I told you google Johnny Moss Benny Binion child-hood friends to find four books and I mentioned another. I figure they met as teenagers. Use google.

In his two books, James McManus is viciously false about almost everything he writes about Benny and Jack Binion. He demonstrates over and over that he did little research.

He states that Benny Binion went to Las Vegas in 1946 "When the rival Chicago Syndicate took over Dallas in the late forties, Lansky helped his protege Benny Binion move his operations out west..." He also referred to Benny as a Meyer Lansky lieutenant, incredibly false. You will find hundreds of accounts of Benny's legal troubles. No other written source says he was associated with the Mafia except the far-out JFK assassination books. A wave of anti-gambling sentiment and reform hit Texas and the country. Moe Dalitz, Dave Berman, Sid Wyman, and Guy McAfee and many casino workers moved there. They had gambling experience. Las Vegas had legal gambling.

The New Orleans Mafia, Carlos Marcelo made inroads in Dallas, and Dallas bookies laid off in New Orleans after Benny's time. Binion had disputes with the Mafia in his early years, but knew everyone in Las Vegas. Earlier, he had bankroll in the Las Vegas, El Dorado, and Westerner, and two Mafia guys had a piece also, but that ended soon after Benny wanted to be the only boss. One was Ed Levinson. When asked by investigators if he knew a list of Mafia members and associates, Benny said he knew most of them and said, "None of them ever told me they was in it."

McManus calls Cat Noble a numbers boss. Benny had the numbers rackets. Cat faded dice. He said Noble "was decapitated by a pipe bomb." Binion's biographer, Gary Sleeper says, "Only Noble's head, shoulders, and arms were intact." It was not a pipe bomb, but a massive bomb detonated from across the road. A picture of the four-foot deep bomb crater and demolished car went to newspapers across the country. It showed two playing cards on the ground, a joker and an Ace of Diamonds.

McManus worst lies, assumptions, and lack of reseach involved Jimmy Chagra. He said the three Binion's and Oscar Goodman arranged the contract for Charles Harrelson to kill a federal judge. McManus was sued by Goodman, and his publisher settled for an alleged $50,000, a full page ad of apology in New York, and excising of the offensive passages which included that the Binion's had introduced Harrelson to Chagra. Rubbish! When he wrote that Gary Cartwright's book Dirty Dealing was out a long time. It said and the trial and wiretaps, phone taps, say Chagra's wife knew Harrelson and introduced them. In all the telephone records, and one of the biggest investigations in U.S. history, the Binion's are never blamed by anyone but the excreable James McManus. McManus said repeatedly that Chagra laundered money at Binion's. He gambled huge at several casinos and was a historic loser. Cartwright said he didn't launder money, "he burned it up."

McManus said several times that Nick the Greek was fifty-seven and Moss was forty-two at the time of the big match in 1949. The Greek was sixty-seven.

McManus said the early World Series of Poker had pay outs for 1st, 2nd. 3rd. It was winner take all until 1978. All accounts except McManus say that. McManus said the main event first prize rose to $700,000 in 1988, the second year J. Chan won. My friend, Bill Smith, won exactly that amount in 1985, staked by Dale the Mule.

McManus repeats often that Moss vs the Greek was winner take all, and that the Greek had broken every gambler back East including Arnold Rothstein.

McManus cites Moss being broke and managing card rooms, when he was spreading the biggest cash game of all time with Sid Wyman at the Dunes, and later Aladdin. Major Riddle lost $40 million. Moss was an early millionaire. McManus speculates Moss worked poker rooms to use the eye-in-the-sky to cheat more effectively. Yeah, they'd risk their gambling license over poker. My cousin worked the Dunes for Wyman, and Vegas for forty years for the mob, then Howard Hughes, then the corporations. Cheating by casinos is the rarest thing because they do not need to and could lose everything for it. The gambling license. Inspectors make unnanounced visits, and anyone can complain to the gambling commission.

