Chip Reese
Encyclopedia
David Edward Reese 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.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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 held up against Andy Bloch
's in the final hand, on a board of . 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 . 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.
Reese's total live tournament winnings exceeded $3,500,000.
, 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.
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."
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. Reese purchased the house with winnings from sports betting
in baseball and from an investment in Jack Binion
's Tunica
casino
.
Reese's son Casey died in April 2009 of a drug overdose, about 16 months after Chip's death.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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 and gambler from Centerville
Centerville, Montgomery County, Ohio
* Centerville City School District, Montgomery County, Ohio* Mad River Road* State Route 48* State Route 725-External links:* *...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. He is widely regarded to have been the greatest cash game
Cash game
Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, usually with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit...
poker player who ever lived.
Early life
Reese suffered from rheumatic feverRheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that occurs following a Streptococcus pyogenes infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever. Believed to be caused by antibody cross-reactivity that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain, the illness typically develops two to three weeks after...
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
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and was on the debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
team, winning an Ohio State Championship and going to the National Finals.
He attended Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
after turning down an offer from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. At Dartmouth, he became a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity
Beta Theta Pi
Beta Theta Pi , often just called Beta, is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, where it is part of the Miami Triad which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi. It has over 138 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada...
, played freshman football briefly, participated in debate, and majored in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. 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
Contract bridge
Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
as well as many poker variants. He played bridge at the Grafton County Grange, one of his regular bridge partners was Jim Ryan
Jim Ryan
Jim Ryan may refer to:*Jim Ryan , former player for the Denver Broncos*Jim Ryan , president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd*Jim Ryan , former Welsh football player...
. 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
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
, but decided instead to play poker professionally after winning $60,000 in a tournament in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. By the time he would have started at Stanford, he had made $100,000. 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.
Poker career
Shortly afterwards, Reese collaborated on the seven-card studSeven-card stud
Seven-card stud is a variant of stud poker. Until the recent increase in popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was the most popular poker variant in home games across the United States, and in casinos in the eastern part of the country. Two to eight players is common, though eight may...
section for Doyle Brunson's Super/System
Super/System
Super/System is one of the first books about poker strategy. It was written and published in 1979 by Doyle Brunson, a professional poker player and multiple winner at the World Series of Poker.-History and title:...
, the best-selling 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...
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. He won the $1,000 Seven Card Stud Split event at the 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...
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
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
. In 1991, he became the youngest living player to be 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...
. By 2006, he was still playing poker and also betting on sports.
At the 2006 World Series of Poker
2006 World Series of Poker
The 2006 World Series of Poker began on June 25, 2006 with "satellite" events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29...
, Reese won the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, taking home the $1,716,000 first prize when his held up against Andy Bloch
Andy Bloch
Andrew Elliot Bloch is a professional poker player. He holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School.-Poker:...
's in the final hand, on a board of . 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
2005 World Series of Poker
The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15 marked the close of play, and the largest prize in sports and/or television history at the time was awarded to the...
Main Event lasted for 232 hands total.
As a tribute, the "David 'Chip' Reese Memorial Trophy" was inaugurated in 2008
2008 World Series of Poker
The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker . Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All events but the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas hold...
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 . Starting in 2010
2010 World Series of Poker
The 2010 World Series of Poker was the 41st annual World Series of Poker , held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 28 to July 17. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship that began on July 5...
, the trophy will be awarded to the winner of The Poker Player's Championship
The Poker Player's Championship
The Poker Player's Championship is a $50,000 buy-in event at the World Series of Poker . Added in 2010, it replaced the former $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship as the highest-stakes mixed games event. As of 2011, it is the highest-buy-in poker tournament featured at the WSOP...
, 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.
Reese's total live tournament winnings exceeded $3,500,000.
Death
Reese died on December 4, 2007, at his Las Vegas home. Some sources state that Reese died in his sleep from the effects of pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, while friends of Chip, including Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein is a professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his profit from tournament winnings to charities, primarily Children, Incorporated, earning him the nickname "the...
and 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...
, speculate that his death might have been related to an earlier gastric bypass which caused a blood clot.
Upon learning of Reese's death, 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...
stated, "He's certainly the best poker player that ever lived." World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack
Jeffrey Pollack
Pollack has been named to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal of "40 Under 40" and twice to The Sporting News 100. He has also won two Emmy Awards. Pollack is married, and resides in both Los Angeles and Las Vegas...
said upon his death that many consider Chip "the greatest cash-game
Ring game
Ring game may refer to:*Ring game , a general class of multi-player pocket billiards gambling games*Ring game, a.k.a. cash game, a poker game played with "real" chips and each player's own money at stake, as opposed to a poker tournament with a prize money pool...
player who ever lived, but he was also a World Series of Poker legend."
Reese's house on 9024 Players Club Dr, Las Vegas, NV was put up for sale on June 8, 2008 at a price of $5,699,500. Reese purchased the house with winnings from sports betting
Sports betting
Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome.-United States of America:Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl, sports betting is...
in baseball and from an investment in Jack Binion
Jack Binion
Jack Binion is an American casino operator. Jack is the son of casino magnate Benny Binion and worked for his father at Binion's Horseshoe, a casino and hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.- Biography :...
's Tunica
Tunica Resorts, Mississippi
Tunica Resorts is an unincorporated community located in northern Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, north of the county seat of Tunica. The community was originally named Robinsonville, but the name was changed in 2003. Locals still refer to the town by this name. The community is situated...
casino
Horseshoe Casino Tunica
The Horseshoe Casino Tunica is a casino resort located in Tunica Resorts, Mississippi. It was developed by Jack Binion, the son of Las Vegas gaming legend Benny Binion and named after his father's famous Binion's Horseshoe downtown gambling hall...
.
Reese's son Casey died in April 2009 of a drug overdose, about 16 months after Chip's death.
World Series of Poker bracelets
| Year | Tournament | Prize (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 1978 World Series of Poker The 1978 World Series of Poker was held in May 1978 at Binion's Horseshoe. and was the first WSOP that wasn't a winner-take-all prize.Instead the tournament had a progressive prize structure, as follows 50% for the Winner then 20% for second, 15% for third, 10% for fourth and 5% for fifth... |
$1,000 Seven-Card Stud Split | $19,200 |
| 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:... |
$5,000 Limit 7 Card Stud | $92,500 |
| 2006 2006 World Series of Poker The 2006 World Series of Poker began on June 25, 2006 with "satellite" events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29... |
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship | $1,784,640 |