1.
World Series of Poker bracelet
–
The World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, even if the victory occurred before 1976, WSOP championships are now counted as bracelets. During the first years of the WSOP only a handful of bracelets were awarded each year, in 1990, there were only 14 bracelet events. By 2000, that increased to 24. As the popularity of poker has increased during the 2000s, the number of events has likewise increased, in 2011,58 bracelets were awarded at the WSOP, seven at the World Series of Poker Europe, and one to the WSOP National Circuit Champion. This brought the number of bracelets awarded up to 959. Five additional bracelets were awarded for the first time in April 2013 at the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific in Melbourne, Australia. Since Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 Main Event, only two players have won and followed it up with a win in another event, Jonathan Duhamel. The 1976 bracelet looked like gold nuggets kind of hammered flat, the bracelet in 1976 cost approximately $500. In the 1980s, Las Vegas jeweler Mordechai Yerushalmi became the manufacturer of WSOP bracelets until Harrahs Entertainment bought the rights to the WSOP in 2004. According to 2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker, the design of the bracelet remained relatively unchanged under Yerushalmi, in 2005, Gold and Diamond International based in Memphis, TN won the bid from Harrahs Entertainment to manufacture the 2005 World Series of Poker bracelets. The company also manufactures the WSOP circuit rings, in 2006, Frederick Goldman, Inc. made the WSOP bracelets while luxury watch maker Corum introduced some commemorative watches as part of the prize package. In 2006, the Champions bracelet had 259 stones including 7.2 carats of diamonds,120 grams of white and it also used rubies to represent the heart and diamond suits, a sapphire to represent the spade and three black diamonds to represent the clubs. In 2007, Corum became the official bracelet manufacturer for the WSOP, some of the 2007 World Series of Poker champions received both a watch and a bracelet from Corum. Corum designed four variations for the 2007 World Series of Poker Bracelets, the standard version that is presented to 53 winners features 53 diamonds. The Ladies World Champion receives a bracelet that is adorned with four black diamonds, the $50,000 HORSE Champion Bracelet has 91 black diamonds and two rubies. The World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet has 120 diamonds on 136 grams of 18 carat white gold, the value of the 2007 bracelets have not been released, but the typical price of a Corum watch ranges from $1, 500–$30, 000+. In 2008, the Main Event Bracelet had 291 diamonds, totalling 2.81 carats set in 168 grams of 18kt white gold, the other 54 event bracelets consisted of 55 diamonds, totalling 0.25 carats set in 80 grams of 14kt yellow gold
2.
Entrepreneurship
–
What appears as a real opportunity ex ante might actually be a non-opportunity or one that cannot be actualized by entrepreneurs lacking the necessary business skills, financial or social capital. Traditionally, an entrepreneur has been defined as a person who starts, organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. Rather than working as an employee, an entrepreneur runs a business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a leader and innovator of new ideas. They act as the manager and oversee the launch and growth of an enterprise, Entrepreneurship is the process by which an individual identifies a business opportunity and acquires and deploys the necessary resources required for its exploitation. For Schumpeter, the changes and dynamic disequilibrium brought on by the innovating entrepreneur, the ‘norm’ of a healthy economy. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking, for example, in the 2000s, the field of social entrepreneurship has been identified, in which entrepreneurs combine business activities with humanitarian, environmental or community goals. In the 2010s, entrepreneurship can be studied in college or university as part of the disciplines of management or business administration, Entrepreneur, is a loanword from French. First used in 1723, today the term entrepreneur implies qualities of leadership, initiative, economist Robert Reich has called team-building, leadership, and management ability essential qualities for the entrepreneur. Historically the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to the work in the late 17th and early 18th centuries of Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith, which was foundational to classical economics. In the 20th century, entrepreneurship was studied by Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, the term entrepreneurship was coined around the 1920s, while the loan from French of the word entrepreneur dates to the 1850s. According to Schumpeter, an entrepreneur is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation, thus, creative destruction is largely responsible for long-term economic growth. The idea that leads to economic growth is an interpretation of the residual in endogenous growth theory. For Schumpeter, entrepreneurship resulted in new industries and in new combinations of currently existing inputs, Schumpeters initial example of this was the combination of a steam engine and then current wagon making technologies to produce the horseless carriage. In this case the innovation, the car, was transformational and it did not immediately replace the horse-drawn carriage, but in time, incremental improvements reduced the cost and improved the technology, leading to the modern auto industry. Despite Schumpeters early 20th-century contributions, traditional microeconomic theory did not formally consider the entrepreneur in its theoretical frameworks, in this treatment, the entrepreneur was an implied but unspecified actor, consistent with the concept of the entrepreneur being the agent of x-efficiency. For Schumpeter, the entrepreneur did not bear risk, the capitalist did, Schumpeter was of the opinion that entrepreneurs shift the Production Possibility Curve to a higher level using innovations. Cantillon emphasized the willingness of the entrepreneur to assume risk and to deal with uncertainty, thus, he draws attention to the function of the entrepreneur, and distinguishes clearly between the function of the entrepreneur and the owner who provides the money
3.
