Man Down :(

Pat Johnson, one of the most lovable cranky old bastards you might ever sit across from at a table, died last week at age 63 — after a motorcycle accident in Alabama. I don\’t know many details about his death, but a lot of Dallas players know a few things about how he lived the last few years of his life …

Pat was a widower in declining health, and there was something charming about the way this semi-retired accountant chose to enjoy his senior singlehood — surrounded by attractive young women, playing amateur and low-stakes poker, riding his Harley, and (shamelessly) wearing a t-shirt that said \”Grandpa Gone Wild.\”

Pat was one of the very first Lodge Amateur Poker players (and later a founding member of the Rounder Club). He wasn\’t all that good, frankly, but he was at the game(s) every week, yukking it up while drinking non-alcoholic beer, making the other players laugh. Though he liked to tell the occasional bad dirty joke, he wasn\’t at the Lodge to grope dancers … on the contrary, he was more likely to be helping them do their taxes. I remember changing the Lodge poker point system specifically with Pat in mind. We wanted to make sure that players who hardly ever missed a game would be able to play for the big prizes, even if they never made a final table. Funny thing is … during that off-season his skills significantly improved and he surprised many by making four final tables in a six-week span — plenty good to make it into the Tournament of Champions even had we not changed what it took to qualify.

NOTE: One thing I found a little shocking and sad … for all the hundreds of pictures I have from nights where he was out partying or pokering or both, I don\’t have any of Pat. If anyone out there does have a picture of him, please send it to me, as I would love to include it with this post.

Services will be held this weekend at Bluebonnet Hills Funeral Home in Colleyville. A memorial takes place Friday morning at 10 am.