McManus says falsely that Moss was "banned from Vegas for a couple of decades--banned in fear for his life."

McManus refers to Binions's Horseshoe opening in 1951. It was simply the Horseshoe, affectionately called "the Shoe."

McManus writes about the black list of persons excluded from Las Vegas casinos including Marshall Caifano, Sam Giancana, Meyer Lansky, and Frank Sinatra.

Sinatra was not excluded from casinos. He was, in fact, a rather famous American singer and actor who appeared in casinos all the time. He headed a group called the Rat Pack whose performances at the Sands were legendary. I realize McManus never read many of the books on gambling history, but Sinatra? Come on!

I did use Google, and I can't find a single thing about Benny Binion living on the streets of Dallas as a hustler at age 9. I did find reference to John Moss being in Dallas at an early age and seeking work to help his family, and having taken on a job selling newspapers there. This fits with the census report that Johnny Moss was in Dallas in 1920 living with a single father (John Moss), as it has been said that his mother died of a burst appendix before they came to Dallas.

The census is factual, and Benny Binion was born and raised in Grayson county Texas precinct 3, and was there until at least 16 years of age. And probably left there for El Paso at 17 as has been reported, where he ran whiskey and learned about gambling. At what age and what year he went to Dallas is unknown. But, he was well out of child-hood.

P.S. I could care less about Chill Wills, was never impressed by him as an actor, the voice of Frances the mule.

Benny said he'd been a hustler since he was 9, but did not say nor did I that he was on the Dallas streets that young.

They no doubt were lifelong friends after they met. But to say childhood friends leads to the assumption they were raised in close proximity, which is not true. I also seen some bios on here that state Binion was born in Grayson county and raised in El Paso, which would not be true either. So there is a lot of BS floating around in cyberspace (What? No, that can't be!) I'll believe the census, as that is official documentation.

By Moss's account and several others, they had met by the time Johnny was 12 and Benny 16. Benny started early as hip pocket bootlegger, carrying a half pint or pint of booze which he'd sell and go to his stash for another. Here is one account. It is hard to determine what to believe but it takes reading all the true and false and deciding what sounds credible. Why would either one lie?
http://www.thegoodgamblingguide.co.u...ohnny_moss.htm

This account has many flaws in it, such as Benny didn't own a club until 1949 or Johnny retired in the mid-sixties or that Johnny partnered with Doyle, Slim, Sailor. I think he did partner because I was told they played "top hand" in Odessa. I ran unto Moss in Longview, Oklahoma City, Odessa, and Las Vegas. I met him with Curly in Longview and always mentioned Curly to him for decades.

In Oklahoma City around 1960, he watched me and this big dice man whose name I do not recall play in a bridge tournament all afternoon. He asked questions and wanted to learn. He recognized me in Odessa and got up a bridge game with me as partner, him taking a bigger bet. We lost and the game broke up to get to the poker, Hold 'em, and seven-five low ball, going. We also played gin there. McManus writes that Texans don't play gin, maybe because we are not smart enough. We all played gin waiting for the poker to start. Oswald Jacoby of Dallas wrote the book, still a great book on gin. He gave lessons to H.L. Hunt after Ray Ryan won $250,000 playing gin. I was an early Life Master at bridge tournaments.

One thing I kind of agree with Michael Craig about it that the 1949 match was not that huge in creating the World Series of Poker. The Reno gathering was more recent.

In Texas, we played "freezout" ring games and heads up long before the World Series. I played them ten years earlier. We did not call them tournaments but freezeouts. A $100 freeze out, winner take all often was used as a draw before the poker. Often the ones knocked out asked the two or three to split it or quit where they were usually since we played with cash. Heads up was often freezeout for a certain amount. It was agreed that you could not quit.

onion+belt=profit

People lie all the time. Why? Who knows? Sometimes people just like to run a line of BS for dramatic impression. When they got a sucker on the line, they enjoy playing it for all it's worth.

