PokerPlasm’s own, John “The Greek” Leontakianakos, has been appointed to the World Poker Association’s Board of Directors. This is great news for the world of poker. Mr. Leontakianakos, Senior Vice President of Finance for GateKeeper USA, Inc., has over 30 years of high stakes poker playing experience and understands the issues in advancing the game that we all love.
Commenting on his accceptance onto the Board of Directors, Mr. Leontakianakos, expressed his utmost gratitude.
It is sincerely an honor to have been selected by Jesse Jones, the founder of the WPA to contribute in this effort. There is a great deal of work to be done in this arena. Ranging from standardized rules; improving player conditions; assisting in the legalization of poker worldwide; and representing player interests to insure proper compensation as professionals.
This is an organization, we as poker players, should all be involved in because they represent us all, from the amateur poker player online, to the semi-pro at a World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker event, to the professionals we see on television.
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Big Tony was the local mafia capo in charge of the neighborhood. His distant cousin Carlo Gambino was the “boss of bosses”, running the whole show. And every Saturday Big Tony would pull up at the corner gas station where all the neighborhood kids used to hang out.
His car was a big black sedan and it used to dominate the forecourt when he pulled in to fill up. But the weekly ritual was about far more than just putting gas in the tank. All the local kids would compete for the honor of washing the windows, cleaning the mirrors and pumping the gas. The right to service Big Tony’s car was highly sought after and it wasn’t just for the honor. Uncle Tone would always tip the kid who serviced the car with a 50 dollar bill. Continue Reading »
The New York in which I arrived in 1970 was a city held together by organized crime and gambling. I landed as an eight-year-old immigrant who knew three words of English and began my poker education almost as soon as I stepped off the plane.
Moving into a Queens’ tenement with my parents and sisters, it was soon clear we’d left behind Athenian suburbia for a neighborhood controlled by the mob, but powered by gambling. The streets were given structure and safety by the mafia, but their lifeblood was the steady stream of bets and
wagers. The local bookmakers took small-stakes bets on the weekly “numbers”, our equivalent of the state lottery, and added to the vig they earned on that by lending money at rates and availability no bank could match. Continue Reading »
If you’ve met me at a poker table, you might know me as John the Greek. But the chances are that you won’t have heard of me. I’ve only just begun to play in major tournaments. But I’ve been playing poker for as long as I can remember. And this game has earned me a good living since I was a teenager. I’ve played this game professionally at the highest level and I have been playing for almost 30 years. Continue Reading »
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