The poker community recently suffered a huge loss as Jack Ury passed away. Ury is famous for being the oldest player in the WSOP Main Event for a number of years. In 2007 ESPN followed his progress as he made Day 2 at the young age of 94. What made him even more unique was the fact that he was blind in one eye and could only see around 20% out of the other eye, and also that he could only hear out of one year. Yet he still went to Vegas every year and still competed in the huge Main Event field.

Ury used to live in Indiana with his family, and every year he would travel to Vegas with his grandson to play his favorite game. He learned to play poker when he was just 10 years old, all the way back in 1923! When he used to play the Main Event, he wore Full Tilt gear in support of the Full Tilt Poker referral code.

If you watched coverage of the 2009 WSOP, you might have seen Ury on TV. He is very famous for a slow rolling Steven Friedlander. They were heads-up in a hand together on a 667 flop and Ury bet 1,000 chips into a 5,550 pot. Friedlander asked Ury if he just wanted to get it all-in, and putting his entire stack into the pot, he said, “Let’s get ‘em all-in.” Ury deliberately hesitated, holding his chips slightly above the table and pausing for a second before dropping them.

At that point Friedlander flipped his hand over and showed 67s for a flopped boat. Everyone was impressed by this hand except Ury. Ury said to him, “You’re in trouble.” The dealer told him to show and Ury said, “turn them over?” before finally flipping the cards over and showing 77. To say that the entire table was astonished is an understatement. Everyone erupted with excitement, and Friedlander sat there smiling good-naturedly after being slow rolled by a man twice his age.

Whether you satellite into the World Series using poker flash or just watch the coverage on TV, you should definitely feel a sense of loss this coming year knowing that Ury will not be there. He will forever be remembered and loved as the oldest player in the Main Event and as the man that slowrolled on national television!