Which of these sounds better and more dramatic? I grew up on a farm in Grayson county Texas and couldn't wait to get my @$$ out of there at 17.
Or, I was on the streets at an early age, and by age 9 I was an accomplished hustler.

Over the years, lies get bigger and the truth gets buried. My old Pappy always said "Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see".
See, I just lied, my old Pappy never said that. I'm not Brett Maverick and don't really remember where I first heard that. But, there's a lot of truth to that old saying.

You are misquoting me over and over and doubting things you have not read and wanting everything to be about you. Will you go to Benny Binion Oral History, UNLV? He said he was a hustler at 9, and explained it in context. You might notice there are 5000 hits on here. You think I am writing all of this in response to Omamapapa, whine whine complain add absolutely nothing. How can I argue with someone who has not read any, not a bit of the material I am talking about? Psychological research shows that we project our ethics on others and you always think that everyone is lying. A fast, thirty second search on google found
Benny Binion's FBI Files
Las Vegas remembers Benny Binion as a legendary gambler, family man, and philanthropist, ... "I've been a hustler all my life, since I was nine," he said. Get someone to show you how to search on google.

ThirTexas Monthly - Aug 1973
- 96 pages
Wills and Binion have known each other for five decades,have been, together with Johnny Moss, the members of a tough-luck-to-gold-dust trio that extends
clear back to their mutual service as West Texas paperboys. Moss, of Lubbock and
...
books.google.com
All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker
Jonathan Grotenstein, Storms Reback - 2006 - 336 pages
Benny Binion and Johnny Moss first met as paperboys in east Dallas, two street urchins with dreams of better days. While Johnny sought his fortune as a gambler
, Benny saw clearly the benefits of the other side of the equation — the
ty seconds more of searching:
Johnny Hughes, Ph.D.
. ...

Don't throw a tantrum. LOL I don't give a crap what you have read. There's a lot out there in print that is far from truth. There is no way to sort out most of what has been written as to what is truth and what was lies. And I care not that you are a Ph.D. Who says I have to believe anything I read? You, because you say I must? You need to learn to cite reliable sources. Your sources contradict. One you cited above says West Texas paperboys and another says east Dallas paperboys. You are trying to project your opinion of things that may (or may not) have happened long ago without any hard evidence. Now, why don't you use Google and look up the census records that I told you about. Then call up the govt. and tell them it's all a lie because it doesn't fit the way you want things to have been.

Yes, Binion and Moss were hustlers, and hustlers lie, that's what a hustler does. It's all about deception.
You ask; Why would Binion and Moss lie?
I ask; Why would Binion and Moss tell the truth?

You seem so convinced that these people were men of honor, pillars of honesty and truth. Binion murdered, stole and lied to get what he wanted. Moss cheated, scammed and lied to make a living. Yes, they were hustlers, and they would have lied to their mothers if they could have made a dime off it.

Don't start that "you want it to be about you" crap. You play that card so much on here, you have wore it out. How about you present the evidence that you claimed in the title and make it about that. No one is whining but you, you have whined so much about McManus, you would think he stole your woman.

Although Frank Sinatra was not "black booked" he did in fact lose his gaming license and had to sell the Cal-Neva at Lake Tahoe due to his involvement with Sam G.

As far as Moss leaving Vegas for a couple of decades....even Doyle has written that. Johnny did not return to Vegas until '68. Maybe not 20 years but at least 15 year exile. That was because of the gin cheating at the Flamingo.

All early accounts of the Moss/Greek match say it was a freezeout...or at least lasted until Greek was busted. So in a way it is discussed as a freezeout...(but we know the game as reported never happened except in Moss mind)

The fight with Cat Nobel started after Cat started moving into numbers along with the dice games and refused to pay the tax.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Cat Noble was not in the numbers business. He was in the dice business. Curly Cavitt faded with him. Cat was also a pilot, and in the airplane parts business. He went crazy during all this. Gary Sleeper's book has flaws, but it is the best about Cat Noble.