Poker Hall of Fame
–
The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker in the United States. Binion was known for the ways in which he marketed his casino. In 1949, he convinced Johnny Moss and Nick The Greek Dandolos to play high-stakes poker heads up where the public could watch them, in 1970, he invited a group of poker players to compete in what would be the first World Series of Poker. When Harrahs Entertainment, now known as Caesars Entertainment, acquired the rights to the WSOP in 2004, currently, membership in the Poker Hall of Fame is handled directly by the WSOP. As of 2016,52 people have been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame,21 of whom are still living. Before the 2009 World Series of Poker, then-WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack announced that the process for becoming a member into the Poker Hall of Fame would undergo a slight modification, starting in 2009, the Poker Hall of Fame started accepting nominations from the public. This move was intended to increase interest in the Hall, almost immediately after this decision was announced, Party Poker started an online campaign to get its representative and World Poker Tour commentator Mike Sexton elected to the Hall. Other poker sites, namely PokerStars Tom McEvoy, followed suit by pushing their own poker professionals, or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results. In 2009, 23-year-old online poker professional Tom Dwan was a finalist for the Poker Hall of Fame because of public balloting, as a result, a new age requirement was added in 2011. This rule, known as the Chip Reese Rule, established an age of 40 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This new requirement eliminated some players who were regular nominees over the years, such as Phil Ivey. Admission into the Poker Hall of Fame is considered one of the biggest honors in poker, in his acceptance speech, T. J. Cloutier declared, Its one of two things Ive always wanted to win. Barbara Enright, the first woman inducted into the Hall, considers her induction to be a lifetime achievement honor, before being acquired by Harrahs Casino, R. S. Owens & Company was commissioned to design an award for Poker Hall of Famers. The award was an 8-inch-tall piece of glass with a hand of cards sandblasted at the bottom, the name. The circle had a gold emblem bonded to the glass and had the Binions Horseshoe Casino logo in it, there was a gold plated base with three gold-plated stacks of chips. World Poker Tour Walk of Fame Poker Hall of Fame Doyle Room Poker Hall of Fame Legends Jack Binion & Crandell Addington Accessed March 3,2008
4.
Reno, Nevada
–
Reno is a city in the U. S. state of Nevada. It is in Northern Nevada, approximately 22 miles from Lake Tahoe, known as The Biggest Little City in the World, Reno is famous for its casinos and as the birthplace of Caesars Entertainment Corporation. It is the county seat of Washoe County, in the part of the state. The city sits in a desert at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Archaeological finds place the border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Reno area. As early as the mid 1850s a few settled in the Truckee Meadows. Gold was discovered in the vicinity of Virginia City in 1850, and a modest mining community developed, to provide the necessary connection between Virginia City and the California Trail, Charles W. Fuller built a log toll bridge across the Truckee River in 1859. A small community that would service travelers soon grew up near the bridge, after two years, Fuller sold the bridge to Myron C. Lake, who continued to develop the community with the addition of a grist mill, kiln, in 1864, Washoe County was consolidated with Roop County, and Lakes Crossing became the largest town in the county. Lake had earned himself the founder of Reno. Lake deeded land to the CPRR in exchange for its promise to build a depot at Lakes Crossing, once the railroad station was established, the town of Reno officially came into being on May 9,1868. CPRR construction superintendent Charles Crocker named the community after Major General Jesse Lee Reno, in 1871, Reno became the county seat of the newly expanded Washoe County, replacing the previous county seat, located in Washoe City. However, political power in Nevada remained with the communities, first Virginia City and later Tonopah. The extension of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to Reno in 1872 provided a boost to the new citys economy. Despite this, Nevada is still the third-largest gold producer in the world, after South Africa and Australia, the Reno Arch was erected on Virginia Street in 1926 to promote the upcoming Transcontinental Highways Exposition of 1927. The arch included the words Nevadas Transcontinental Highways Exposition and the dates of the exposition. After the exposition, the Reno City Council decided to keep the arch as a permanent downtown gateway, no acceptable slogan was received until a $100 prize was offered, and G. A. Burns of Sacramento was declared the winner on March 14,1929, with Reno, The Biggest Little City in the World
5.
