20
And Now For Something a Little Lighter
After enduring the succession of mini-controversies that have thus far plagued this year’s World Series, today I decided to concentrate on a topic with a little less bite: fashion. The way poker players dress has always shocked me. In what other field will you encounter a millionaire going to work in sweat pants and flip flops? The incongruity was never clearer for me than the moment I witnessed a $10,000 bundle of cash being handed over from one player to another and the receiver matter-of-factly tucking the wad of cash…. into the pocket of his ratty cargo shorts. Ten grand in cargo shorts. Bizarre.
Not all of the players are slaves to the just-got-out-of-bed look. Sam Farha always looks sharp at the tables, rarely playing without a freshly starched shirt and a dinner jacket. Marcel Luske raises the bar even higher, wearing a new suit every single day during his time at the World Series. “They’re really nice suits too,” said Clonie Gowen. “He always looks great.”
Clonie should know as she is perennially one of the more fashionable women in the field. (See the latest edition of Maxim magazine if you require further proof of Clonie’s sartorial magnificence.) But she will admit to falling just behind the people’s choice for most fashionable female: Evelyn Ng. If Ng weren’t playing poker for a living, she would surely be walking on a runway somewhere.
With the passing of 1973 World Champion Puggy Pearson earlier this year we also lost a noted class clown who arrived at the World Series each other in increasingly elaborate costumes: riverboat gambler, Indian, etc. The guy who has been wearing a chef’s hat over his cowboy hat this year isn’t quite the same… although it’s interesting to see how many people he’s convinced to sign his hat. I watched as Johnny Chan happily stuck his autograph on the hat and in return all he asked for were the chips in the next large pot.
In the World Series Fashion Wars there seems to be no middle ground; either you’re a big fan of the sweat-pant look or else you’re a suit, and frankly since the move from the Horseshoe to the faux glitz of the Rio I have seen far too much of the latter. When Benny was still the man in charge, all the players dressed as if they were heading to church. That changed right around the time Stu Ungar started terrorizing the main event and from there it’s been a long slow descent to the current state of poker fashion: couch-potato chic. With so many online poker sites starting to build “teams” of professional players and outfitting them in hockey jerseys, the slovenly looks like it’s here to stay. I just hope it doesn’t spread to the female side.
