November Nine Tip: Bet on the Jews

by , Oct 30, 2009 | 10:54 pm

poker yarmulke

Still up for grabs: the vaunted poker yarmulke awarded to Last Jew Standing.

Here’s a storyline that ESPN somehow missed/didn’t feed us on the media-prep conference call … It’s a very Jewish WSOP main event final table.

The Jewish Daily Forward points out what may or may not be a statistical anomaly: Four of the November Nine — Jeff Shulman, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and Kevin Schaffel — happen to speak Hebrew, at least during family holidays.

From a stack perspective, these Jewish players control 49.6 percent of all the chips in play. How stereotypical …

The J-article also offers a rich history of Jews in the game … from Jack Strauss to Jamie Gold … and most recently Barry Shulman’s Yom Kippur victory at WSOP-E. Back in the day, of course, the World Series was all about Jews vs. Texans, but Texans have been sucking it up in recent years now the game has a more widespread international appeal that has prevented any one region from owning pwning it.

Full Disclosure: I used to make an annual pilgrimage to a Dallas synagogue in an effort to bring people with money to the Lodge convert non-gentiles to the poker way. So yeah …

ALT HED: נובמבר תשע עצה: בית על היהודים


3 Comments to “November Nine Tip: Bet on the Jews”


  1. Andrew
    says:

    Dan – remind me to play something for you when I see you in person next week. You’ll love it.


  2. DanM
    says:

    Andrew – tell me now. Just whisper it in my ear. I won’t tell anyone promise.


  3. bill driscoll
    says:

    beglieter also punched a player, jews dont like to lose money.