Poker Hall Of Fame Wiki
Lester Ben 'Benny' Binion (November 20, 1904 – December 25, 1989) was an American gambling icon and mob boss.
Early history
Binion was born and raised in Pilot Grove, Texas in Grayson County, north of Dallas. His parents initially kept him out of school due to poor health. His father, a horse trader, let him accompany him on trips. While the outdoor life restored his health, Binion never had any formal education. As he traveled with his father, the young man learned to gamble, a favorite pastime when horse traders met up with farmers and merchants during county fair trade days
The first class was the largest class of the Poker Hall of Fame. It consisted of seven inductees, six of whom were inducted posthumously. Edmond Hoyle (1672 – August 29, 1769) – Inducted posthumously, Edmond Doyle is the godfather of all things playing cards related. The Australian Poker Hall of Fame was founded by Maurie Pears in 2009 to formally recognize the accomplishments of poker players and poker industry professionals from Australia and New Zealand. The hall can be seen in the poker room at Crown Melbourne. Binion died of heart failure at the age of 85 on December 25, 1989 in Las Vegas. Poker great 'Amarillo Slim' Preston suggested as an epitaph, 'He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen.' He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1990. World Series of Poker. Hennigan finished 19th in the 1999 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 no limit hold'em main event. In April 2002 he made the final table of the WSOP $1,500 seven-card stud event and won his first bracelet just four days later in the $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event, taking home the $117,320 first prize after defeating a final table including Men Nguyen and Phil Ivey.
Enright was the first woman to win two WSOP bracelets, the first woman to win three bracelets and the first woman to win an open event at the World Series of Poker. On July 6, 2007, Barbara Enright was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame along with Phil Hellmuth.
Criminal history
Binion's FBI file reveals a criminal history dating back to 1924, listing offenses such as theft, carrying concealed weapons, and two murder convictions.
Binion moved to El Paso when he was 18.There, he began moonshining.A year later, at the age of 19, Binion moved to Dallas where he set up moonshining operations, for which he was twice convicted. In addition to his moonshining, in 1928, Binion opened up an even more lucrative numbers game.
In 1931, Binion was convicted of shooting and killing an African American rum-runner, Frank Bolding, 'cowboy style.' This was the origin of Binion's 'Cowboy' nickname. Binion received a two-year suspended sentence.
In 1936, Binion established a network of private dice games at several Dallas hotels, including the Southland Hotel in downtown Dallas. This came to be known as the Southland Syndicate. By the end of 1936, Binion had gained control of most gambling operations in Dallas, with protection from a powerful local politician.
In 1936, Binion and a henchman killed a numbers operator and competitor, Ben Frieden, emptying their pistols into him. Binion then apparently shot himself in the shoulder and turned himself in to police, claiming that Frieden had shot him first. Binion was indicted, but the indictment was later dismissed on the grounds that Binion had acted in self-defense.[12] In 1938, Binion and another henchmen allegedly killed Sam Murray, another of Binion's competitors in the gambling rackets. Binion was never indicted for this murder, and charges were dropped against his henchmen.
By the early 1940s, Binion had become the reigning mob boss of Dallas. He then sought to take over the gambling rackets in Fort Worth. The local mob boss of that city, Lewis Tindell, was murdered shortly afterwards.
The Chicago Outfit made a successful move into Dallas after World War II. With the 1946 election of a Dallas County Sheriff Steve Gutherie, Binion lost his fix with the local government and fled to Las Vegas.
While in Dallas, Binion had begun a long-running feud with Herbert Noble, a small-time gambler in Dallas, which continued after Binion moved to Las Vegas. Binion demanded that Noble increase his payoff to Binion from 25 to 40 percent, which Noble refused to do.Binion posted a reward on Noble's scalp that eventually reached $25,000 and control of a Dallas crap game. Noble survived numerous attempts on his life, sometimes narrowly escaping with gunshot wounds. In November 1949, Noble's wife was killed in a car bombing intended for him. In retaliation, Noble planned to fly his private plane to Las Vegas to bomb Binion's house, but was restrained by local law enforcement before he could execute his plan.[8] In August 1951, as Herbert Noble drove up to his mailbox, a bomb exploded nearby, killing him instantly.
Binion lost his gambling license in 1951, and was sentenced to a five-year term in 1953 at Leavenworth federal penitentiary for tax evasion.
Casino years
In Las Vegas, Binion became a partner of the Las Vegas Club casino, but left after a year due to licensing problems after the casino relocated.In 1951, Benny purchased the building which had previously housed the Las Vegas Club, and opened it as the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon.
In 1951, he purchased the Eldorado Club and the Apache Hotel, opening them as Binion's Horseshoe casino, which immediately became popular because of the high limits on bets. He initially set a craps table limit of $500, ten times higher than the limit at his competitors of the time.[20] Because of the competition, Binion sometimes received death threats, although eventually casinos raised their limits to keep up with him. Additionally, the Horseshoe would honor a bet of any size as long as it was the first one made.
Binion was in the vanguard of Las Vegas casino innovation. He was the first in the downtown Glitter Gulch to replace sawdust-covered floors with carpeting, the first to dispatch limousines to transport customers to and from the casino, and the first to offer free drinks to players. Although comps were standard for high rollers, Binion gave them to all players. He also shied away from the gaudy performing acts typical of other Las Vegas casinos.
Binion said he followed a simple philosophy when serving his customers: 'Good food, good whiskey cheap, and a good gamble.'
