Funny Tom McEvoy Story
Mcevoy has just come out with an autobiography and apparently he says some nasty stuff about us, and he repeats this ver
There is nothing about Mason in that article. Guess I would have to read the book to find out what McEvoy said about him. It sure looks a lot better than McEvoy's OMC strategy books from 30 or so years ago.
It should also be mentioned, according to McEvoy's first tournament book, How to Win at Poker Tournaments by Tom McEvoy with Roy West, that David Sklansky had 5 percent of him when he won the ME.
Also, according to this book, if I read it correctly, McEvoy only had 35 percent of himself. So instead of getting the $540,000 first place money, he took home $189,000. (Still a lot of money in 1983.)
It should also be mentioned, according to McEvoy's first tournament book, How to Win at Poker Tournaments by Tom McEvoy with Roy West, that David Sklansky had 5 percent of him when he won the ME.Also, according to this book, if I read it correctly, McEvoy only had 35 percent of himself. So instead of getting the $540,000 first place money, he took home $189,000. (Still a lot of
Yes, IÂ’ve read that, which confused me about the lawsuit. I thought Tom paid everybody off (and also got hit up for something ungodly like $30K by the deadbeats.)
Marty Sigel won the $2500 WSOP Stud twice, and seemed to be an old friend of Stu Ungar’s from NYC. Marty called him Stewballs and runnerup Annie Duke “Dukie”. This was 1996, and it’s indescribable how bad Stu looked that night. Beyond any miracle he won the ME a year later.
Vegas was still wild in 1983, but Marty obviously thought they had a deal to take it to court. Those transcripts and TomÂ’s book sound like must reads.
$189K still a lot of money today.
I read the book. He does portray you and David quite negatively and in my view unnecessarily. I empathize with him in his struggles with and rejection of working at a job in the business world. The book is definitely worth reading but does get a bit tedious. It is worth reading because it illustrates how being fast and loose with your bankroll can be utterly devastating. The lifestyle he describes is IMO a bit disturbing ymmv. He seems like a good guy though and does discuss his foibles
McEvoy is 81, which was older than I thought. But I guess that makes sense because his 1983 WSOP win was a long time ago, and he didn't look like a young man when it happened (because he was 38!)
I didn't understand his HOF induction. Never made sense to me. He had 4 bracelets, but all of them were 1992 or earlier, which was when the fields were far smaller than they were in the 21st century. He also wasn't known as a cash game crusher. He was a guy who got into poker in the early 80s, and is really only notable because he won the Main Event in 1983, when the field size was 108.
He was good at milking that win in the 2000s poker boom, and I actually give him a lot of credit for marketing himself. If someone described Tom McEvoy as a good old school player, I'd agree. If someone described him as a HOF caliber player, I would disagree.
Chad Holloway noted that some of what got him into the HOF was his successful campaign to remove smoking from poker rooms. That was definitely a positive contribution, but not really something which should help you into the HOF.
I believe he got in because the people who voted liked him. There's a lot of internal politics regarding who gets in, and it's not hard for voting blocs to basically make sure that any preferred candidate gets in.
He has seemed like a nice enough guy in my limited interactions with him.
The poker hall of fame is all politics
McEvoy was a grinder who satellited into the main event. He was just a very tight low-mid stakes grinder who got lucky. The books he and Cloutier wrote were beyond bad. He marketed his main event win.
I heard TJ just talked into a tape recorder while being interviewed mainly about the old days, and then Tom & Cardoza’s editor (Dana somebody?) put it all together in his ‘voice’. Some of those Tales From The Road were pretty darn good.
TJ’s obviously 4-5 coin flips away from winning the ME three times. Tom’s Mob page shows 42 wins, including a few pretty solid ones for that era in addition to the four dearly departed bracelets.
He was very personable and his friendship with Linda Johnson certainly helped his visibility during the boom.
I actually knew the attorney quite well who prosecuted this case against McEvoy. The way I understood it, a poker player named Marty (perhaps Marti) Siegel claimed that he had a piece of McEvoy when he won the main event. (My understanding of this is that this claim was debatable.) I also understood that the lower court ruled that it was a gambling debt and gambling debts were
He writes about this case at length in his book.
Like other HOFs in reality. Politics are involved in MLB, NFL for sure. If you don’t curry favor with sports media you aren’t getting in. Not that familiar with poker HOF but seemingly poker players elect other poker players. That is not the case in the MLB and NFL.
Don’t care about who or isn’t in any HOF tbh.
McEvoy does indicate in his book that his campaigning to get him in probably got him in.