Nevada
–
Nevada is a state in the Western, Mountain West, and Southwestern regions of the United States of America. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 34th most populous, nearly three-quarters of Nevadas people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the states four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada is officially known as the Silver State because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the Battle Born State, because it achieved statehood during the Civil War, as the Sage-brush State, for the plant of the same name. Nevada borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, Nevada is largely desert and semi-arid, much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe, about 86% of the states land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military. Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, the first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada because of the snow covered the mountains in winter. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31,1864, as the second of two added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws, in 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century, Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevadas largest employer, with mining continuing as a sector of the economy. The name Nevada comes from the Spanish nevada, meaning snow-covered, most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the vowel of trap. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the vowel of father, although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators, the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. Nevada is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province, and is broken up by many mountain ranges
6.
Economics
–
Economics is a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work, consistent with this focus, textbooks often distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics examines the behaviour of elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, macroeconomics analyzes the entire economy and issues affecting it, including unemployment of resources, inflation, economic growth, and the public policies that address these issues. Economic analysis can be applied throughout society, as in business, finance, health care, Economic analyses may also be applied to such diverse subjects as crime, education, the family, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, science, and the environment. At the turn of the 21st century, the domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. The ultimate goal of economics is to improve the conditions of people in their everyday life. There are a variety of definitions of economics. Some of the differences may reflect evolving views of the subject or different views among economists, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue for the publick services. Say, distinguishing the subject from its uses, defines it as the science of production, distribution. On the satirical side, Thomas Carlyle coined the dismal science as an epithet for classical economics, in this context and it enquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man. He affirmed that previous economists have usually centred their studies on the analysis of wealth, how wealth is created, distributed, and consumed, but he said that economics can be used to study other things, such as war, that are outside its usual focus. This is because war has as the goal winning it, generates both cost and benefits, and, resources are used to attain the goal. If the war is not winnable or if the costs outweigh the benefits. Some subsequent comments criticized the definition as overly broad in failing to limit its subject matter to analysis of markets, there are other criticisms as well, such as in scarcity not accounting for the macroeconomics of high unemployment. The same source reviews a range of included in principles of economics textbooks. Among economists more generally, it argues that a particular definition presented may reflect the direction toward which the author believes economics is evolving, microeconomics examines how entities, forming a market structure, interact within a market to create a market system
7.
World Series of Poker
–
The World Series of Poker is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment Corporation. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet, over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit holdem Main Event, the victor receives a multi-million dollar cash prize and a bracelet, which has become the most coveted award a poker player can win. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker, as of 2014, the WSOP consists of 65 events, with most major poker variants featured. However, in recent years, over half of the events have been variants of Texas hold em, Events traditionally take place during one day or over several consecutive days during the series in June and July. However, starting in 2008, the Main Event final table was delayed until November, the 2012 Main Event final table commenced in October because of the United States presidential election. Since 1971, all WSOP events have been tournaments with cash prizes, in 1973, a five-card stud event was added. Since then, new events have added and removed. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, later on, the tournament grew slowly for over a decade, reaching 52 participants in 1982. In the early 1980s, satellite tournaments were introduced, allowing people to win their way into the various events, by 1987, there were over 2,100 entrants in the entire series. At the 2006 World Series of Poker, there were 45 events, participation in the Main Event peaked that year, with 8,773 players. Currently, Texas hold em, Omaha hold em and Seven-card stud, H. O. R. S. E. has been played in the past and returned in 2006. Also, S. H. O. E. has been played in the past, other events played in the past include Chinese poker, Five card stud, and many others. Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes a fee and distributes the rest. In the 2005 Main Event, US$52,818,610 in prize money was distributed among 560 players, with US$7.5 million as the first prize. The 2006 Main Event, won by Jamie Gold, is the largest single poker tournament by prize pool or by entrant numbers in history, in July 2010, it was announced that the winner of the 2010 Main Event would receive just under US$9 million. 11% of the went to Lalibertés charity, the One Drop Foundation. At the time of the announcement,15 of the maximum 48 seats had been taken
8.
