Comments on: Rumorati: Bill Smith Legal Skirmish over Banner Image?

By: Johnny Hughes

Johnny Hughes — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:11:14 +0000

Bill Smith was a close friend, and one of my earliest poker mentors. He was the best player possible, without books, etc. We both could beat all the games, except the Odessa game with Johnny Moss. I wrote a long article about him on 2 plus 2. His cousin is cop in New Mexico. He wrote me. Bill was from Roswell, New Mexico. He lived in Lubbock a long time because this was a poker center. He was at three final tables.

Bill was a bad drunk after a while. It ruined his game. He didn’t like T.J., and warned folks not to loan T.J. shit. They ended up heads up in the main event, and Bill won, saying loudly, “The man couldn’t beat two threes!” They had been rivals around Dallas. Bill played a lot of stake money. The Mule had him staked in the main event. The Las Vegas laws said someone was asking questions and said he was Bill’s nephew. They chartered a jet and flew to Lubbock with the $700,000 in a paper sack. Bill was broke in a few months. The Mule had his for life. Being West Texans, they didn’t pay any taxes because Uncle Sam never paid anything when they lost.

JohnnyHughes.com

By: Card Chucker

Card Chucker — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:36:28 +0000

It might be a newspaper scan but the resolution is better than yours (har har)

By: DanM

DanM — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:05:24 +0000

C’mon, CC, CardPlayer certainly wouldn’t play hardball on that. (they’re not evil!) Even I can tell that’s a newspaper scan that definitely wouldn’t blow up a gajillion percent well.

By: DanM

DanM — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:03:32 +0000

Well we got that part right — about the estate thing — Carolyn! But thanks for setting us straight on his final years.

Do you by chance have his wife’s phone number? (You don’t have to give it out publicly, of course.)

By: Card Chucker

Card Chucker — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:03:07 +0000

Am I to assume that they can’t use the cardplayer image? http://media.cardplayer.com/image/w/wsop_champs_smith.jpg

By: C Wolford

C Wolford — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:57:20 +0000

Good Grief, this is an urban legend, right???? the estate???? of Bill????? Bill did not spend his last years playing in Tx, he was in Vegas. I know of several nice pictures of Bill, but there has to be more to this….. He certainly didn’t have any estate lawyers, wonder why they haven’t contacted his wife?

By: Poker Shrink

Poker Shrink — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:47:45 +0000

There is a very good hi-res photo of Mr. Smith hanging on a wall down at Binion’s.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:57:45 +0000

only on CSI or other related tv shows/movies.

By: DanM

DanM — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:47:41 +0000

hey, they just said they wanted ANY picture. i figure there’s gotta be some fancy laser computer equipment that can repixelate for a not-too-distorted high-res image.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:44:05 +0000

Dan will NEVER understand how images work. He usually wants to take a 10px by 10px icon and turn it into the Mona Lisa.

By: DanM

DanM — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:23:03 +0000

He really does look like what you’d expect a poker champion circa 1985 to look like.

By: DanM

DanM — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:17:54 +0000

Crap. I had big plans for those food coupons!

By: Seth

Seth — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:16:11 +0000

Ummm, we need one that can blow up to banner size…meaning high res! Mathers, get ready for the Greek Anthem in a few minutes. We got it from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, so we know it’s ahhh, forget it!

By: Kevin Mathers

Kevin Mathers — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:09:22 +0000

Are you sure that's him? Remember Harrah's used the Internet to find the Finnish national anthem, and you know how well that turned out.