RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Puggy Pearson died yesterday at the age of 77. Poker Hall of Famer, 1973 Champion and the original creator of the "Freezeout" format for the WSOP. A great loss.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I remember him from the History Channel presentation on the history of poker. He seemed like a total character.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Pug?

[censored]

rest in peace, pug.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I only met Puggy a couple of years ago, but he was the party. For those who haven't heard of him, he won the WSOP in 1973, after losing the final to Slim in '72. RIP.

"I'll play any man from any land any game he can name for any amount he can count"

- Quote on the side of "The Rovin Gambler", Puggy's bus. It said "Provided I like it" underneath in fine print.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

They have the 1973 WSOP on video tape. It was done up like a documentary for ABC sports I believe, and Puggy Pearson won that year. I saw him wandering around Binion's at last year's WSOP. He wore a hat with the name PUG on it.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I sat next to him in a shorthanded 30 game at Bellagio for like an hour last week. He was wearing the "PUG" hat. Nice man.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Anyone remember his cameo on the live WSOP audio coverage? Classic.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Ah damn, R.I.P.

I think I'm gonna watch the 73 coverage tonight. Nice man.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

[ QUOTE ]
I only met Puggy a couple of years ago, but he was the party. For those who haven't heard of him, he won the WSOP in 1973, after losing the final to Slim in '72. RIP.

"I'll play any man from any land any game he can name for any amount he can count"

- Quote on the side of "The Rovin Gambler", Puggy's bus. It said "Provided I like it" underneath in fine print.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not only did he win in '73, he beat Johnny Moss heads-up to win. Now that's an accomplishment.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

[ QUOTE ]


"I'll play any man from any land any game he can name for any amount he can count"


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Sounds like he probably spent too much time with a former heavyweight champion.

Indy

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

raymer said he was the worst person he ever player with, keep trying to make everybody tilt and being rude

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Respect.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

An old Pug story, from memory:

Pug and his girl friend and some other folks are sitting around talking about the gambling life and poker players who have gone broke and so on.

Pug turns to his girl friend and says, "You'd still love me if I went broke, wouldn't you?"

The girl friend says, "You know I'd love you darling. And I'd miss you too."

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Great guy -- helluva character. One of the oldtimers here in Vegas was sharing his Puggy stories this morning. Poker still has characters but few today stack up to Puggy.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

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raymer said he was the worst person he ever player with, keep trying to make everybody tilt and being rude

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i'm sure raymer would also have the dignity not to bring that up immediately after the man passed away.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

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raymer said he was the worst person he ever player with, keep trying to make everybody tilt and being rude

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i'm sure raymer would also have the dignity not to bring that up immediately after the man passed away.

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why.I dont think he is minding, he has plenty of more important things to worry about like burning in hell

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

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raymer said he was the worst person he ever player with, keep trying to make everybody tilt and being rude

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i'm sure raymer would also have the dignity not to bring that up immediately after the man passed away.

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Agree regarding Raymer.

I was able to play Pug about three times. I'd heard many of the stories regarding abusive behavior, some of which I suspect were urban myth. The times I played him (mostly 20/40 Omaha/8) he was a lot of fun. He even tried the angle were he pretends to bet but doesn't, which was amusing since I'm about as careful to wait for the player acting in front of me to release his chips as anyone on the planet.

Poker will miss the old timers like Pug. The modern game was built on their shoulders.

~ Rick

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

R.I.P

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

R.I.P. Old Man. My deepest condolences to his family.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Read his bio on aces and kings...great story!

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

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Read his bio on aces and kings...great story!


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Tru dat. Interesting how he went BUSTO in the mid-70's after being on top so long.

By the way, does anyone know the background on how Puggy got three WSOP braclets off of Johnny Moss? Was it thrown into a pot instead of money, or was it collateral or something?

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I admired this man from what I learned about him.

A true pioneer.

