Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale takes a big hit, the founder of the casino resort town of Laughlin passes away, and the Brunson family losing their matriarch are some of the short stacks CardsChat picked up in its latest orbit of poker news.
As the Houston Astros go, so does the betting fortunes of Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, the 73 year-old sportsman who earned his massive bankroll by selling furniture in Texas. McIngvale, who bets so much and so big, he’s been given the honor of opening sport books, also brought a stable of Houston-based poker players to the World Series of Poker. The guy freakin’ loves action.
Today, he wakes up a loser. Various media outlets, including CBS Sports, is reporting that he lost about $7.9 million when the Astros lost to the Rangers 11-4 in the game seven rubber match last night.
But that’s just a mere flesh wound for “Mattress Mack.” When the Astros won the World Series in 2022, McIngvale cashed more than $70 million.
Brunson family loses their matriarch
Louise Brunson, Doyle Brunson’s longtime bride, has died. The news of her passing was shared through daughter Pamela Brunson’s socials.
“I’m sure she is so excited to be in heaven with my dad. Please keep us in your prayers. It’s been a crazy five months,” she wrote.
It’s been a trying half-year for Pamela and her brother, Todd, who lost their famous father at the age of 89 in May. Louise and Doyle were married for 62 years.
Don Laughlin has died
Don Laughlin, the man who built the casino town that will forever carry his name, has died. He was 92.
According to the Associated Press, “Laughlin is credited as the architect behind the transformation of an area of dirt and weeds 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Las Vegas into a thriving alternative to Sin City.”
That town would be Laughlin, which sits on the Arizona border not too far from California. According to the AP’s obituary, which heavily referenced a 2016 article published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Laughlin bought a small boarded up motel in the Mohave Desert in 1966, and turned the area into a thriving little gambling town.
Laughlin is now is the home to eight casinos which pull in more than 2 million visitors annually.
He told the Review-Journal that he was born to be in the gambling industry:
“When Laughlin was in ninth grade, his school principal issued an ultimatum to either stay in school or stay in the slot business, where he made $500 a week.
‘I said, ‘I’m making three times what you are, so I’m out the door,’ Laughlin recalled.
He passed away from natural causes in his penthouse home at the Riverside Resort.