Binion was known to be generous to patrons. For many years the Horseshoe had a late night $2 steak special, with most of the meat for the steaks coming from cattle on Binion's ranches in Montana. The Horseshoe is also believed to be the first major casino to offer 100-times-odds at craps (a patron with a bet on the pass or don't-pass lines could take or lay up to 100 times their bet in odds).The Horseshoe was one of the more profitable casinos in town.
One of the tourist attractions in Binion's was a large horseshoe with $1 million in $10,000 bills, embedded in plastic.
After his trial and conviction in 1953, to cover back taxes and legal costs, Binion sold a majority share in the Horseshoe to fellow gambler and New Orleans oilman Joe W. Brown. Binion’s family regained controlling interest in the Horseshoe in 1957, but did not regain full control until 1964. Benny was never allowed to hold a gaming license afterwards. Instead, his son Jack became the licensee, with Benny assuming the title of Director of Public Relations.
Binion styled himself a cowboy throughout his life. He almost never wore a necktie, and used gold coins as buttons on his cowboy shirts. Despite being technically barred from owning guns, he carried at least one pistol all his life, and kept a sawed-off shotgun close by. His office was a booth in the downstairs restaurant, and he knew many of his customers by name.
Death
Binion died of heart failure at the age of 85 on December 25, 1989 in Las Vegas. Poker great 'Amarillo Slim' Preston suggested as an epitaph, 'He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen.' He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1990.
“May all your cards be live and all your pots be monsters!”
Mike Sexton has uttered this, his famous catch phrase, for the last time on the World Poker Tour. Sexton has been the face and voice of the WPT since its inception 15 years ago, but on Monday, May 22, he announced that he will be accepting a position as Chairman of partypoker, an online poker site that he helped found in 2001. Sexton’s seat in the commentary booth will now be filled by Tony Dunst, who has been with the WPT since 2010 and has filled in for Sexton as an analyst before.
The 69-year-old member of the Poker Hall of Fame is not only known as one of the games best-known ambassadors but also as a great player in his own right with a WPT title of his own, a World Series of Poker bracelet and the Tournament of Champions title.
Sexton took to Twitter to make the announcement.
Thx to WPT</a> for GREAT 15 yrs! I wish them nothing but the best. This position w/<a href='https://twitter.com/partypoker'>partypoker is an opportunity & challenge I couldn't pass up
— Mike Sexton (@Mike_partypoker) May 22, 2017
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In a press release from partypoker, more details about Sexton’s new role with partypoker were detailed. As Chairman Sexton will act as an ambassador, but he will also have several other areas of the business to oversee. The release includes several goals for Sexton as Chairman, including investing in software development, improving customer service and loyalty programs, creating a friendly environment for amateur players by adding value to smaller events and combating third-party software, invest marketing budgets in the community, oversee the growth of the partypoker Live tour, and more.
“This is a huge and well-deserved honor for Mike,” said Card Player Publisher Barry Shulman. “It is also an equally huge development for the poker community at large, who will benefit because there is somebody at the top who truly ‘gets it.’”
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Sexton included a statement in the press release.
“This is an emotional time for me because I have decided to leave the World Poker Tour to focus on this new role. I was at partypoker from the start, before there was even a name or a single virtual card was dealt. I experienced the crazy times of the poker boom when we became the number one site in the world, I remember people sleeping on the office floor when we were all working 24-7 get the software launched and I remember the first partypoker Million on a cruise ship which overlaid $500K. It was devastating for me to see the decline of partypoker when we were forced to pull out of the US and then watch from the side lines as our competitors remained and benefited from our customer base. I am really looking forward to working with people that love the game like I do. We are not aiming for second place. We are all in. Shuffle up and deal!”
Sexton had further thoughts to share in a press release from the WPT.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with the World Poker Tour since its inception in 2002. When the World Poker Tour launched, it was a dream come true, and to be there from the beginning and see how the WPT changed the poker world forever by essentially turning poker into a televised sport has been amazing. And to do it all this time with my co-commentator from day one, Vince Van Patten, has made it even more special. Fifteen years later, another dream of mine came true when I won my first WPT title, and I now have the opportunity to play in the exclusive WPT Tournament of Champions for years to come. It’s been quite a ride over these 15 seasons, and one that I’ve been extremely blessed to take. I’d like to thank Steve Lipscomb for his vision to create the World Poker Tour, Adam Pliska for bringing the WPT to incredible heights, and the entire WPT family for all they do and have given me. I’d like to mention everyone, but there’s simply too many to name. They know who they are, and without them, the WPT wouldn’t have become what it is today.”
With Sexton moving on, Tony Dunst will join Vince Van Patten as a full-time commentator. Of course, Dunst had nothing but positive things to say about the man he is stepping in for.
“Mike Sexton set the standard for what it means to be an ambassador, and the positive impact he had on my career and the broader poker community cannot be overstated,' said Dunst. 'I’m honored to be taking his seat in the booth next to the legendary Vince Van Patten; and while I intend to bring my own style to the position, Mike will be a lasting inspiration for how I carry myself and treat people within poker. The success and popularity of the World Poker Tour are the result of the culture he created here.”
Like Sexton Dunst is also a WSOP bracelet winner and a WPT champion. His new role will officially start with the broadcast of the latest WPT Choctaw main event in August of this year. There has not yet been a replacement announced for Dunst’s role as the host of the ‘Raw Deal’ segment of WPT broadcasts.