Continued from Part Two…
It’s hard to imagine life before the poker boom. Whilst Vegas was once little more than a smattering of casinos and the gentle sound of desert tumbleweed, it is now a haven for millions of poker fans across the globe who make the annual pilgrimage in a bid to become World Series of Poker Champion. Many of those will be UK citizens, but prior to Moneymaker booting up PokerStars one rainy day, only a select few made the trip, one of whom was Mickey Wernick.
“Me and the boys used to like boxing,” regales Mickey, “and we would sometimes go to Vegas. I was over there watching a couple of fights and I can remember going to the casino and seeing this game called No Limit Texas Hold’em. I’d been to Vegas and played other games for years, but I gave this a go a couple of times and thought, ‘Oh, this is a good game,’ and from there on in I was hooked.”
Donnacha O’Dea, Surinder Sunar, Jeff Duvall, Chris Bjorin – European players were a rare sighting in Vegas, and Mickey was one of just a handful of players who made the now customary journey across the Pond. For Mickey, though, he was living the high life, travelling the world playing a game he loved and taking on some of the game’s toughest opponents. Vegas had blossomed into a major attraction, but the game of poker had yet to fully infiltrate the corporate world to the extents we witness today, and as such, Mickey was given exclusive treatment. Nowadays, he's one of many and treated as such, but in the golden age, Mickey felt like a film star.
“We were treated like celebrities when we went over,” he reveals. “I was dead scruffy, and I took the girlfriend, and she couldn’t believe it when we landed off the plane and there was a bloke standing there with a big sign saying ‘Mickey Wernick’ He said, ‘Come on Mickey Wernick, I’ve just taken Michael Jackson from the airport. He’s doing the music for Siegfried and Roy and I just dropped him off 20 minutes ago.’ He took us to a limousine, and we went and saw Frank Sinatra and Diana Ross, two seats in the centre. We were treated like royalty. What went wrong?”
Mickey may have been a guest on foreign shores, but not everyone welcomed him with open arms. Whilst the Brits boasted a stiff upper lip and would, on the whole, treat people with honour and respect, some of the ‘old school’ American pros took a more aggressive approach and could be known to intimidate both players and dealers alike. In particular, Puggy Pearson – a working class pro who endured a turbulent upbringing and described his education as “school of hard knocks” – was renowned for dealing out abuse at the table, as Mickey explains:
“I played with Puggy Pearson when I was at the top of my game in Vegas. He was a real character. In one hand, he made a big bet and I called on the turn. I’d hit a miracle on the river and now had him with the nuts. He bet about $3,000 and I raised him another $3,000 so he’s got to pay $3,000 more to call. ‘You little motherfucker,’ he boomed. ‘What you got?’ He was a shithouse at the time, a right talker. He got his money out and said, ‘I’m gonna call you, you lump of shit, you little English slimeball.’
“He was giving it all this verbal and by now a crowd had gathered and everyone was laughing. Eventually, he dropped his money over the line. I turned over the nuts, but he just picked up his money and put it back in his pocket. ‘What are you doing, you called?’ ‘My money wasn’t over the line,’ replied Puggy. ‘It wasn’t in the pot, it’s not a call.’ At this point, the dealer interrupted and told Puggy that he had to pay. ‘No, my money wasn’t in the pot,’ he continued. ‘He’ll have to learn the hard way.’
“At the time, a guy called Eric Drache headed the cardroom and he had a girl that used to run it with him. She came over, told me not to worry, and about an hour later said she’d sorted it. Not long after, Puggy came over, paid up and said, ‘Mickey, I’m gonna pay you, but only ‘cos I like you. I hope you learned though that when you’re in Vegas, never show your cards until the money’s in the pot.’ It was a learning curve, but at the same time, a stroke that he couldn’t get away with. In most places he’d be barred.”
Some might question Mickey’s game selection skills, but if there’s one thing that you can’t accuse him of, it’s backing down from a challenge. Although Vegas wasn’t the open sea it is now, there were still good games to be had. Nevertheless, Mickey wanted to prove his worth and take on the best, whoever they were. “When I first started going over on a regular basis,” he reminisces. “I’d often take on some of the big names such as Stuey [Ungar], Chip Reese and Johnny Chan. At the time, there weren’t many celebrities in poker, so these guys weren’t famous. To me, they were just poker players.”
