Chip Reese dies at age 56
Poker legend David “Chip” Reese died this week at the age of 56. While he wasn’t as well known as players like Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu he was one of, if not the most, respected players in the game. He purposely shunned the spotlight, prefering to focus on cash games instead of tournaments. He was a frequent player in the “Big Game”, a semi-regular high stakes cash game played by the biggest names in poker, usually at the Bellagio. To have poker giants like Doyle Brunson & Barry Greenstein to say you were the best ever, well, you gotta believe it. He was also the youngest inductee in the Poker Hall of fame.
His shining moment was his winning the $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament in the 2006 WSOP.
A little background about that. In 2006, several of the top pros suggested another tournament. With the WSOP having been flooded with all the new internet players, they wanted something that appealed to the pros a little more. What was different was 2 things:
1. A much larger buy-in than the $10,000 that the Main Event has.
2. It’s a mixed game. Most of the poker boom has focused strictly on Texas hold ‘em and other games such as Stud & Omaha have falled out of favor. In HORSE the games are Hold’em, Omaha 8 or better, Razz, seven card Stud & seven card Stud 8 or better. The games are rotated every few hands.
Chip’s winning of this prestigious tournament was just icing on the cake of his reputation. It was also the longest heads-up match in WSOP history, clocking in at over 7 hours!
Reports said he had gone to the hospital that night and was sent home. He died in his sleep. It’s a huge loss to the poker world & my condolences to his family & friends.