David "Chip" Reese was regarded by many as the best all-round poker player at work. He won three World Series of Poker bracelets, though he played in fewer tournaments than most professionals, preferring high-stakes money games, often for seven-figure sums. Reese's best-known win was in the 2006 World
Series Horse Event, so-called because it involves playing Hold 'em, Omaha, Razz, Seven card stud and Eight or better Hi-Lo stud in turn. The game lasted for three days and brought Reese US$1.78 million ($2.30 million), when his ace of spades, queen of spades held up against Andy Bloch's nine of spades, eight of spades, on a board of jack of spades, seven of clubs, seven of spades, four of hearts, four of clubs.
It had been a tightly fought contest, during the course of which Bloch put Reese all-in on no fewer than four occasions, during 286 hands of heads-up play. When he won, Reese announced his intention to celebrate by sleeping.
Jack Binion, Las Vegas casino owner and founder of the World Series, described Reese as the premier poker player in the world and Doyle Texas Dolly Brunson, who commissioned Reese to write the stud section of his poker manual Super System, and who was his partner in a number of ludicrous (and mostly disastrous) business ventures, extravagantly hailed him as certainly the best poker player who ever lived.
Given his command of every variant of the game, that verdict had some merit. In 1991, when he was 40, Reese became the youngest player to be admitted to the Poker Hall of Fame. He won his first World Series bracelet for Seven card stud split in 1978 and another in the Limit seven card stud game four years later.
"I didn't even play in the World Series for 10 years," he said. "Had I known that the bracelets were going to become so important, I would have played in a lot more tournaments."
