Benny's Rogues Gallery

People who pass through Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas these days do it out of a sense of curosity more than a desire to gamble.

There isn't really very much at the Horseshoe to attract the average player. It isn't luxurious. It doesn't really have any glamour.

The building is ancient and if truth were told, probably falling apart in some places.

Some of the employees who worked for Benny, Jack and Teddy Binion are still around, hanging onto their jobs. Barely.

Once the Horseshoe was robust, teeming with life. Bigger than life actually. That was when Benny was alive.

In his famous sheepskin coat, wearing a tan Stetson and leather boots, with that familiar grin and ready handshake, Benny Binion could make anybody feel comfortable.

He'd buy a stranger a meal. Give him a discount or free room. Even hand him enough gas money to get him back to Phoenix or Albuquerque or wherever he had to go provided the stranger lost his money gambling at the Horseshoe.

I recently spent a long weekend in Las Vegas. After reserving a room at the Golden Nugget across Fremont Street from the Horseshoe, I visited the casino Benny built, partly for old time's sake, and partly because I wanted to see what remained of the joint.

After passing by the slot machines and dice tables near the street, I headed back to the poker room. Only one game was being spread. It was $3-6 limit Hold'em, not one of my favorite games.

An eager young floor man hurried up to me and asked if would like to sign up to play.

'Not really,' I said. 'Just looking. Benny was a friend of mine. Jack, too.'

The young man nodded. 'I never met them,' he confessed. 'I just started here three months ago.' He walked back to the table.

One table. Three-six limit. Poor Benny, I thought. He must be turning over on his cloud.

I left the poker room and wandered over to the horse room and sports bet. Two employees watched me expectantly. I wanted to give them a little action so I took an impossible bet the the Arizona Diamondbacks would win the 2015 World Series.

The younger man whistled. 'Woe! You like them that much? The odds are 100 to 1.'

'Not really,' said, handing him a $10. ' I just like the odds. It'll be a topic of conversation back in Phoenix.'

My next stop was the Poker Hall of Fame. Although Harrah's Entertainment now owns the rights to the Hall of Fame along with the World Series of Poker, Benny started it up in 1949 after a well publicized heads-up poker match between Johnny Moss and Nick 'The Greek' Dandalos.

Moss won the match and the two of them became the first two players named to the Hall of Fame, which contains 46 photos and names.

As I read the names, I saw photos of players I had known in the flesh. It seemed strange, almost eerie, standing there. You could almost feel the presence of some of them still in the old poker room.

One portrait stood out in the Poker Hall of Fame that didn't seem to belong there. James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok was one of three poker players who died playing poker with their boots on -- the others being Tom Abdo and Jack 'Treetop' Straus whom I once had met at a tournament in southern California.

Hickok was a farm boy who grew up in Illinois. He lived a robust colorful life as a sheriff, town marshal and United States Marshal. According to western lore, he was also a gambler and a cold-blooded killer who once in a frenzy shot his own deputy to death.

Wild Bill died in Deadwood, SD while playing poker when he was shot in the back. He collapsed in a pool of blood from a head shot holding aces and eights -- the famous 'Dead Man's Hand.'

Unlike the other members of the Hall of Fame, Hickok never played poker against anybody famous. But Benny, who always enjoyed having the last laugh, put him on the honor roll just the same. And why not? Benny and his lifelong friend Johnny Moss were outlaws, and birds of a feather stick together.

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter. If you have a unique gambling story to share with him, you may qualify for a cash award. Send your story with all the details to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).