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Poker legend TJ Cloutier shares tales from the poker trail.
Winning the WSOP Championship is terrific, but getting chosen for the Hall of Fame is still the most prestigious honor you can be awarded in the world of poker. The ceremony the Rio held when I was inducted two years ago was impressive, and I felt like a million bucks when I stood up to give my acceptance speech. This year, two deserving friends of mine are joining me-Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein. They will be inducted this coming Sunday, November 9, at the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas. ESPN is even going to show parts of the ceremony on November 11 during its telecast of the final table play at the 2008 Main Event.
Dewey Tomko is being inducted for what he has accomplished in poker and for what he has meant to poker over the years. He's been playing fantastic poker ever since I can remember, and has always been one of the top players in the world. He's won three WSOP bracelets, and has been the runner-up twice in the Main Event. In 2001 when he came second to Carlos Mortensen, Dewey held the best hand before the flop, pocket aces, in the final hand. He was up against Carlos' K-Q suited, but had to settle for second when Carlos made a straight on the river.
In fact, Dewey has played in the championship tournament for 35 consecutive years, the longest record of anybody. He's also played as high as anybody wanted in the cash games. But the main thing is that Dewey has done it all with style, and a whole lot of class.
I've mentioned before that Dewey is a scratch golfer, as well as being one of the biggest gamblers on the greens. Several years ago he developed Southern Dunes golf course near Winter Haven, Florida, in partnership with Jack Binion and Doyle Brunson, and eventually sold it. Dewey also partnered with Hilbert Shirey in several poker endeavors, including the Horseshoe Casino in Costa Rica.
Henry Orenstein probably made the biggest contribution to poker that has ever happened: He invented the Hole Card Cam. Being able to see the players' hole cards made the whole game worth watching on TV. The cams brought in thousands of new players who could actually enjoy following the action instead of watching paint dry or the grass grow like you had to do in the old days when you watched a poker tournament.
A lot of people may not realize, too, that Henry survived the Holocaust and went on to become an inventor. He holds more than 100 patents, but the most important one to poker fans is number 5,452,054, which gave him the right to "detect and display" players' hole cards in poker games. He also has patents for Sesame Street and Snoopy toys.
Henry loves to gamble, and he's an excellent seven-card stud player. In 1995, he placed 8th in the Main Event and the next year, he won a bracelet in seven-card stud. Henry founded the first Super Stars of Poker television show, and got Mori Eskandani to manage the show. Since that time, Mori has branched off into Poker After Dark and the Heads Up Championship on NBC, as well as High Stakes Poker.
As well as playing top-notch poker over the years, both Henry and Dewey have been involved in poker business endeavors that have brought poker forward into the public view and helped advance it to the high level of participation we all enjoy today. My congratulations go out to these two fine men, who are joining me and the other members of the Poker Hall of Fame.
Now I'm flying east to Foxwoods Casino, where I'll play in the $5K and $10K no-limit tournaments. I'll let you know next week how things turn out. Till then this is TJ signing off to the world from about 30,000 feet above Texas.
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