Jack Straus was an American professional poker

Poker

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 player. He is best known for winning the poker world championship in 1982.

He is also known for winning that event after being down to one chip earlier in the tournament, which gave meaning to the well known poker phrase "a chip and a chair". In addition, Straus is known for successfully pulling off one of the best bluffs in the history of poker.

Poker career

Straus began playing in World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...

 events in the early 1970s. He finished in fourth place in the 1972 Main Event. He won his first bracelet in 1973 in the $3,000 Deuce to Seven Draw event and also finished in third place in the Main Event that year.

He won the 1982 World Series of Poker

1982 World Series of Poker

-Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 104 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Jack Straus beat Dewey Tomko to win. -Final table:-Other High Finishes:...

 main event, earning $520,000 and a second WSOP bracelet. His appearances at the final table of the main event in 1972, 1973, and 1982 put him in a small elite group players to have made the final table three or more times. (other players to have done this include other main event champions like Johnny Moss

Johnny Moss

Johnny Moss was a gambler and professional poker player. He was the first winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event, at the time a cash game event in which he was awarded the title by the vote of his peers in 1970, He also twice won the current tournament format of the WSOP Main Event in...

, Doyle Brunson

Doyle Brunson

Doyle F. Brunson is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.Brunson is the first player to...

, Stu Ungar

Stu Ungar

Stuart Errol "Stu" Ungar was a professional poker and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest Texas hold 'em and gin rummy player of all time....

, Johnny Chan

Johnny Chan (poker player)

Johnny Chan rather than his Chinese birth name. born in Guangzhou, China in 1957) is a Chinese American professional poker player. He has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, including 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker main events consecutively....

, and Dan Harrington

Dan Harrington

Dan Harrington is a professional poker player, best known for winning the main event world championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He has earned one World Poker Tour title, two WSOP bracelets, and over six million dollars in tournament cashes in his poker career...

)

1982 WSOP Main Event, "A Chip and a Chair"

Famously, Straus's 1982 win was a comeback after being down to a single $25 chip, supposedly the origin of the common tournament poker aphorism: "a chip and a chair." Although accounts vary, the most common story is that he pushed his chips into the pot, was called and lost the hand. Getting up, he discovered he had one chip left under a napkin on the table.

Because he didn't declare himself all-in, the tournament directors allowed him to continue playing. Modern lore says that this feat occurred at the final table, but the 2005 book All In, which documents the history of the WSOP, confirms that it occurred early in the second day, and did leave him with a $500 chip before his comeback.

The Bluff

Straus is credited with one of the most celebrated bluffs of all time. While playing in a high-stakes no limit Texas Hold'em cash game, Straus had won several large pots in a row and so decided that he would raise the next hand pre-flop with any two cards. When he looked down he found that he had been dealt 7-2 offsuit, the worst starting hand in Texas Hold'em, but, playing a 'rush', he raised anyway. Straus' raise was called by a single opponent and the flop came 7-3-3. This was a good flop for a 7-2, so Straus bet out. However his tight opponent made a large raise, indicating a likely overpair to the board.

Straus knew he was almost certainly behind, but he decided that he might be able to beat his opponent by representing trip threes, so he called the large raise.The turn was a 2, for a board of 7-3-3-2, which was no help to Straus with a better pair already on the board, but he made a huge bet anyway. This set his opponent thinking deeply. Straus knew that he was desperate to avoid a call, as his chances of drawing out to win on the river were very slim. After a few minutes, Straus offered his opponent a proposition. He told him that for $25, he could choose either one of Straus's hole cards and Straus would show it to him. The guy considered for a while, then tossed Straus $25 and chose a card. Straus showed him the deuce.

After another long pause, his opponent eventually figured that Straus would only make such an offer if both his hole-cards were deuces, therefore giving him a full house, deuces over threes. He reluctantly folded, and Jack Straus entered poker folklore as one of the most creative bluffers of all time. The bluff was depicted in the Stu Ungar biopic Stuey

High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story

High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story is a 2003 biopic focusing on the life of American professional poker and gin player Stu Ungar. Stuey is the film's alternate title. The film features cameos from several figures from the world of professional sports and poker, including Vince Van Patten, Andy Glazer...

; however, Straus is not a character in the film and the bluff is credited to another player.

Outside of poker

Straus was nicknamed "Tree-top" because he was 6'6"; he attended Texas A&M

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

. While it has been reported that he had played varsity basketball there, his name does not appear on the school's all-time list of basketball letter earners. Aside from his poker-playing, he was well known as a marksman, a big-game hunter, and an erudite wit.

Death and legacy

After his championship win, Straus continued to actively play poker until his death. In the years since, the legend of his comeback from one chip to win the main event has continued to grow. It is often cited as an example to all players in poker tournaments as a reason to continue to play and never give up until you have lost your last chip. "A chip and a chair" is the phrase referenced in this example of Straus' comeback and eventual win.

He died in August 1988 at the age of 58 while playing in a high stakes poker game at the Bicycle Casino

Bicycle Casino

The Bicycle Casino is the world's second largest poker cardroom.Founded by George Hardie Sr. in 1984, located in Bell Gardens, California, the Bicycle Casino offers a wide variety of poker games and limits, as well as pai gow poker, panguingue and California blackjack.Financing to build the casino...

 in Los Angeles. He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame

Poker Hall of Fame

The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker playing in the United States. Founded and located in Las Vegas, Nevada, it was created in 1979 by Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest poker players and to serve...

 later that year.

Straus' live poker tournament

Poker tournament

A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table , and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables...

 winnings exceeded $750,000. He has been described as the tallest Jewish poker professional.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Year	Tournament	Prize (US$)
1973 1973 World Series of Poker The 1973 World Series of Poker was held at Binion's Horseshoe. This year marked the first year a single player won more than one preliminary World Series of Poker event.-Preliminary events:-Final table:...	$3,000 Deuce to Seven Draw Draw poker Draw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing, or "drawing", cards....	$16,500
1982 1982 World Series of Poker -Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 104 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Jack Straus beat Dewey Tomko to win. -Final table:-Other High Finishes:...	$10,000 Championship Event - No Limit Hold'em Texas hold 'em Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...	$520,000