RIP puggy. I hope there's a strawberry patch full of suckers ripe for the picking waiting on you in Heaven.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I never knew much about Puggy Pearson until I too read the section in "Aces and Kings" set aside for him. I found him to be quite interesting and quite a character. As far as the Raymer comment it could have been that he was having a bad day and let some things fly that he shouldn't have. I promise there is at least one person out there that thinks that Doyle Brunson is a jerk for what he may have said one particular night they played with him. We all have bad days and we all make mistakes. I'll pray for his family and I hope we all realize that today we celebrate the death of not just Puggy Pearson but, a man who taught us not to cast judgement on our fellow man. I hope that Puggy rode off in his long dusty Cadillac with that big ole cigar in his mouth just like the book described.

-Lefty

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Poker loses a true character, a man with more angles than Pythagoras.

Played in a 30-60 with him once at Bellagio. Right when I was delivered my rack he raked in a shown down pot in which he called out "straight" and I could SWEAR he had 8T on a 2347J or so board.....

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

The LA Times article on Pearson's passing

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Doyle and Slim are all that's left of the old time gamblers.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

^Soon one of them will acquire the Hellfish bonanza.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

"today we celebrate the death of not just Puggy Pearson but, a man who taught us not to cast judgement on our fellow man."

Wow, you sure have a lot of respect for Puggy Pearson. I wasn't aware he did this much, perhaps you could point me to his bogus sayings or fabricated acts?

-Michael

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Total POker by Spanier. The Biggest Game in Town by Alvarez. And a book called Fast Company. These books cover Puggy well.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

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^Soon one of them will acquire the Hellfish bonanza.

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LMFAO!!!!!!!

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I played with Pug, and he was the rudest player I have ever had the displeasure to sit at a table with. He was particlarly rude to dealers. Pug deserves no respect.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

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^Soon one of them will acquire the Hellfish bonanza.

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nh sir

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

When I first started playing there were a lot of the old road gamblers still playing around Vegas. I was kind of awed by them and thought it was really cool to be playing with them. I soon discovered that, with some notable exceptions, the bigger name they were, the nastier they could be. I never understood the reasoning behind blaming the dealer for a losing hand, unless these guys run into so many cheating dealers in their time that they suspected them all. One of the great things about the modern poker explosion is that dealer abuse has become much less prevelent.

As far as Puggy goes, I played a lot with him, both poker and golf, and found him a very amusing character. All the little angle shots he would take were commonplace when he came up. The old timers spent a lot of time trying to get over on each other, and anyone who came into their games. It's just the way it was, and for some of them it became part of their nature.

Puggy's famous move was to act like he was putting a full stack of chips into the pot. He break them down in front of him to prove there were 20, then slide the stack into the pot, palming one off the top when he pulled his hand back. I've heard he told somebody he paid for his house with that move.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Hey Blair,

A few days after Puggy passed, I had this conversation with Barry Greenstein. Barry felt that a lot of the behavior that Puggy and others exhibited towards dealers could be blamed on Johnny Moss, who acted as a role model for that generation of players. Moss was the most brutal of all of them. He'd sentence the dealers to the night shift whenever they dealt him a losing hand, confiscate their chairs and kick them in the shins...brutal stuff. They all looked up to John, and they followed his example. I liken it to kids seeing today's screaming poker broadcasts and behaving similarly at the table. I don't think Barry was excusing it, just explaining.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Blair,

A few days after Puggy passed, I had this conversation with Barry Greenstein. Barry felt that a lot of the behavior that Puggy and others exhibited towards dealers could be blamed on Johnny Moss, who acted as a role model for that generation of players. Moss was the most brutal of all of them. He'd sentence the dealers to the night shift whenever they dealt him a losing hand, confiscate their chairs and kick them in the shins...brutal stuff. They all looked up to John, and they followed his example. I liken it to kids seeing today's screaming poker broadcasts and behaving similarly at the table. I don't think Barry was excusing it, just explaining.

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Wow. I knew that it was brutal to play against Moss because of his skills, but I thought that he was a nice old man (except for the old days with the guns-stories).

At least this seems from the WSOP 1973 footage.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

I never saw this guy on the WPT or Celebrity Poker Showdown, therefore, he must not have been a good poker player.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Maybe one of the meanest bastards to sit at a poker table, once put out a cigar on a dealers arm.

Re: RIP - Puggy Pearson 1929 - 2006
 

Hi Rick, Long time no see.

Mike "rounder" Guzaldo