The 1949 match was not "freeze out." Freeze out refers to the money on the table. Jack Binion said the game would convene and break up and others played, and part of it was at the Flamingo. Nick the Greek shot dice during the long match. You could definately take money off the table. They did not have all of it up. I "think" that Benny was staking Moss and got half. That was the custom. I do think the money and beating the Greek were a bigger motivation, by far, than the publicity. The Greek already drew crowds everywhere he went in Las Vegas. In an interview, Ted Binion said that Benny Binion lost $400,000 playing poker shortly after arriveing in Las Vegas. I would guess, guess that he sent for Moss because Moss was great, and Benny was a bad poker player.

McManus and the other hacks say the Greek came to Las Vegas in 1949. It was 1942 and he was in and out of town, playing in Los Angeles often. He traveled California with and cheated with Titantic Thompson during this time.

Nick the Greek DID LOSE $550,000 to Ray Ryan AFTER PLAYING JOHNNY MOSS. That broke him. That is documented in federal trial records, appeals, etc. I "think" and may check, the Collier's article said he went broke 73 times. That was in 1954. The articles written at his death also say 73 times. He did not go broke again after the early fifties because he never reegained a bankroll. His biographer, Cy Rice, said he went broke in 1949. Later trial records say Ryan won $550,000 in 1949. The reason to place the match with Johnny Moss in 1949 is that Nick the Greek was too broke in 1951. Moss's biographer said 1949, but got the club name wrong. Moss and Binion could barely read. Moss would say Binion's way before that was the name of the club. There was no Binion's Horseshoe in 1949 or 1951.

vegasskip...the book you mentioned earlier is Ann Arnold's Gamblers and Gangsters, Fort Worth's Jacksboror Highway In the 1940s & 1950s.
Part of the problem is Moss's Texanish use of the word "broke." It is an exaggeration. Moss didn't break the Greek but he most likely won the bulk of his bankroll. Ryan got the rest. The Greek lost big at the Horseshoe on credit at dice in 1951 or so. That was the full name of the casino that Benny was listed as restaurant owner of. Went to the Golden Nugget, signed markers, and his word was never good again. All the articles and obits about him say the Greek was a man of his word, which he was until he got broke. His biographer said he borrowed all he could at casinos and from people and the Greek was an embarrassment putting the touch on everyone he saw. The Greek was also old, and not in good health.

I am firmly convinced that neither Michael Craig nor James McManus read ANY of the major sources one would read to discuss Johnny Moss, Benny Binion, and Nick the Greek. THEY DID NOT READ: Cy Rice's bio of the Greek, Sleeper's bio of Benny, Benny's oral history from UNLV, the newspaper article written before the Nick's death and eulogy written by Hank Greenspun, the annual color brochures sent out by Binion's Horseshoe, and of the biographies of Arnold Rothstein. They quote these falsely. The more you read and learn about poker history, the less you respect James McManus, a liar.

Johnny, i like your stories and think most of them are as accurate as it is possible, with so much different versions going around.
That being said, your definition of "evidence" is truly unique to this world.

Superlulz...You are right. The word "evidence" should be "best evidence." However some really silly things on the Internet can be compared to all you can find and you come up with the most reasonable.

Omama is focused on whether Moss is lying about knowing Binion and selling newspapers as a teen. Another guy is focused on what Binion and Moss said in interviews before 1970 and THEY DID NO INTERVIEWS.

When Moss gained so much attention from the World Series, do you think he and Benny got together and decided to lie about being newspaper salesmen in Dallas? Benny had been the top mobster in Dallas. Johnny was the top poker player at that time. Both had many adventures. Maybe some publicity guy told the two old illiterates that "we need to tell everybody you were paper boys, trust me. That is incredibly important..."

