Dr Jerry Buss, a person to carve his name into basketball and poker history, passed away this February. The World Poker Tour is to honour him with a charity tournament at his home venue, Bicycle Casino.
After an honorary event in this year’s WSOP, the World Poker Tour also organises a tournament to honour the memory of Dr Jerry Buss, one of the most renowned recreational poker celebrity, who passed away this February at the age of 80. The WPT Foundation hosts the tournament at Buss’ home venue, the Bicycle Casino on 25 August. The $365 Frank Mariani & Jerry Buss No-Limit Hold’em event features a guaranteed prize pool of $20,000, the 25% of which going to support the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation.
As pokernewsdaily.com reports, the foundation uses sports “to promote education, teamwork and self-esteem among Los Angeles area youth”. Of course, those who feel like it can donate to the cause, regardless of the tournament. The final table players of the event receive unique, Jerry Buss/Frank Mariani chip sets as well and they can most likely be expected to donate themselves, too.
Dr Buss received his Masters degree and PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Southern California at the age of 24, where he studied with a scholarship, he himself coming from a poor family. Working as a chemistry professor at the same institution, he started to invest in real estate with Frank Mariani in 1959 and they made a fortune on it later in the 1970s. Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers in 1979, together with the L. A. Kings NHL team, the Inglewood Forum arena as well as the Chrysler Building in New York, among other properties.
He earned his reputation from introducing groundbreaking novelties to the sport, including making games a showtime event, selling the name of the arena (hence the name: Great Western Forum), making basketball a primetime TV programme, inviting celebrities to attract more viewers to the stadium and more. It was under his leadership that Lakers won five NBA titles with players like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and more.
At the poker tables, Buss was a recreational but nevertheless formidable player. He was featured several times on the High Stakes Poker show and even reached three ITM finishes in the WSOP. He stood up to the best of the game, many of whom he called friends. His favourite game was Stud, which is why this year’s $2,500 Seven Card Stud event was dedicated to his memory, being kicked off by Kobe Bryant.
