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Chroniclers Scouring for Rare World Series of Poker Mementos

by Kristen Peterson

LAS VEGAS -- Kneeling over a box of photo albums, David Schwartz points to a picture of a card player wearing a short-sleeve, button-up shirt, green pants and a fat cigar stemming from his mouth.

"That's Puggy Pearson," Schwartz says, referring to the poker legend. "He's an amazing character."

Schwartz is not a poker player. He's a casual spectator who doesn't attend the World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe, but occasionally watches poker tournaments on television.

Schwartz heads the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Special Collections. Sometime during the 1980s Binion's Horseshoe donated a portion of its World Series of Poker papers and photos to the center.

To make the collection accessible, Schwartz posted some of the photos and player biographies on the department's Web site, along with catalogued articles about the events.

With a doctorate in U.S. history, the Atlantic City N.J., native who wrote his dissertation on the evolution of casinos has developed a keen interest himself.

"Some of these people are so larger than life," Schwartz said. "They're so big. You can talk about them now and feel their presence. There's something different between one of these guys from Texas going on the road playing the hidden games.

"These guys really built this game. These guys were tough compared to someone playing on the computer eating (snack) chips."

Across town, in his Summerlin home, Larry Grossman, gaming writer and talk radio host, looks over his "poker wall," a small segment in his museum of a house that is wallpapered in sports memorabilia.

Grossman has been in the trenches of the World Series of Poker for the past 15 years and knows the legends of the game. Between Grossman and Schwartz is a collection that even Harrah's can't claim.

"This generation is going to die out and that was literally the foundation, the heart," Grossman said while standing near the poker wall that features a notorious photo of Pearson dressed as an Indian chief (one of his many costumes over the years) surrounded by players, including the late Johnny Moss and the late Stu "The Kid" Unger.

Pointing to an early black-and-white photo, Grossman said, "This is probably the most famous poker picture of time. There's Chill Wills, and of course, Benny Binion, Puggy, Jack, Amarillo Slim, Doyle."

Looking at a nearby photo of the 1989 final table, Grossman said, "This is the moment Phil (Hellmuth) won. He beat Johnny Chan and Chan was going for his third straight championship. It was a very historic moment." Finding collections

Aside from the Gamblers Book Store, the UNLV Special Collections is the biggest public place that houses WSOP memorabilia. State Museum and Archives has nothing. Las Vegas News Bureau has little. So far, Harrah's has found nothing other than photos of the Hall-of-Famers hanging on the wall of the casino.

"Everything is gone," Dawn Petrick, spokeswoman for Harrah's, said. "We don't have a collection. If there is one, we haven't found it."

Just like the game of poker in its early days, WSOP collections are mainly in private hands and locations.

"Now all the sudden people are scrambling around looking for this information," said Tom McEvoy, the 1983 WSOP championship winner who wrote several strategy books on the games and, last year, was co-author of "The Championship Table," a joint effort with Card Player Magazine writer Dana Smith and poker buff Ralph Wheeler.

"The history of poker, especially the World Series, is key," McEvoy said. "We did a lot of research. Ralph Wheeler had saved clippings for years. I'm kind of a historian of the World Series of Poker myself so it was a natural blend."

"The Championship Table" is one of few books that capture the history of the World Series of Poker. McEvoy says he'd love to see a museum dedicated to the series.

There's a lot of change in the air regarding the tournament. This is the first year of Harrah's ownership of the World Series of Poker and the second year that ESPN is producing the shows. This year marks the largest number of players, with as many as 2,000 participating.

"I remember the days when they were sweating it out trying to get 300 players," Grossman said. "And that wasn't too long ago. And now it's outgrown the Horseshoe.

"Now it's really discovered."

Memory lane

Grossman began photographing the players about 15 years ago. He says he's been getting calls from as far away as Australia from publishers and writers looking for photos.

He hosts the radio talk show "You Can Bet On It," and has interviewed WSOP players, some of whom have since died.

"Johnny Moss was an interesting guy," Grossman said. "A lot of the times he would just 'grrah' you know, just kind of grunt. On this particular day I said, 'Johnny, I'd like to film you,' and he said, 'OK.' He spoke for an hour on the old games, the games from Texas. It was just great. We got the whole thing on tape.

"In the old days it was a gathering of old friends and Benny Binion put on this great show with food and merriment. They would play in Texas (on the circuit). It would be like a convention. Benny would really go out of his way to be the great host. He'd serve delicacies like bear, rattlesnake."

Along with the interviews, Grossman was privy to crazy stories, including the one about Brian Zembic, the man who had breasts implanted for a year to win $100,000.

"They'd bet on anything," Grossman said. "They'd say, 'I bet I'll last longer than you.' 'What do you want to bet on it?' and they'd bet $10,000. They'll bet on how far one guy could hop. One of the bets was on whether somebody would go to the city of Des Moines and stay for a month. One guy did it and stayed for a couple days. Couldn't take it, paid him like $25,000."

Tales of the game

Howard Schwartz at the Gamblers Book Shop on South 11th Street knows some of the same stories. His tribute to the legends is a collection of framed photos covering the walls above the thousands of books in his store. Schwartz has saved some WSOP memorabilia and sells videos of the series dating to 1978 (some years videos weren't made).

"I sat behind the table for six hours waiting for the final card to pop up," Schwartz said as he pointed to a photo of the final hand at the World Series of Poker in 1982.

In the back room, Schwartz has files of the players and games. "These are files on poker this, poker that. Here's a Doyle Brunson file. I collected the (WSOP) brochures."

Knowing the old players is important to the new players, Schwartz said.

"It's like knowing Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio," Schwartz said. "These guys are held in high esteem because they've been playing for 35 years."

But up until a few years ago no one outside the poker world really cared so much for the game or the series. Hotels were getting rid of poker rooms.

"Now the explosion of television and ESPN, it gets a little complicated with everyone taking shots and bumping into each other," Grossman said.

The cowboy hats and suits and ties that players once wore have become the baseball caps promoting Internet gambling sites. Internet companies are bringing in hundreds of players. Chris Moneymaker is the big name.

"The last two years the people who were considered dead money won it," Grossman said. "It's one of the few arenas that you can go in where the best of the best are playing and start of with the same number of chips. The dot-com guys are doing great."

Grossman has started putting his World Series of Poker photos on disc. He and a graphics artist are creating posters of past and present players, including a Warholian illustration of Unger.

He had photos in Esquire last year shot of Chris Moneymaker in baseball cap with sunglasses, right hand on chin, pile of chips in front of him. Has nearly two-inch stack of this year's photos.

But what will he do with it? A book? No. "If somebody gives me an offer I can't refuse, I won't refuse it."

Right now he's making T-shirts.

"This is just part of the carnival that is the world series," Grossman said as he walked into the room with crisp, white, never-worn T-shirts emblazoned with the poker images. He has five that he will wear the final week.

"I think the legend of Stuey lives on so I'm going to wear him a couple days. It's sort of like the parking lot of the Grateful Dead concert or of today, the Phish concert."

The game, Grossman said, "It's more than the money. Money comes and goes. they have a shot at immortality. The heart of the matter is the bracelet and the legacy. There's a certain amount of respect to that. It follows you, not only to the grave, but past the grave.

"It was really underground. If you were a gambler 30 to 40 years ago, you were the black sheep of the family. Now it's just reached fad status. You just wonder where it will be 10 years from now."

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun. Inc. Republished with permission.

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