A rank order of credibilty for me, puts as very credible: Benny Binion, Jack Binion, Doyle Brunson, and Crandell Addington. A little less is Johnny Moss because of his embellishements and Texas exaggerations, use of the word "broke.", however he did not make up stories.
Not credible includes: Nick the Greek, Titanic Thompson, Amarillo Slim, and Minnesota Fats.

The least credible of all: James McManus.

Sorry...but I stand by Cat moving into the numbers racket. Remember Benny may have been boss gambler in Dallas but he did not have all of the market. He always had competition either among Texans like Cat or the LCN. Cat was very close friends with Pete Licovoli the mob boss of Detroit. What people forget is that the mob had a long relationship in Dallas. The gambling may have been left to Benny but they controlled all the other mob rackets. A great history of Dallas and the mob can be found here http://americanmafia.com/Cities/Dallas.html and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_crime_family. Plus you had Chicago and Detriot's influence and the LCN family run out Galveston headed by Sam Maesco.

I have read many bio's on Meyer Lansky and he and Benny had a long relationship. Benny had a small investment in Meyer's casinos in Cuba and Miami and held small points in such. When Benny first came to Vegas he had problems with Davey Berman at the Flamingo and Meyer had to step in and settle the dispute before it exploded. I know Benny liked to say that he left Dallas after Sheriff Decker lost the election but there was more to the story. The war with Cat was putting heat on the NOLA and Chicago interest and was bad for them. He saw the writing on the wall with the mob angry at him and Decker gone and decided it was time to leave.

I once read somewhere where Benny mentioned he came to Dallas at 19-20 years old after fleeing El Paso. He started out running liquor and then went to work for Warren Diamond.

Moss came to Dallas at around 7 after his dad lost a leg during a work accident. He did work as a newsboy and hustler starting around age 10 but not with Benny.

Cat Nobel was from East Dallas and was once Benny's bodyguard and right hand man until he decided to go on his own. He was very close like I mentioned with the top boss of Detriot.

One other thing to point out is that just because Cy Rice says Greek went broke in '49 offers no proof of the Moss game. He loved prop bets, horses and dice. All of those broke him.

And finally I agree it was not a freezeout although most account of the game makes it sound like one whether or not they spell it out.

vegas skip....It might surprise you that I agree about the mob in Dallas, but it had little to do with Benny. I disagre about the amount of their control.

SPECULATION. I think the Kennedy assassination was a small conspriacy headed by New Orleans mob boss, Carlos Marcello. Oswald was the only shooter. Ruby was a bookmaker. I'd seen Ruby in his joint. His phone records, at Texas Tech's Southwest Collection, indicate calls every few minutes on football game days to Ft. Worth, layoffs. Ruby was connected to Marcello, and MAY have owed a ton of money. Oswald's uncle was a bookie also connected to Marcello. Marcello is the only link of Ruby, Oswald. Ruby visited Trafficante in Cuba in jail. Ruby got strippers from New Orleans and was there. The Kennedy brothers had Marcello arrested and deported to Costa Rica, which he had on his papers. Gamblers everywhere hated "the Bobby Kennedy law" which made traveling across state lines to illegaly gamble, or more importantly sending gamboling info, the horse wire across state lines.

You might be right about Benny Binion's connection to Lansky through Cuba because R.D. Matthews, a key Binion man, went to Cuba, and I "think" will look it up, Chili McWillie also was there both in bigger positions in the casino. Later, even after huge heat, both worked at Binion's joint in Las Vegas.

You guys have me ass deep in books I am re-reading, etc. Much of the Kennedy assassination stuff is false. They say everybody did it.

Curly Cavitt, , and many other gamblers left Dallas around 1952. Marcello was the layoff man for Dallas and where you got the line, New Orleans. He was asking Dallas bookies to layoff. I know about Civello and Camnpisi. The Maceo's, Galveston mob gamblers whose descendents own the Texas Station, Station casinos. They owned the Dallas hotel where Benny headquarted a long time.