Wild Bill Hickok
–
He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish - often fabricated - tales he told about his life. Some contemporary reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious but, along with his own stories, remain the basis for much of his fame and reputation. Hickok was born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois, at a time when lawlessness and he fought and spied for the Union Army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler. Over the course of his life, he was involved in several notable shootouts, in 1876, Hickok was shot from behind and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by Jack McCall, an unsuccessful gambler. The hand of cards which he held at the time of his death has become known as the dead mans hand. Hickok remains a figure in frontier history. His father was said to have used the house, now demolished. He was the fourth of six children, William Hickok died in 1852, when James was 15. Hickok was a shot from a young age and was recognized locally as an outstanding marksman with a pistol. Photographs of Hickok appear to depict dark hair, but all contemporaneous descriptions affirm that it was red, in 1855, at age 18, James Hickok fled Illinois following a fight with Charles Hudson, during which both fell into a canal. Hickok moved to Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory, where he joined General Jim Lanes Free State Army, a vigilante group active in the new territory. While a Jayhawker, he met 12-year-old William Cody, who despite his youth served as a scout just two years later for the U. S. Army during the Utah War. While in Nebraska, James Hickok was derisively referred to as Duck Bill for his long nose and he grew a moustache following the McCanles incident and in 1861 began calling himself Wild Bill. He was also known before 1861 by Jayhawkers as Shanghai Bill because of his height, Hickok used the name William Hickok from 1858 and William Haycock during the Civil War. He was arrested using the name Haycock in 1865. He afterward resumed using his name, James Hickok. Most newspapers referred to him as William Haycock until 1869, military records after 1865 list him as Hickok but note that he was also known as Haycock. In 1857, Hickok claimed a 160-acre tract in Johnson County, on March 22,1858, he was elected one of the first four constables of Monticello Township
9.
Southwestern University
–
Southwestern University is a private, four-year, undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Georgetown, Texas, United States. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, the school is affiliated with the United Methodist Church with a nonsectarian curriculum. Southwestern offers 40 bachelors degrees in the arts, sciences, fine arts, the university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the National Association of Schools of Music. In 2015, Southwestern celebrated its 175th Anniversary, the university is a member of the Annapolis Group, the Associated Colleges of the South, the Council of Independent Colleges, and is a signatory of the Talloires Declaration. In 1873, the union of four institutions opened in Georgetown as Texas University. The university considers its founding date to be 1840, when Rutersville College opened, Southwestern thus claims to be the oldest university in Texas and the second oldest coeducational liberal arts college west of the Mississippi. Southwestern was a member of the Southwest Conference in 1915. When SMUs student population became larger, students at Southwestern began considering Trinity University. Southwestern has a history of drawing prolific lecturers to campus, including William Jennings Bryan, Helen Keller, Bell hooks, orators traveling by train often stopped off on their way to or from Austin, giving their lectures and catching the next train. Speakers at the annual Brown Symposium have included author Isaac Asimov in the early 1980s, in 2002, The Writers Voice series presented Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon. The Writers Voice has also welcomed such authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Amy Tan, in 1998, Southwestern faculty, students, alumni, staff and trustees identified the university’s core purpose and core values. The core purpose was identified as Fostering a liberal arts community whose values, a sixth core value, cultivating academic excellence, was added in 2008. This deal makes Southwestern the first university in Texas to get all its power from renewable sources, the university offers 40 majors and 36 minors divided between the Brown College of Arts and Sciences and the Sarofim School of Fine Arts. In addition to traditional majors, Southwestern offers interdisciplinary, independent, and paired majors as well as pre-professional programs in Engineering, Law, Medicine. In the 2013-2014 school year, total student enrollment was at 1,536, of the entering first-year students in Fall 2013,37 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class with an average SAT score of 1166. While the majority of students come from Texas, the remaining 11 percent come from 23 other states and 6 countries, minority students constitute 33 percent of the student body. The student to faculty ratio is 11,1, with a class size of 15 students. Ninety-nine percent of the tenured or tenure-track faculty hold doctorate or highest degree in their fields, collaborative research and publication with students is common
10.
