Eric Drache (born 1943) is a professional
poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
player, former cardroom manager and consultant for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
. Drache is best known for his management contributions to the poker world, and he is also a notable
seven-card stud
Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River, is a variant of stud poker. Before the 2000s surge of popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was one of the most widely played poker variants in home games across the Unite ...
player. He finished second in
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...
stud events in
1973
Events January
* January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...
,
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...
, and
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
.
Drache was responsible for inventing
tournament satellites while running the World Series of Poker in the 1970s as a way to get more entries per tournament. Drache also managed and hosted notable cardrooms at the
Golden Nugget and the
Mirage
A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...
. Drache's innovations as poker manager include:
ante structures, dealer training and the invention of the "must-move" table. Drache trained both Donna Harris and Doug Dalton, cardroom managers at the Mirage and
Bellagio respectively.
In the mid-1990s, Drache was prosecuted on federal tax fraud charges and lost his Nevada gaming license as a result, which is required to work in casinos.
Drache was named to the
Poker Hall of Fame
The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker in the United States. Founded in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, it was created in 1979 by Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, to preserve the names and legacies of the w ...
in 2012.
As of 2009, Drache's total live poker tournament winnings exceed $325,000.
References
External links
Card Player profileHendon Mob profilePokerNews profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drache, Eric
American poker players
Living people
1943 births
Poker Hall of Fame inductees