to Irish gaming legend Terry Rogers

Terry Rogers was a second generation bookmaker who introduced Texas Hold’em to Ireland. At the time Terry ran his underground poker room, the Eccentrics Club in Dublin, poker was illegal in Ireland. He organized the inaugural Irish Poker Open, which has become one of the most prestigious tournaments in Ireland.

I met Terry at Binion’s Horseshoe in the 70’s where he would always take bets on the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. He would spread his big ledger right in the middle of the room, and players would just walk up to him and place their bets. This went on for years until one day the police arrested him on the casino floor. Jack Binion bailed him out, and from then on, the betting was kept under wraps.

Terry loved poker, especially the camaraderie of the game. He backed many players in the World Series of Poker. It was his favorite time of the year; he planned his whole vacation around it. He either wore flashy shirts or a coat and tie while he played poker. He really was a class act in the poker world. I remember one time in the 1986 Grand Prix of Poker he brought over a whole team of Irish poker players wearing shiny, satin green jackets. In fact, one of the members of the Eccentrics Club, Noel Furlong, won the 1999 WSOP Main Event. Poker was his passion.

During the Jack Straus invitational poker series at the Frontier around 1984, I was playing a heads up tournament. My first opponent was a guy from Texas called Timmy who, I believe, was in the vending machine business. He showed up in the tournament area with his suitcase and a bag of money, and he wanted to place a bet on himself against whoever he was playing. I was his first match. Terry took the bet, and I busted Timmy the Texan on the second hand. Terry said, “That is the fastest $20,000 I ever made.” It took about a minute and a half.

Terry was a very eccentric guy, and he had strong opinions about everything; he was someone you never wanted to make mad. But he was also one of the nicest people I have ever met. Because he was such a gentleman, he invited me and my wife to Ireland as his guests after winning that bet. A couple of things stand out in my mind from that trip. Terry introduced me to Liam Flood who took me to a farm to watch the Irish national champion horse work out. It was like a scene out of a movie. No one can describe how green Ireland is. You have to experience it. On this misty Sunday morning, we were served strawberries and champagne on white linens. Everything was first class.

Terry then took me to one of the racetracks around Dublin where he had been booking for years. The scene is still one of the most vivid memories of my gambling career. There were approximately 25-30 bookies lined up right against the grandstand on soapboxes taking bets. Terry had the longest line of people. What was unusual about Terry was that he actually was very rude to the bettors, so they all wanted to beat him. He and his family were a fixture at that track for over 50 years. One bettor in particular stands out in my memory after all these years. He had a stutter and had trouble speaking. When he bet on the horses, he said, “I want dat one, dat one, dat one….” Terry turned red in the face and said, “Get out of here! How am I supposed to know which horse is dat one and dat one???” An old lady came up and didn’t have the right change; he made her go to the end of the line. And she did! He was so rude he was nicknamed the Red Menace.

When the races were over, I found it curious that there was no line of people to collect. Terry had won it all. He put all his money in his oversized leather bag and went home where I helped him put rubber bands around all the money which was spread out on a table almost eight feet long. I finally knew what the term bagman meant. He was the bagman of Ireland.

He was the most proud Irishman I have ever met and also one of the most cultured men I have known in my entire life. He knew everything about history, and he loved books. He insisted on taking me to see James Joyce’s home in the middle of the night to make sure I saw the residence of one of the greatest writers in all of literature.

On this St. Patrick’s Day, I can’t help but be reminded of my close friend the late Terry Rogers and his contributions to the poker world and to my life.

Robert Turner is a legendary poker player and billiard marketing expert, best known for inventing and creating the game of Omaha poker and introducing it to Nevada in 1982 and to California in 1986. He also created the Legends of Poker for the Bicycle Casino and the National Championship of Poker for Hollywood Park Casino both in 1995.

