So just to recap. It is the early nineties and my mom is at the Taj in Atlantic City playing poker. William Shatner and a small cadre arrive consisting of his wife, Vince Van Patten, and one or two bodyguards. They sit down at a table where she proceeds to join them. As bored celebrities without work are known to do, he is looking for hobbies to fill his considerable amount of free time. There is a sizable tournament that weekend and he is trying to get into poker as a serious hobby.

Now it is important to note that at this time I doubt my mom knows anything or cares in the least about star trek. All she knows is that she is sitting directly across from Captain Kirk and that she is not going to leave until she has an autograph for her Trekkie son (me!). she learns very quickly however that this will be no easy task.

Being friendly and uninhibited by nature, she itroduces herself to everyone at the table. Patten and Mrs. Shatner are very nice. Bill is not. In fact he is drunk on top of being unfriendly. He only proceeds to become moreso as the night goes on. He is a sloppy fat faced drunk who is rude to everyone; from his friends, to the other players, to even the waitresses. To make matters worse, he is terrible at poker. My mom, through the course of the night does two things; she strips several hundred dollars from the enebriated starship captain and becomes quite chummy with his very pleasent wife. After a while she asks her if there’s any chance for an autograph. She quickly shoots down any possibility. She says that there would be no point in asking if he were in a good mood let alone his current belligerent state. She leaves the table with one hand filled with shatners money, but the other devoid of his John Hancock.

This story is a lot longer than I thought it would be. I promise to deliver the grand finale  next week.

Live Long and Prosper.

In a previous post about Jews and Poker I wondered whether there was a link between Judaism and the disproportionate number of Jews who are quite good professional poker players. I just read that the Torah prohibits gambling if it’s done as a profession or out of greed. This would count against the fact that there are so many good Jewish poker players.

However, gambling has been part of Jewish tradition for centuries. Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel. According to the newsletter “Beyond the Odds”, “early Jews” (I’m not sure what period ‘early’ refers to) would use dice to try figure out God’s will when serious decisions could not be made.  I’d love to know the thinking behind this.  I also wonder if one could use this as evidence to convince the religious anti-poker crowd in Congress that even  traditional games of luck, such as craps, may not be entirely games of luck.  That is, perhaps, pace Einstein, God does play dice.

Anyway, some conservative rabbi has embraced this Jewish poker tradition by having a Hold’em tournament in his synagogue (no it’s not called Temple Bet Hold’em), and he thinks he gets around the Torah and its strictures because the poker tournament is for fun and fellowship, even though it is being used to raise money and rewards winners with non-cash prizes.  Is this kosher? I think so. But what do I know? I’m no expert on Jewish law. So WWSD? What Would Schneerson Do?