Chip Reese

Chip Reese
Chip Reese at the 2005 World Series of Poker
Nickname(s)	Chip
Hometown	Las Vegas, Nevada
Born	March 28, 1951(1951-03-28)
Died	December 4, 2007(2007-12-04) (aged 56)
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	3
Money finishes	21
Highest ITM Main Event finish	23rd, 1989
World Poker Tour
Titles	None
Final tables	1
Money finishes	5

David Edward Reese (March 28, 1951 – December 4, 2007), more commonly known as Chip Reese, was an American professional poker player and gambler from Centerville, Ohio. He is widely regarded to have been the greatest cash game poker player who ever lived.^[1][2][3]

[edit] Early life

Reese suffered from rheumatic fever during his elementary years at school and had to stay at home for almost a year. During this time, his mother taught him how to play several board and card games. Reese later described himself as "a product of that year." By the age of six, he was regularly beating fifth-graders at poker. In high school he was a football player and was on the debate team, winning an Ohio State Championship and going to the National Finals.^[4]

He attended Dartmouth College after turning down an offer from Harvard University. At Dartmouth, he became a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, played freshman football briefly, participated in debate, and majored in economics. He also had tremendous success in poker games against students and some of his professors. He taught his fraternity brothers to play a variety of card games, including bridge as well as many poker variants. He played bridge at the Grafton County Grange, one of his regular bridge partners was Jim Ryan. His fraternity later named their chapter card room, the "David E. Reese Memorial Card Room" in his honor. He was admitted to Stanford Law School, but decided instead to play poker professionally after winning $60,000 in a tournament in Las Vegas. By the time he would have started at Stanford, he had made $100,000.^[5] His first visit to Las Vegas was so financially rewarding and so much fun, that he literally never left. He called his day job in Arizona several days later to quit and hired someone to fly to Arizona to clean out his apartment and drive his car to Las Vegas. Dan Robison, one of Reese's poker friends from Ohio often played with Reese after he moved to Las Vegas in the 1970s. He concentrated on cash games much like Reese did, and Robison also won a WSOP bracelet in a seven card stud event, like his friend Chip.

[edit] Poker career

Shortly afterwards, Reese collaborated on the seven-card stud section for Doyle Brunson's Super/System, the best-selling poker book of all time. In it, Brunson describes Reese as "one of the two finest young ... poker players in the world" and the best seven-card stud player he had ever played.^[6] He won the $1,000 Seven Card Stud Split event at the World Series of Poker in 1978, and the $5,000 Seven Card Stud tournament there in 1982. His tournament results may seem modest, but he had decided to concentrate his efforts on cash games instead. He later became the card room manager at the Dunes casino. In 1991, he became the youngest living player to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. By 2006, he was still playing poker and also betting on sports.^[7]

At the 2006 World Series of Poker, Reese won the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, taking home the $1,716,000 first prize when his A♣ Q♣ held up against Andy Bloch's 9♣ 8♠ in the final hand, on a board of J♠ 7♣ 7♠ 4♥ 4♠. This event was notable for having the largest buy-in in WSOP history, as well as the longest heads-up battle with Reese and Bloch playing for 7 hours and 286 hands. By comparison, the final table of the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event lasted for 232 hands total.

As a tribute, the "David 'Chip' Reese Memorial Trophy" was inaugurated in 2008 as an additional prize for the winner of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker. The trophy depicts his winning hand of A♣ 7♣ 7♠ 4♥ 4♠.^[8] Starting in 2010, the trophy will be awarded to the winner of The Poker Player's Championship, the replacement of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. It will have the same $50,000 buy-in, but will add no-limit hold 'em, pot-limit Omaha, and limit 2–7 triple draw to the five H.O.R.S.E. games, and end with a no-limit hold'em final table.^[9][10]

Reese's total live tournament winnings exceeded $3,500,000.^[11]

[edit] Death

Wikinews has related news: American poker player Chip Reese dies at age 56

Reese died on December 4, 2007, at his Las Vegas home. Some sources state that Reese died in his sleep from the effects of pneumonia,^[12][13] while friends of Chip, including Barry Greenstein and Doyle Brunson, speculate that his death might have been related to an earlier gastric bypass which caused a blood clot.^[14]

Upon learning of Reese's death, Doyle Brunson stated, "He's certainly the best poker player that ever lived." World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said upon his death that many consider Chip "the greatest cash-game player who ever lived, but he was also a World Series of Poker legend."^[15]

Reese's house on 9024 Players Club Dr, Las Vegas, NV was put up for sale on June 8, 2008 at a price of $5,699,500.^[16] Reese purchased the house with winnings from sports betting in baseball and from an investment in Jack Binion's Tunica casino.^[17]

Reese's son Casey died in April 2009 of a drug overdose, about 16 months after Chip's death.^[18]

[edit] World Series of Poker bracelets

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Barry Greenstein's player analysis of Reese
• World Poker Tour profile
• PokerListings.com interview
• Obituary in The Times, 10 December 2007