Graham, Texas
–
Graham is a city in north central Texas. It is the county seat of Young County, and as of the 2010 Census had a population of 8,903. The site was first settled in 1871 by brothers Gustavus A. and Edwin S. Graham, primary shareholders in the Texas Emigration and Land Company of Louisville, Kentucky. During that same year as when Graham was settled, the Warren Wagon Train Raid occurred about 12 miles north of the city, in 1872 the Graham brothers purchased a local saltworks and established the town of Graham and set up the Graham Land Office. The saltworks was not a profitable venture as the salt was too expensive to ship and was closed in a few years, New families started to arrive, and the brothers began promoting the sale of homesites and doing civic improvements. A post office opened in 1873, and after Young County reorganized the following year, the towns newspaper, known as the Leader and still in existence today, was first printed in 1876, the same year that the first temporary courthouse was built. Other businesses from these years included a gristmill, sawmill, cotton gin. Founding officers included pioneer ranchers James C, loving, Col. C. L. Carter, and C. C. A three-story limestone courthouse was built in 1884, and it was replaced by a new courthouse in the early 1930s, the 1884 structures east door still stands on the courthouse square. From 1879-1896, Graham was the seat of a Federal District Court overseen by Judge A. P. McCormick, his jurisdiction extended over all of Texas north, Edwin Graham had married Addie Mary Kintner in 1865. Throughout the 1870s they divided their time between Texas and their families back north, but in 1879, with the flourishing, they moved their wives. Edwin and Addie lived there until 1891, then moved to Spokane, Washington and his body was brought back to Graham for burial. Addie moved back to Graham and became a leading civic booster, in 1921, with her son Malcolm, she set up the Graham Foundation as a continuing fund for the citys growth and improvement. Addie died in 1929 and was responsible for the establishment of the Eden Home for the aged and it was later a stop on the since defunct Chicago, Rock Island and Texas, which reached Graham from Fort Worth. The population of Graham grew slowly until 1917, when oil was discovered nearby, by 1966, Graham had seventeen churches, seven schools, a hospital, a radio station, two libraries, three parks, and two newspapers. The population peaked at 9,170 in 1980 and has gradually declined. According to a mural on the courthouse depicting the arrival of the Graham brothers, Graham is also one of only a handful of towns in Texas that remains a Dry County and still has an operational drive-in theater. Graham, the County seat of Young County, Texas 33°6′3″N 98°34′45″W. is located in the southeast portion of the county and has an area of 5.592 square miles, geographically, Graham is located in the Western Cross Timbers area of North Texas
11.
Poker
–
Poker is a family of card games that combine gambling, strategy, and skill. Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or community cards, the number of cards that remain hidden, and the betting procedures. In most modern games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet. In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match, or call, a player who matches a bet may also raise, or increase the bet. The betting round ends when all players have called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If more than one remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed. By the 1990s some gaming historians including David Parlett started to challenge the notion that poker is a derivative of As-Nas. There is evidence that a game called poque, a French game similar to poker, was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. The name of the game likely descended from the Irish Poca or even the French poque, yet it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero, the English game brag clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing. It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now, the unique features of poker have to do with the betting, and do not appear in any known older game. In this view poker originated much later, in the early or mid-18th century and it was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players, the development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling. English actor Joseph Crowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on which players hand was the most valuable. As it spread north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, soon after this spread, the full 52-card French deck was used and the flush was introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850, during the American Civil War, many additions were made including stud poker, and the straight
12.
Doyle Brunson
–
Doyle F. Brunson is an American poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is a two-time World Series of Poker Main Event champion, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and he is also one of only four players to have won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker multiple times, which he did in 1976 and 1977. He is also one of two players, along with Bill Boyd, to have won WSOP tournaments in four consecutive years. In addition, he is the first of five players to win both the WSOP Main Event and a World Poker Tour title, in January 2006, Bluff Magazine voted Brunson the most influential force in the world of poker. Brunson was born in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas, one of three children and he was part of the All-State Texas basketball team. In the 1950 Texas Interscholastic Track Meet, he won the event with a time of 4,43. Despite receiving offers from colleges, he attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. The Minneapolis Lakers showed interest in Brunson but an injury ended his hopes of becoming a professional basketball player. He still occasionally requires a crutch because of the injury, Brunson earned a bachelors degree in 1954 and a masters degree in administrative education the following year. Brunson had begun playing poker before his injury, playing five-card draw and he played more often after being injured and his winnings paid for his expenses. After graduating, he took a job as a business machines salesman, on his first day, he was invited to play in a seven-card stud game and earned over a months salary. He soon left the company and became a poker player. Brunson started off by playing in games on Exchange Street in Fort Worth with friend Dwayne Hamilton. Eventually, they began traveling around Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, playing in bigger games, the illegal games Brunson played in during this time were usually run by criminals who were often members of organized crime, so rules were not always enforced. Brunson has admitted to having a gun pulled on him several times, Hamilton moved back to Fort Worth, while the others teamed up and travelled around together, gambling on poker, golf and, in Doyles words, just about everything. They pooled their money for gambling and after six years, they made their first serious trip to Las Vegas and lost all of it and they decided to stop playing as partners, but remained friends. Brunson finally settled in Las Vegas and he made some WSOP championship event final tables before his back-to-back wins, but since this was when the event was winner-take-all, they are not counted as cashes. Besides his two wins in 1976 and 1977, Brunsons other main event cashes are,1972,1980,1982,1983,1997,2004 and 2013
.jpg)