Jewish poker professionals

[PayTheSnucka]

Since it is only a matter of time before this thread gets really controversial....(disclaimer - I am a Jew but more of the cultural type)

Perhaps the most basic stereotype about Jews is the one about how they love money and will backstab anybody for money (this dates back to the Romans and their anti-usury laws where only Jews were allowed to loan money for interest and Jews were tax-collectors).

It is ironic that a Jew, Stuie Ungar, is probably known as the person who most devalued money. Mike Matusow (also a Jew) is a well known money degenerate. Add to this the many Jews who are involved with gambling and you have either a strange coincidence, or a backlash to the stereotype.

So take a group who are known for producing a disproportionate share of the world's Nobel Laurete scientists and entrepenuers and mix in MAJOR MAJOR PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES ABOUT MONEY FROM LITERALLY MILLENIA OF PERSECUTION OVER IT and you are bound to have some top notch poker players emerge. Of them, I would guess that you see mostly 2 extremes - the really successful business people (Greenstien, Berman, Orenstein) and the total degenerates (Ungar, Matusow).