One of the “big names” that Mickey tackled was former World Champion Bobby Baldwin. Prior to Stu Ungar, Baldwin was the youngest ever player to win the Main Event when he took down the title in 1978. These days he’s better known as a top Vegas executive and the Bobby in ‘Bobby’s Room’, but as a young player bursting onto a scene swamped by veterans, he showcased an unbridled confidence and super aggressive style that formed a precursor of how future generations and young Internet pros would later transform the live game.
“I played Bobby Baldwin in the early days and at a time when many considered him to be one of the best players in the world. We were in the big cash game and me and Baldwin ended up playing heads-up. Because of who he was, there was a big crowd watching. Suddenly, my phone goes, and it’s Don Fagan. ‘Fucking hell, Mickey,’ he said. ‘Do you know you’re playing the best player in the fucking world? Go to bed and get some rest. You can find better spots than this.’ ‘I’m not scared of him, Don,’ I replied. ‘I’m all right, but thanks for ringing.’ I put the phone down and played for another six hours.”
Vegas may have been the epicentre of the poker world, but from time to time, poker’s fiercest competitors would come to Mickey. But whatever the continent, he would approach them with the same level of gusto and mettle. In the Isle of Man one year, Mickey was presented with a rare opportunity to play someone who many consider to be the greatest player that ever lived. Undoubtedly, he is a legend of our time, and toppling a legend would be something you'd remember for the rest of your life. For Mickey, that opportunity was too much to resist.
“Doyle Brunson challenged me to a heads-up game once. His son, Todd, was only about 18 at the time and couldn’t play in the States, so he was playing a couple of freezeout tourneys. He was just a college kid back then. At one point, Doyle approached me and asked in his Texas drawl, ‘You wanna play some heads-up?’ ‘Yeah, Omaha,’ I replied. ‘Oh, Omaha?’ he said inquisitively Anyway, I played him for about an hour for a few grand and after a while he just stood up and said, ‘Finished.’ He just didn’t want to know. I was too aggressive for him, and was playing back to front and completely throwing him off his game.”
What is evidently clear from listening to Mickey’s anecdotes of yesteryear, is that Vegas played a major part in his poker career. Alternatively, he could have eeked out a living here in England, be it as a club owner, bookkeeper or poker pro, but Vegas was the bright light that represented a poker player’s dream. It was the lure that glamorised the game, and made the impossible possible. In Vegas, you could take on the best and maybe even beat him. Sometimes, you could turn nothing into something.
It was this ideal and sense of romanticism that encapsulates Mickey’s most memorable Vegas moment. Although he has crossed swords with some of the game’s greats, such as the aforementioned Pearson, Baldwin and Brunson, Mickey’s fondest memory involved none of those players, and merely echoes the thoughts reflected in the last article when we examined his relationship with his father. Solly Wernick was a key factor in his son’s life, and Mickey desperately wanted to succeed before his eyes and make his father proud. Vegas provided the perfect platform.
“He’s dead now, obviously, but he loved to see me win. We were towards the end of the trip one year and he said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to come to Vegas with you again. All you do is drive me crazy, and we’ve both done our money.’ ‘There’s only a couple of days left, dad,’ I said, ‘so why don’t you help me get in this game?’ ‘I can’t, Mickey,’ he replied. ‘Oh, go on dad, one last chance.’ Eventually, he conceded and gave me a grand so I could play and said, ‘That’s it though, Mickey, don’t ask me again.’
“So, off he went to bed, and I hit the tables. We were in the Golden Nugget on this occasion, and when you come down from the room, there’s a balcony you can look over to see the poker table. Every morning at 7.30am, he would come down to see how I was getting on. This time, though, I’d built my buy-in up to 10 grand, but instead of cashing out, I put my name down for the biggest game. So, I’m in the big game, but luckily it’s Mickey’s night, and I managed to turn that 10 grand into $160,000. It was about 7am in the morning, and even I wanted to call it a day now, but I really wanted to see my dad’s face when he saw how well I was doing from the balcony. So, I waited until 7.30, and then I looked round to see him peering over the balcony. ‘All right, dad?’ I said with a smile. He just looked down at my stack and saw that I’d gone from begging the old man to winning $160,000. ‘Racks please,’ I said.”
Next up, the Wormhole takes us to more modern times as Mickey becomes a sponsored pro with Blue Square Poker.