I am relatively certain from F.B.I. records that Benny was pure outlaw before prison, and law abiding afterwards because he had more heat than anyone in America. F.B.I., I.R.S., Attorney General's office, Gaming officials. He was followed, bugged, and knew it. J. Edgar Hoover personally authorized a go after Binion campaign that lasted his whole life. Hank Greenspun wrote an editorial attacking the F.B.I. for harrassing Binion. They had legal and illegal wire taps inside the casino. They watched the whole family, even at the ranch in Montana.

I HEARD long before I had read about Johnny Moss and the big match, Cat Noble, and Benny's run ins with the Mafia. I heard Benny got "sixty hop heads off the Jacksboro highway", just meaning Dallas/Ft. Worth thugs to sleep on the casino floor with guns. Maybe at the Horseshoe after the Cat was killed. I heard Dave Berman, the toughest Jew in Vegas, threatened to kill Benny. He was getting the worst press in Las Vegas with the killing of Cat.

My own take is that Benny was a meglomaniac while in Dallas, wanting more and more control. He had operations and financed several spots outside the "zone", downtown Dallas. Cat was way away from downtown. Several written reports say that Benny wanted to up his tax, piece, take from 25 per cent to 40 per cent, and the Cat refused. The Cat killed one of Benny's close friends and the war was on. His Ft.Worth operations were a secret, and buffered. He would put bankroll in Cuba, maybe. maybe, but why would the mob let him in??? After prison, the Horseshoe could lose its license if the F.B.I. could get photos of Benny with any mobsters. They did take Ted's license for hanging out with a minor mob guy.

When Johnny Moss was watching me in a bridge tournament in Oklahoma City, he told ONE story I remember. This was in or around 1961. He joked about being out of Texas and said he'd said he'd never leave. He said he was on an airplane having a conversation with a nice man. They were somewhere leaving Alabama. The guy asked him if he thought they'd crossed the state line. Then the F.B.I. agent arrested him for crossing state lines to illegally gamble. That is all I remember about that story.

Numbers and dice:

LIFE Magazine

Herbert ("The Cat") Noble won his nickname the hard way. In 1945 he defied gangsters who wanted a bigger rake-off from the dice games he ran in Dallas...

Time Magazine

...Noble's trials began in 1945; until then, he kicked back 25% of the profits of his crap games for "protection"...

Texas Monthly

Noble and Laudermilk set up several lucrative policy wheels and a downtown craps game at a joint called the Airmen's Club...

Why do you try and insult anyone that doesn't see something your way? LOL Childish at best Johnny Hughts! (Moss autograph story made me laugh) My point about the census is not about who knew who and when. It's more about that there is probably better documentation that could be used as evidence out there somewhere. Why not interview Jack Binion and others? Why not research criminal and civil records in Dallas and elsewhere.

I don't think anybody that has written about Binion and the old time gamblers has ever done proper research. They have been feeding off the same old stories time after time, and it's all been twisted, embellished and exaggerated to the point that it's hard to know what is fact. Reading the UNLV interview with Binion, he tells of horse and mule trading, then entering into bootlegging and later gambling. He says nothing of doing all this at the age of 9. Look for real evidence, seek and ye shall find!

It's worth noting that the official World Series of poker history, as written by Nolan Dalla for the WSOP site, no longer mentions the Moss/Dandalos game. It instead credits the 1969 Texas Gamblers Reunion in Reno as the inspiration for the WSOP.

So even the WSOP itself has acknowledged what seems clear, that while Moss and Dandalos may have played poker, the legendary five-month-long heads-up match in public view with such huge publicity and attention that it inspired the WSOP (yet somehow not for two decades) did not happen. As much as you disparage every single writer besides yourself, that is the crux of the discussion: whether that story is true. Not whether Ray Ryan won $550,000 or whatever else might have been happening around these guys.