In the year 2000, he created World Team Poker, the first professional league for poker. He created Live at the Bike, the first live gaming site broadcast on the internet in 2002. He is currently working with his new companies Crown Digtial Games developing apps and Vision Poker, a poker marketing and managing group. He has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry. Robert can be reached at robertaturner97@yahoo.com.

The Red Menace of Ireland

Terry Rogers was a second generation bookmaker who introduced Texas Hold’em to Ireland. At the time Terry ran his underground poker room, the Eccentrics Club in Dublin, poker was illegal in Ireland. He organized the inaugural Irish Poker Open, which has become one of the most prestigious tournaments in Ireland.
I met Terry at the Horseshoe in the 70’s where he would always take bets on the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. He would spread his big ledger right in the middle of the room, and players would just walk up to him and place their bets. This went on for years until one day the police arrested him on the casino floor. Jack Binion bailed him out, and from then on, the betting was kept under wraps.

Terry loved poker, especially the camaraderie of the game. He backed many players in the World Series of Poker. It was his favorite time of the year; he planned his whole vacation around it. He wore either flashy shirts or a coat and tie while he played poker. He really was a class act in the poker world. I remember one time in the 1986 Grand Prix of Poker he brought over a whole team of Irish poker players wearing shiny, satin green jackets. In fact, one of the members of the Eccentrics Club, Noel Furlong, won the 1999 WSOP Main Event. Poker was his passion.
During the Jack Straus invitational poker series at the Frontier around 1984, I was playing a heads up tournament. My first opponent was a guy from Texas called Timmy who, I believe, was in the vending machine business. He showed up in the tournament area with his suitcase and a bag of money, and he wanted to place a bet on himself against whoever he was playing. I was his first match. Terry took the bet, and I busted Timmy the Texan on the second hand. Terry said, “That is the fastest $20,000 I ever made.” It took about a minute and a half.

Terry was a very eccentric guy, and he had strong opinions about everything; he was someone you never wanted to make mad. But he was also one of the nicest people I have ever met. Because he was such a gentleman, he invited me and my wife to Ireland as his guests after winning that bet. A couple of things stand out in my mind from that trip. Terry introduced me to Liam Flood who took me to a farm to watch the Irish national champion horse work out. It was like a scene out of a movie. No one can describe how green Ireland is. You have to experience it. On this misty Sunday morning, we were served strawberries and champagne on white linens. Everything was first class.

Terry then took me to one of the racetracks around Dublin where he had been booking for years. The scene is still one of the most vivid moments of my gambling career. There were approximately 25-30 bookies lined up right against the grandstand on soapboxes taking bets. Terry had the longest line of people. What was unusual about Terry was that he was actually very rude to the bettors, so they all wanted to beat him. He and his family were a fixture at that track for over 50 years. One bettor stands out in my memory after all these years. He had a stutter and had trouble speaking. When he bet on the horses, he said, “I want dat one, dat one, dat one….” Terry turned red in the face and said, “Get out of here! How am I supposed to know which horse is dat one and dat one???” An old lady came up and didn’t have the right change; he made her go to the end of the line. And she did! He was so rude he was nicknamed the Red Menace.

When the races were over, I found it curious that there was no line of people to collect. Terry had won it all. He put all his money in his oversized leather bag and went home where I helped him put rubber bands around all the money which was spread out on a table almost eight feet long. I finally knew what the term bagman meant. He was the bagman of Ireland.

He was the most proud Irishman I ever met and also one of the most cultured men I have known in my life. He knew everything about history, and he loved books. He insisted on taking me to see James Joyce’s home in the middle of the night to make sure I saw the residence of one of the greatest writers in all of literature. On this St. Patrick’s Day, I am reminded of my close friend the late Terry Rogers and his contributions to the poker world.

Robert Turner is a legendary poker player and billiard marketing expert, best known for inventing and creating the game of Omaha poker and introducing it to Nevada in 1982 and to California in 1986. In the year 2000, he created World Team Poker, the first professional league for poker. He has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry. Robert can be reached at robertaturner97@yahoo.com.