Jerry Buss

Having chopped up two satellites, I play one more smaller one, a desultory affair for which I lack the necessary heart and drive. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and a frequent poker fixture, is at the table. He’s in a great mood, since the Lakers beat the Celtics in game 7 yesterday. Jerry is a slightly sleazy but ultimately benign 75-year-old much loved by the poker community for his sloppy play and courtside tickets to the Lakers games. Jerry frequently shows up with ridiculously exotic ethnic escorts he invariably introduces as his “nieces.” Fifteen years ago I was playing in a tournament at the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles when a man had a heart attack or food poisoning (we never learned which) and had to be carried out on a stretcher. Except for the table in question, the tournament continued with no interruption and without much discussion. Five minutes later Jerry’s two escorts arrived and the entire room stood up and cheered for three minutes. Ah, poker players, such a classy bunch.