Poker Champion David Chip Reese Dies of Pneumonia
American Poker Player David “Chip†Reese died this month at the age of 56. Reese was an amazing poker player, even from a young age, and was considered one of the best throughout his career. He won the $1000 Seven Card Stud Split event at the World Series of Poker in 1978 and the $5000 Seven Card Stud Tournament in 1982. He wrote the seven-card stud section of the best-selling poker book, Doyle Brunson’s Super System in his early twenties. Brunson once described Chip Reese as “one of the two finest young poker players in the world.†Reese became the youngest living player to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1991.
Chip grew up in Centerville, Ohio. During elementary school, he suffered from rheumatic fever which forced him to stay at home with his mother for nearly a year. During those days, his mother taught him to play board games and cards. By the age of six, he was beating kids five years older then him at poker. In high school he took up football and debating. He turned down an opportunity to go to Harvard and went to Dartmouth College instead to major in economics. During his stay at Dartmouth, he taught his fraternity brothers to play cards – his fraternity card room was later named the David E. Reese Memorial Card Room. After graduation he was admitted into Stanford Business School but he turned it down to begin playing poker professionally.
Reese died in his sleep at his home in Las Vegas due to pneumonia. His life story is full of successes and amazing fetes due to his impeccable brains and courage. The Poker World and those who enjoy watching it mourn the loss of this great.