I heard TJ just talked into a tape recorder while being interviewed mainly about the old days, and then Tom & Cardoza's editor (Dana somebody) put it all together in his 'voice'. Some of those Tales From The Road were pretty darn good.TJ's obviously 4-5 coin flips away from winning the ME three times. Tom's Mob page shows 42 wins, including a few pretty solid ones for that era
He played a lot of tournament poker when tournaments were in their infancy. He writes about this in his book. Remember no mass media or internet back then. My impression was that he caught on to tournament strategy and it was lucrative for him. Fields were much smaller too.
FWIW this book and Sklandky’s book on his early days in Vegas are well worth reading to get a perspective on where Vegas is today and how it got there. Vegas in the late 70’s, early 80’s was a place where Opportunities abounded if you were astute. Casinos got a lot smarter as a result. Just my take.
McEvoy is 81, which was older than I thought. But I guess that makes sense because his 1983 WSOP win was a long time ago, and he didn't look like a young man when it happened (because he was 38!)I didn't understand his HOF induction. Never made sense to me. He had 4 bracelets, but all of them were 1992 or earlier, which was when the fields were far smaller than they were in
He was even better at milking that win in the immediate years following the 1983 win. I lived in Vegas during that time and believe me the Michigan native McEvoy and his adopted cowboy hat were everywhere during those years. I would say he was the main face of poker (even more than Doyle and Johnny Chan) in those years. Yes, Chan was a better player, but McEvoy was more visible with the many magazine articles and books he wrote. I also saw him playing at several poker rooms around town during those years. He would bring a briefcase to the table that had the books he wrote. I assume he had them in the briefcase in an attempt to sell them at the table. Yes he was really good at milking that win to the max.
McEvoy is 81, which was older than I thought. But I guess that makes sense because his 1983 WSOP win was a long time ago, and he didn't look like a young man when it happened (because he was 38!)I didn't understand his HOF induction. Never made sense to me. He had 4 bracelets, but all of them were 1992 or earlier, which was when the fields were far smaller than they were in
Tom McEvoy is to poker like what Derrike Cope is to Nascar.
He played a lot of tournament poker when tournaments were in their infancy. He writes about this in his book. Remember no mass media or internet back then. My impression was that he caught on to tournament strategy and it was lucrative for him. Fields were much smaller too.FWIW this book and Sklandky’s book on his early days in Vegas are well worth reading to get a perspective
Which Sklanksy book? I love reading about stuff like this.
DUCY
GEEKING GRIFTING and GAMBLING THROUGH LAS VEGAS
In the Grifters book, the parlay card coup is incredible. Very fun reading at least for me.
I heard TJ just talked into a tape recorder while being interviewed mainly about the old days, and then Tom & Cardoza’s editor (Dana Smith) put it all together in his ‘voice’. Some of those Tales From The Road were pretty darn good.TJ’s obviously 4-5 coin flips away from winning the ME three times. Tom’s Mob page shows 42 wins, including a few pretty solid ones for that era in
Had never heard of this one, only about $10, Christmas money, fuggit.
Spoiler
Doesn’t appear to be any more Tales From The Road, but TJ is absolutely correct when he says that if you’re heads up with a big lead against a much more experienced player—such as himself—and he calls the pf raise you made with 66, and then raises your cbet 2.5x on a T87r flop, and the difference between 1st & 2nd is $300K, you should fold.
Those Cloutier / McEvoy books were so awful. I will say Mason put out much better books. Those guys maybe couldn't make much money playing, so wrote books marketing themselves as world champions. Cloutier also used it to borrow money and not pay it back.
He has been a low/mid stakes tournament grinder in the 21st century. Like Chan and Greenstein became low/mid stakes limit holdem / mixed games grinders.
I love reading these posts from people who don’t know what they are talking about. Johnny Chan still plays in big PLO games (25/50/100) all the time in Houston and is still a winning player.
I love reading these posts from people who don't know what they are talking about. Johnny Chan still plays in big PLO games (25/50/100) all the time in Houston and is still a winning player.
I agree with this. I've heard, going all the way back to the 1980s that Chan was not a winning player in cash games. Yet, whenever I see him playing, it's always in a very big game. I highly doubt that if he didn't win he would still be playing large or been able to consistently play in large cash games all these years.
I was probably wrong about Chan. However, McEvoy was a grinder who satellited in and won the ME. Cloutier was known for making friends with people and getting them to lend the great player money for an entry fee or whatever.
The marketed themselves as ME champions. At that time, people who knew how to win NLHE tournaments probably didn't write books about it. There are similar problems now, but not as bad.
One of my favorite bits of advice from TJ was
"If you limp with Aces you don't go busted with Aces".
