Poker Tournament: Poker Player David Sklansky

Biography of Poker Player David Sklansky

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David Sklansky (born 1947, in Teaneck, New Jersey) is a professional poker player and author.

Sklansky is generally considered a top authority on gambling. He has written many books on poker, blackjack, and general gambling. His book, the Theory of Poker, is considered to be a quintessential poker primer.

Sklansky has won three World Series of Poker bracelets, two in 1982 ($800 Mixed Doubles, and $1000 Draw Hi) and one in 1983 ($1000 Limit Omaha Hi). He also won the Poker By The Book invitational event on the 2004 World Poker Tour, outlasting Phil Hellmuth Jr, Mike Caro, T. J. Cloutier, and Mike Sexton, and then finally overcoming Doyle Brunson.

Sklansky attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania for a year before leaving to become a professional gambler. He briefly took on a job as an actuary before embarking into poker. While on the job he discovered a faster way to do some of the calculations and took that discovery to his boss. The boss told him he could go ahead and do it that way if he wanted but wouldn't pass on the information to the other workers. "In other words, I knew something no one else knew, but I got no recognition for it," Sklansky is quoted as saying in Al Alvarez's "The Biggest Game in Town." "In poker, if you're better than anyone else, you make immediate money. If there's something I know about the game that the other person doesn't, and if he's not willing to learn or can't understand, then I take his money."

He resides in Henderson, Nevada. David Sklansky has said, "...I can say that every female I ever had a relationship with, including the young ones, does not regret it to this day (including that stripper...)" and he has admitted to cheating at poker.

$50,000 Challenge

Late in 2006, Sklansky offered a wager to Christian fundamentalists. Contestants would first have to pass a lie detector test affirming their absolute certainty that Jesus was resurrected from the dead and that everyone who didn't believe this would go to hell. Anyone who passed the polygraph would be eligible to wager $50,000 on an attempt to outscore Sklansky on the math SAT, taken in half the usual time. The idea was to prove, in Sklansky's words, that "Fundamentalists are at least 10 times less likely than Asians, Jews, or atheists to be scientifically brilliant."

The challenge was criticized on several grounds. Some Two Plus Two forum posters predicted a perfect score for Sklansky, leading to minimal upside for any challenger. (In response, Sklansky declined to substitute a more difficult test.) Others felt that the polygraph condition was restrictive and not representative of most American Christians. No one accepted the challenge for several days afterward, and Sklansky withdrew it, later saying that it was a "publicity stunt."

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