Chip reese History, profile, and background

What if most people who were lawyers became cash game poker players instead? More famous poker players and fewer lawyers, Shakespeare would agree, would probably be a better place--and we'd have a much smarter Congress. So, with that, let's pay homage to one of the world's late, great professional poker players who was headed to law school but never made it: David "Chip" Reese. At the time of his untimely death in December of 2007, Chip Reese was widely regarded as the world's greatest cash game poker player by his peers.

Chip Reese came into the world in the holy land of Dayton, Ohio, on March 28th, 1951. An all-around achiever with an embarrassment of talents, he excelled at football, on the debate teams, and in all of his classes. The universities of Harvard and Dartmouth vied for him, and he went to the latter and was a football star there. After getting his undergraduate degree, he got accepted into the Stanford University Law Program.

But a funny thing happened to Chip Reese while he was driving to Stanford. The image of a shining man appeared before him and halfway blinded him; and it spoke to Chip and it did say unto him, "Chip, Chip, why dost thou wish to stealeth away other people's money instead of earn it honestly by way of playing games of chance and skill?" And the heart of Chip Reese was deeply troubled, and he did avert his path away from that of lawyers, and...

Oh, alright--that never happened! But it _is_ true that Reese never did make it to Stanford.

You see, Chip Reese had been playing poker since he was very young. His mother also taught him a great deal about playing different poker games. He always had a mind for games of skill and excelled at others such as backgammon and rummy. But the games of poker were those he loved the most. And, the very summer before he was to go to Stanford, he took a trip to Las Vegas and won $60,000 in a single weekend-long $500 tournament. And it was then that he decided that he could make a professional career out of poker.

But, being the highly intelligent man he was, Chip didn't tell his family about his new career for a whole year.

Reese took three World Series of Poker bracelets in his career: the $1000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo in 1978, and the $5000 Seven Card Stud bracelet in 1982; then, after returning to poker tournaments to fulfill his children's request to appear on TV in 2004, when he finished 4th at the WSOP, he went on to take the $1.7 million prize at the H.O.R.S.E event in 2006.

After that, the WSOP world lost Chip Reese, for he realized that he could make far more money playing cash games instead of entering high profile tournaments.

Reese won $2 million in his first two years of his poker career, leading none other than one of the greatest of professional poker players, Doyle Brunson, to call him the greatest 7-Card Stud poker player in the world.

Reese himself thought his ability to always remain in control emotionally and his knack for knowing when to take a gamble were his competitive edges. Of course, it helped that, allegedly, he could perfectly remember where every card was and calculate pot odds even if playing with as many as three decks.

It was said after his death by his close friend Bill James that Chip Reese cared more about his family than he did about fame, and after he got married he played less poker and created a sports betting system for his main income so he could be home more often.

Before his death, this shining star among famous poker players told his friend and one of his fellow professional poker players Mike Sexton, "[Stu Ungar] natural ability-wise [possessed] the quickest mind. Stuey's problem [was he didn't] understand the object of the game, which is to accumulate wealth, improve your lifestyle, and provide for your family."

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