Poker Champs Hold ‘Em and Fold ‘Em

The game was poker, and the banter was as colorful as a Vegas showgirl’s makeup case.

“I’d like to put a rattlesnake in his pocket and ask him for a match,” snarled “Amarillo Slim” Preston as he peered at an opponent across the green felt table.

Despite the tough talk, Preston, 73, found himself out of chips about 90 minutes into what was billed as the first World Champions of Poker Tournament.

Thirteen of the world’s best poker players--all past winners of the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas--gathered Monday at the Bicycle Club card casino in Bell Gardens.

They were there for a little game of Texas Hold ‘Em, winner’s take--$10,000. But there was something else at stake, too.

“This is more than about money. It’s about bragging rights and who is best,” said George Hardie, managing partner of the Bicycle Club, which staked each of the players $10,000 for the competition.

When the 3 1/2-hour game was over, the best turned out to be Johnny “Oriental Express” Chan, 34, of Cerritos, who won the World Series in Las Vegas in 1987 and 1988.

Other contenders included 84-year-old Johnny Moss, who said he learned to cheat at gambling when he was a 10-year-old paperboy in Dallas and has not held a straight job since. Moss has won the poker World Series three times--without cheating, he said.

At the opposite end of the age spectrum was boy wonder Phil Hellmuth, 27, who did not even learn to play poker until he was 20. He was the only player wearing a business suit at the contest. He also was the only one wearing braces on his teeth.

Hardie said Monday marked the first time that so many World Series poker champs have played together in the same place at the same time. The Bicycle Club, which bills itself as the largest of its kind in the world, is now part-owned by the U.S. government as part of the settlement of a criminal case against some its investors.

One contestant, the suspender-wearing Brian “Sailor” Roberts, said he had to disagree with Hardie’s assessment that most players were there for a bragging-rights contest.

“Maybe some of ‘em is here for ego,” Roberts said. “But $10,000 is a lot of money, don’t you think?”