Longtime friend of Pokerati and poker pro Gregg Merkow took a rough beat early yesterday morning when fire engulfed two of his restaurants in Dallas. A four-alarm blaze destroyed The Hurricane Grill and the Greenville Bar & Grill, owned by Merkow, along with Mick\’s bar and Terilli\’s, the Italian restaurant where the fire reportedly started. It\’s one of the most historic blocks of Dallas nightlife on Greenville Avenue — and thus citizens are concerned about saving what they can of the buildings even after they burnt virtually to the ground.
Because we care about poker players, and due diligence, we\’d throw our friends under the bus in a second for a scandalous hedline + Google juice, we couldn\’t help but ask whether or not perhaps he\’d been running bad lately and this fire, started at a time when the structure was safely empty, might not have been a nefarious play for insurance dollars. Turns out that Merkow didn\’t even have insurance on these legendary properties that may or may not have helped launch a poker career.
While non-poker people in Dallas debate how that could be (and who should ultimately be responsible), one of the players in his regular 10/25/50 NLH/PLO game explained, \”It\’s Merkow. He\’s a gambler.\”
Our sympathy for his loss … sucks, dude.
