The Amazing Kreskin Talks Poker With Gambling911.com’s Jenny Woo
In our last installment, The Amazing Kreskin discussed with Gambling911.com’s own Jenny Woo how he has been banned from nearly every casino in the United States. Today he talks about the current poker scene and how young players have filled the landscape.
JENNY: I have to laugh at that because when you look at the poker industry today, it seems like you see so many young faces. Also, as Gambling911.com Senior International Correspondent I have interviewed many young players from across the globe from the USA to Norway to Amsterdam to Canada to Costa Rica to Zimbabwe.
KRESKIN: Yes. In my performances that I’ve done in the United States and in a little over 1000 University shows. I just came back from the University of Manitoba. Now my performances are not only for University audiences. They’re for theaters, banquets, corporate affairs, and so forth. However, on campuses these days – as I’m sure you know - there are constant poker games going on because with the television coverage of poker games at night. Poker has become extremely popular amongst younger people.
I’ve got to tell you as I get such a kick out of this, last year one of the young men who won – he’s a young man out of college. The people around the table had narrowed down to him and one other gentleman who is evidently renowned poker expert. This young man, I can’t remember the exact amount of money he put up but it was around $150K or what have you. It was a substantial amount of money. Everybody else had dropped out except this older poker player. When they finally decided to show their hands, it turns out that this young man didn’t have anything. Not even a pair. I think it was a Queen but it wasn’t even a pair. His opponent put down his cards. Well his opponent who had been bluffing did not have a pair either and his highest card was lower than the Queen. He won over half a million dollars. However, what I get a kick out of is he was nicknamed by the broadcasters and the people who covered it on the Internet as Kreskin. I found that very flattering Jenny.
JENNY: You have an amazing memory but after hearing that story I now know why that memory is so vivid in your mind.
KRESKIN: I have to tell you, this is another story that happened at Resorts here in Atlantic City. Resorts has been in Atlantic City for a number of decades now and they aloud me to play a couple of years ago. This got on the Internet, it got on gaming journals, and it got on CBS News. I was performing at Resorts and after I closed, I believe it was a private show, I said to my road manager, “I want to go and play some blackjack.” I walked in and sat down with about $200 and I ended up down to about $20. I said to my road manager, “Let’s go over to a $10 or $15 table.” Well that was four thirty in the morning and about a quarter to five the casino had quieted down to where there was hardly a slot machine playing. Around my table, I don’t know how many hundreds of people where there, but I was winning and I had gotten up to the maximum bet that table allowed. I think the maximum was $500. The crowd got very quiet and I had won my 10th hand in a row, 11th, 12th hand, and 14th. It’s very rare to win more than 3 or 4 hands in a row. I had won my 15th hand in a row, 16th hand, and the pitman said to me, “Mr. Kreskin, you’re going to break the record”. I said, “No, no let’s keep playing”. Around the 17th hand, the shoe ran out and the dealer said, “We’ll pay you to cash”. I said, “No, no I want to continue until I bust. Just shuffle.” So they shuffled the deck, dealt the 18th hand in which got me a blackjack, the 19th hand, the 20th, and the pitman said, “You’re going to break the record.” I won the 21st hand. I won 22 hands in a row and I had broken a record.
JENNY: That’s crazy!
KRESKIN: Someone 2 years earlier had won 18 hands in a row. True story but I have to finish the story though. Everybody was excited. They cashed me in and they assigned a man to walk me to my car. The next day I was flying from New Jersey to some part of the country for some performances and one of the PR people at Resorts called my office here in New Jersey and said, “You tell Mr. Kreskin that he can come here anytime he wants to play. We got more money out of this than you can imagine.”
The Amazing Kreskin shares more stories with our Jenny Woo in the next installment of this series.
- Jenny Woo, Gambling911.com Senior International Correspondent
