Steve Zolotow

[srw5n]

Play with him to my left for a few hours during event #3. Seemed like a solid player and an affable guy...

[O71394658]

Wow. I didn't know that they used to have WSOP events in Chinese poker.

[JackWhite]

Steve is one of the tightest players around. Very difficult to get chips from the guy. His style makes him extremely consistent. He doesn't win many, but he cashes a lot.

[cwsiggy]

wasn't he one of the guys playing the Mayfaird club with Eric Seidel, Lederer, and Harrington in NYC???

[J.R.]

yeah, i thought he met howard lederer in ny playing poker and then they went on to be partners in the LV sportsbetting operation after NY sportsbetting got hot as discussed in katy lederer's poker face book. My impression was poker was just a supplemental gambling activity for some time for both of them. anybody read that book or know if my understanding is correct, I'm pretty sure the character in the book was a steve Z who is steve zolotow.

[johnnycakes]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah, i thought he met howard lederer in ny playing poker and then they went on to be partners in the LV sportsbetting operation after NY sportsbetting got hot as discussed in katy lederer's poker face book. My impression was poker was just a supplemental gambling activity for some time for both of them. anybody read that book or know if my understanding is correct, I'm pretty sure the character in the book was a steve Z who is steve zolotow.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read Poker Face last week and this is correct.
Howard and "Steve Z" bet very large sums of money on sports. Steve was so good, that whenever he placed a bet, all the lines moved. He and Howard moved to Las Vegas when they got tired of being hassled by the NYC police.

[ClaytonN]

Steve Z's name on Stars is AmazingGrave, I believe.

[Jonathan]

[ QUOTE ]
wasn't he one of the guys playing the Mayfaird club with Eric Seidel, Lederer, and Harrington in NYC???

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to see Steve (and Jason Lester and Paul Magriel) at the Mayfair regularly in
the late 70's. This was when backgammon was all the rage, and
poker was relatively unknown. I don't think I ever saw a poker game at the Mayfair during this period.

Paul was famous for his (excellent) backgammon book, his weekly columns in the New York Times, and also for being the
backgammon coach to the stars, such as Lucille Ball.

But I think Steve was the more respected high stakes backgammon player. He was a world class backgammon player,
and along with Paul, the strongest backgammon player I had
ever seen play.

Around this time (late 70's early 80's?) Paul became interested in the
oriental board game, Go, and used to frequent the NY Go Club
on West 10th Street in the Village. I was a strong Go player, and we arranged to make a trade....I would give Paul
Go lessons in exchange for backgammon lessons. Paul did not
continue with Go very long, although he certainly had talent
for the game.

As my professional career and marriage assumed more of my time, I gave up bridge and backgammon and stopped frequenting The Mayfair. I only became interested in poker within the last 2 years. But when reading the tournament results in Cardplayer, I was not the least bit
surprised to see that many of the old names ( Steve Zolotow,
Eric Seidel, Jason Lester, Paul Magreil) from the Mayfair and the floor of the American Stock Exchange had surfaced in Las Vegas as
professional poker players.

Suerte,
Jonathan

[-Skeme-]

Cool post, Jonathan.

[MLG]

Ive played with him before, I don't think his style is all that super tight at NL. Selective certainly, effective very, but he didn't strike me as overly tight. Great guy to chat with at the table too, smart, engaging and witty. I liked him a lot.