The WSOP became a big deal, so some writers started wondering if its legendary beginnings, repeated for decades, were just legends. It's very similar to baseball and Abner Doubleday. For many years, people were content to print the story of the Civil War hero and the baseball in the trunk, and it was a useful, American origin for Cooperstown to tell its visitors. But it wasn't true.

Johnny: you agree that Johnny Moss was prone to embellishments. Since the legend seems to have come directly from him, why is it so hard to admit that this is one of them? You say that Moss and Binion had no interest in publicity in 1949 (which is why there is zero record of the game), so why defend a story that says they actively sought it?

Oh, and please don't write 1500 words about whether Three Nose Sanderson liked his eggs fried or scrambled at the Amarillo Waffle Hut in 1936, or how James McManus got Flappy McGumsalot's shoe size wrong.

As usual sba9630 is right on the money. Noble/Laudermilk did go into the policy business. Both had been close to Binion, therefore he felt a heavy betrayal. I am re-reading about the Cat now in Gary Sleeper's book. This started the war. Binion and Noble were both early at success. Warren Diamond had Benny running big no-limit dice games in his mid-or early twenties. When Diamond committed suicide, Benny at 28, became the boss gambler and solified his power withe the aid of the police and politicians.

I also agree that the 1949 match was not that huge in the start of the World Series and I can't see why that or the paperboy deal matter as to whether the 1949 ring game, sometimes heads up game took place. Everybody wanted Nick the Greek in their casinos. He was, by far, way more famous than anyone else in gambling. Casinos and no one in gambling talked about the amounts of wins or losses until long after the fact for the I.R.S.

Here is what Nolan Dalla wrote:

"Scrolling the pages of a Hughes narrative is like lighting a lantern into the darkest recess of poker's subculture. [Hughes] brings the legends of the past and present to life and often provides the very best portrait of these unique, real-life characters of anyone on record."

-Nolan Dalla, media director, World Series of Poker, best-selling author and columnist for Card Player

this is how i read all his posts in their entirety

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-blog...teachable-quot

Not evidence, but Jack and Doyle say it happened, but has been exaggerated.

According to Gary Sleeper's excellent book and UNLV oral history. Benny left home at age 10 with his father, and traveled, horse traded, gambled for the next six years. They were at trade days, all over North Texas and Dallas. At trade days, like county fairs, folks gambled on horse races, cards, dice, bare-knuckle fights, dog fights and shooting matches. For the UNLV oral history, Benny said, " From a real small kid, I'd go with the horse traders..So, I got in with more of the gambling type..road gamblers..I'd do little things for 'em and they'd give me a little money.." He was in and out of Dallas and made it his home at age 18, after he'd gambled his way across most of Texas. In Dallas, he was a bootlegger. Gary Sleeper wrote,"As a cover for his activites, he sold newspapers on street corners with two men who would become life-long friends..Johnny Moss..and Chill Wills." Photos taken when he was sixteen show Binion in a newsboys cap.

Sleeper quoted Binion, and I can't tell if it is a quote or what he thinks Binion might say about the match between Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek, "Spread the game for 'em right out there in front of the casino. Damn game went on almost four months. I think Johnny won about four hundred thousand dollars."

Thanks, Omapa. Doyle has answered some of my questions by email. I accept what he and Jack Binion say about the match. I find the stories in Doyle's delightful book true as can be. Like Benny, Doyle tells bad stuff on himself like his bad business deals.

Des Wilson didn't write that the match didn't happen. He wrote "Moss probably did have a match with Nick the Greek, it probably was set up by Benny Binion (who would have staked Moss), and it probably lasted some time -- probably off and on, rather than continuously. But, also probably, it was not as big a game as legend has it..." (page 174) Wilson believes that the match did not inspire the World Series of Poker.