The Rich And Famous
Larry Flynt in his $150,000 gold plated wheelchair.
I played in the Larry Flynt game from 1996 until July 2000 when Larry opened the Hustler Casino. The game started modestly as a $400-800 stud game in the conference room at the Forum. It was in August on the night of Magic Johnson’s Midsummer Night Charity All-Star game. I remember Mike Tyson was booed upon his arrival because he had been disqualified for biting Holyfield’s ear.
We played 400-800 one or two times more and then it was kicked up to $1000-2000 and then once more to $1500-3000. Somewhere during that transition, it became $2000- 4000 for the last 2 hours of the game. If we played 8 hours the 6 hours of 1500-3000 were equal to the 2 hours of 2000- We usually played 3-4 times a week although we once or I should say Larry played for 17 days straight laying in a gurney to boot. At that time, it was probably the biggest game on a regular basis. Winning or losing $100k was average and a big win or loss was around 200k.
During those 4 years, we had our regular group and various guests from time to time. One of the most memorable were the King brothers who owned King World Productions. I had played with Roger in the late 80’s at the Bicycle and at the Mirage but I hadn’t seen him very much the last several years.
I had met Michael at Del Mar because he was partners with Frank Mariani in a racehorse and Frank had invited everyone down. It seemed the horse was a favorite but had a bad race and we all lost. Desert Wind comes to mind but I could be completely wrong.
Now it’s 1997 and we are getting ready to start the game. I said to Michael, “Hey, I heard you guys have a lot of money.” He said, “Well…we pay Oprah $40 million a year so how much do you think we make?” I pursed my lips and nodded in acknowledgement.
Roger & Michael King sold their company to CBS for $2.5 billion in 2007.
We hadn’t been playing too long when Roger asked Larry, “Larry, what kind of plane do you have?” “A G-2’’, said Larry. Roger said, “Oh we have a G-5”. One-upmanship comparing planes I was thinking. I found it amusing. Larry later told us that his was a $5 million plane and the G-5 was $40 million. They were both the same size but the range was different. Larry had to refuel but the G-5 could fly non-stop to Europe.
Later, Roger kept turning around to look at a Master painting over the fireplace. Finally, I said, “that’s a masterpiece worth about $250 thousand.” “Huh,” he said. “You think that’s art? That ain’t art. I got Mo-nays in my house.”
Roger did not miss one hand all night. Even when he went to the bathroom, his brother would ante him up and call all bets. I was up around $250k but then I got caught in the middle between the 2 brothers and lost $50k in one hand with pocket kings. I felt like the game was out of control and I needed a win so I decided to quit. I heard that they kicked it up to $3000-6000 later and played until 9 am. They lost about $450k but one of the regulars told me that he was a victim and got killed also.
When the game ended, they had $6000 left in chips. They asked for the dealers and security to line up and tipped them their remaining chips. They may have been loud but they certainly knew how to live.
I ran into Michael about 4 years ago, and tried to get him to take Cellgevity. I could tell he needed glutathione enhancement because he looked old. You are as young or as old as you look. They did a study on 1300 twins. They picked out the one they thought looked older and in 70% of the cases, the one that looked older died first.
His brother had died at only 63 from a stroke. Michael died of a lingering infection 2 years ago, Glutathione is also very important for enhancing the immune system. Whenever a friend of mine that was taking Cellgevity tells me he has a cold, I ask him if he had been taking it. Invariably they say they hadn’t been because they ran out.
Health is your most important possession and the technology is here to optimize it. Sadly you can lead a horse to water…
