Crandell Addington (born June 2, 1938 in
Graham, TexasGraham is a city in Texas. It is the county seat of Young County, and as of the 2000 Census had a population of 8,716.-History:The site was first settled in 1871 by brothers G.A. and E.S. Graham, primary shareholders in the Texas Emigration and Land Company of Louisville, Kentucky...
) is an
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and
pokerPoker is a sport from the family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed...
player who is best known as one of the founders of the
World Series of PokerThe World Series of Poker is a poker tournament held annually in Las Vegas. The first WSOP in 1970 was an invitational wherein Benny Binion invited six of the best known poker players to The Horseshoe Casino. At first, the WSOP grew slowly. It was twelve years before the WSOP drew 52...
.
Known as "Dandy" because he was always well-dressed in a suit, Addington was a regular player in the Texas poker circuit in the 1960s. In 1969, he won the Texas Gamblers Convention in
Reno, NevadaReno is a city in and the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The population was 180,480 at the 2000 census; in 2008, its population was estimated at 217,016, making it the fourth-largest city in the state after Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, and the largest outside of...
; it was there that the idea for the World Series of Poker was conceived.
Crandell Addington (born June 2, 1938 in
Graham, TexasGraham is a city in Texas. It is the county seat of Young County, and as of the 2000 Census had a population of 8,716.-History:The site was first settled in 1871 by brothers G.A. and E.S. Graham, primary shareholders in the Texas Emigration and Land Company of Louisville, Kentucky...
) is an
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and
pokerPoker is a sport from the family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed...
player who is best known as one of the founders of the
World Series of PokerThe World Series of Poker is a poker tournament held annually in Las Vegas. The first WSOP in 1970 was an invitational wherein Benny Binion invited six of the best known poker players to The Horseshoe Casino. At first, the WSOP grew slowly. It was twelve years before the WSOP drew 52...
.
Known as "Dandy" because he was always well-dressed in a suit, Addington was a regular player in the Texas poker circuit in the 1960s. In 1969, he won the Texas Gamblers Convention in
Reno, NevadaReno is a city in and the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The population was 180,480 at the 2000 census; in 2008, its population was estimated at 217,016, making it the fourth-largest city in the state after Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, and the largest outside of...
; it was there that the idea for the World Series of Poker was conceived. At the time Addington was already a self-made millionaire who played poker primarily for fun; for him, the game was more about personal challenge than about the pot size.
Poker
Addington made the final table of the WSOP Main Event almost every year from 1972 to 1979, and still holds the record for most final table appearances (seven). He finished second on two occasions, losing to
Johnny MossJohnny Moss
was a long-time gambler and professional poker player.-Learning the game:Moss was born in Marshall, Texas in 1907 and grew up in Dallas, Texas where he learned how to gamble as a young boy. A group of cheaters taught him how to cheat in games, but Moss put this knowledge to...
in
1974-Preliminary events:-Final table:...
and
Bobby BaldwinBobby Baldwin is a professional poker player and casino executive.When Baldwin won the 1978 World Series of Poker main event he became the youngest winner in its history, to be superseded by Stu Ungar in 1980 and then Phil Hellmuth in 1989 and Peter Eastgate in 2008...
in
1978The 1978 World Series of Poker was held in May 1978 at Binion's Horseshoe. and was the first WSOP that wasn't a winner-take-all prize.Instead the tournament had a progressive prize structure, as follows 50% for the Winner then 20% for second, 15% for third, 10% for fourth and 5% for fifth...
. Although he is no longer an active player and has not had a tournament cash since 1990, he is regarded as one of the greatest poker players in history. Fellow Hall of Famer
Doyle BrunsonDoyle F. Brunson is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several highly influential books on poker.Brunson is...
described him as a "No Limit Hold'em Legend".
Business
Addington graduated from
Southwestern UniversitySouthwestern University is a private, four-year, undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Georgetown, Texas, USA. Founded in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest university in Texas.-History:...
with majors in
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and accounting. He left his professional poker career in the 1980s to put his business degree to work. Over the course of his 40 years as an entrepreneur, he founded successful businesses ranging from chemical manufacturing to oil and gas exploration. He is the currently the CEO, Chairman, and Director of Phoenix Biotechnology, a company that focuses on cancer treatment research.
In 2005, Addington took another shot at a WSOP win when he returned to Vegas to be inducted into the
Poker Hall of FameIn 1979, Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, created the the Poker Hall of Fame to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest poker players. Binion was known for the creative ways in which he marketed his Casino. In 1949, he convinced Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek to...
, but he did not fare as well as he did back in the 1970s.
As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $160,000.
External links