On Flyer
From the book: Missouri & Me

To this day I will, from time to time, run into an old Texan who, after I tell him I was from Lake Tahoe, will ask, “Say, do you know that old boy from Tahoe who used to play in a dress?”

Reno, Nevada
From the book: Missouri & Me

The Horseshoe Club Casino that once was in the heart of Reno, Nevada. It is now barely a footnote in Reno’s storied history.
It was a throwback in time. A time when people who traveled west by car across America were exposed to an endless number of roadside billboards that read Harold’s Club or Bust. A time when Harold’s Club, The Mapes, Jessie Beck’s Riverside were early destination resorts. All long gone now just like all the smaller gambling venues of The Biggest Little City in the World.

On the World Series of Poker
From the book; Missouri & Me

Nothing I’ve ever been a part of could produce the stimulus or match the intensity and the grandeur of Las Vegas and playing at the annual World Series of Poker.
Each year for nearly a decade, it was the most anticipated activity in my life. It bolstered my confidence and defined, for me, where I fit amongst the larger community of poker players. And, I had a hell of a lot of fun.

On getting busted in a major tournament
From the book: Missouri & Me

Then suddenly you get busted. You have to stand up and leave but your legs are weak. Standing becomes difficult, and, as you walk away, you look back and your game is still being played, only you are no longer part of it. It’s over for you and no one misses you. Your adrenalin still flows through your body; you feel dazed, you feel lost and you feel alone. You may feel you got very unlucky; you may feel anger. You may think, “If only?” And all those players you have battled with, stared at, studied, looked for clues that might betray their blank poker faces; all those players whose heads you have entered for so many long hours: they are still in the game and you are now merely a spectator. A spectator if you can bear to watch at all.

On the Grateful Dead
From the book Missouri & Me

Grateful Dead shows were a gathering of like-minded people. They were a big party. People would trip about and shake their bones to the music with thousands of their best friends, most of whom they’d never met. Each show was a joyful celebration and various psychedelic drugs were, for many or most, a big part of that celebration; Frodo and I were eager partakers. He and I often traveled to shows together and Frodo had just joined us at the bar.

On Lake Tahoe
From the book: Missouri & Me

About 50 miles over the mountain from Reno was Lake Tahoe, known as the Jewel of the Sierra Nevada.
Mark Twain said of Lake Tahoe,
“The water is clearer than air, and the air is the air angels breathe”.

On new online players integrating into live poker games:
From the book:Missouri & Me

Because the less skilled online players had been weeded out when the economy contracted, these new guys were the cream of the online crop. They approached the game differently. Many played awfully damn well.

From A Road Trip To Montana
From the book Missouri & Me

Mostly, what I took away from that journey was the knowledge I could travel, see new places, meet new people and pay my way playing poker. That road trip in 1978 opened up a new dimension in my life.

It also taught me to never play poker against a guy called Giuseppe, who played out of the rack and dealt the cards.

From W.C. Fields in the movie Tillie and Gus
From the book: Missouri & Me

“Your honor, we were having a friendly game of poker…yes we were… and I don’t mind a man having four Aces when I have four kings… no, no I don’t. But, I do mind when it happens when I dealt and I knew what I dealt him.”

About Johnny Moss
From the book: Missouri & Me

I remember drawing the same tournament table as Johnny Moss, then a living legend fondly known as ‘The Grand Old Man of Poker.” I sat across from poker royalty as we waited for the game to begin. Mr. Moss asked to see my antique pocket watch I had set on the table and as he admired my watch he shared the story of the pocket watch his father bequeathed him long before I was born.

Big Hand in the Big Game: The Call
From the book: Missouri & Me

It wasn’t the size of the pot that made this hand so significant; for in the ensuing years there would be countless pots that would dwarf this one. No, from my lens, the $26,000 then sitting in front of Dave afforded him an important cushion, which would allow him to maneuver and take control of the game like only a focused, non-drinking Missouri Dave could. Furthermore, he had momentum, a momentum that from the moment Tom’s hand hit the muck, Missouri Dave rode to become an unstoppable force in the future of The Big Game, a game that was destined to become much, much bigger.

From Missouri & Me, the Book:
Who were some of the ‘old school’ players…

You would play with Cajuns from Louisiana whose accents were so thick you’d require an interpreter, the very best players from New York City, Texans who’d spit their chew into coke bottles, the hustlers from everywhere, the cowboys, the grinders, the romantics, the rounders, the road gamblers and all the great legends and folk heroes of the game.

On Cocaine
From the book: Missouri & Me

Cocaine, for the most part, had a devastating effect on the poker economy. An untold amount of money was withdrawn from that economy, one gram at a time.