Celebrities
Famous names who found their way to the tables, and what their stories say about the game.
28 entries. Latest shelved 14 Sep 2026.
- BC·P445
Phil Ivey vs Crockfords: The 7.7M Pound Baccarat Case
September 2012. A world-class poker player walked into a high-limit baccarat room in London with a specific advantage. What followed was the most contentious legal battle in modern casino history.
By Play Trump Casino Reading Room
- BW·B439
The Biggest Sports Betting Wins in Recorded History
From the $600M Mega Millions of parlay cards to the Serbian bettor who turned $100 into $440K on a single Premier League weekend: the people who beat impossible odds and what they bought with the money.
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- BJ·M683
21: The Movie vs the True MIT Blackjack Team Story
In 2008, Hollywood released 21, a film loosely inspired by the MIT card-counting team of the 1980s. The movie was faster, sexier, more dramatic. Reality, as usual, was slower and stranger. The two stories could not be more different.
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- BJ·P767
How Prohibition Fueled the Rise of Illegal Casinos in America
During Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933), alcohol was illegal. But people still wanted to drink. They bought from speakeasies. The same logic applied to gambling: it was illegal, people wanted it, illegal casinos thrived. The mechanism deserves examination.
By Play Trump Casino Reading Room
- CL·A754
Atlantic City's Boardwalk Empire: From Resort to Gambling Mecca
Atlantic City isn't a gambling town that forgot it was a beach resort. It's a beach resort that went for the Hail Mary in 1978 and caught the ball in double coverage. Here's the tape.
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- CL·C652
Common Biases That Hurt Sports Bettors
There was a certain kind of gentleman, circa 1994, who could be found in the cigar bar at the Mirage explaining at great length why the Seahawks were a lock, and one suspects he is still out there, still losing, and still attributing it to bad luck rather than bad wiring.
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- BW·B793
Bryn Kenney: Inside the All-Time Poker Money Leader
Bryn Kenney. The name carries weight in rooms where real money sits on felt. A kid from New York with an instinct for blood in the water. By 2024, he had moved more chips than anyone alive.
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- CL·B271
Barry Greenstein: The Robin Hood of Poker and His Donations
Barry Greenstein's career, spanning computer engineering at Symantec in the 1980s and a subsequent professional poker practice at the highest stakes, invites reexamination not for the conventional reasons of tournament results or cash-game legend, but for the philanthropic model he constructed around his winnings.
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- CL·B277
Barry Greenstein: The Robin Hood of Poker and His Donations
Barry Greenstein made $30 million at poker. He gave most of it away to fight childhood disease and poverty. Here's how one professional gambler became a philanthropist.
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- BW·I749
Isildur1 vs the Online Poker Elite: Viktor Blom's Rise
Viktor Blom played online poker under the handle Isildur1. He was young, aggressive, and fearless. In 2009-2010, he won and lost tens of millions of dollars in high-stakes games. His story is a case study in youth, talent, and the limits of both.
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- BW·P652
What Is a Poker Rakeback?
Rakeback is money the sportsbook gives back to players. The first time most poker players hear about it, they've already lost thousands without it.
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- BW·C961
Cynthia Jay-Brennan: The Tragic Story Behind a $35M Slot Win
In 2000, Cynthia Jay-Brennan won $34.9 million at a Las Vegas slot machine. Four years later, she was dead.
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- CL·H685
Howard Hughes' Bizarre Takeover of the Desert Inn and Vegas
On the night of November 27, 1966, Howard Hughes checked into the ninth floor of the Desert Inn and did not leave his room for four years. What followed rewrote the ownership of the Las Vegas Strip. The story is stranger than the telling.
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