Poker Fatties: Overweight Is So 1998

READ MORE: Gastric Bypass, Poker

Heavy guy looking for an easy way out? Meet Ray Truelove, who waddled his big ass down to the doctor’s to get a quote have gastric bypass surgery. Unfortunately, his employer refused the request to have his insurance pick it up, even though he was a good 220 pounds or more overweight. We’ll let the reporter tell the rest:

Truelove said the first thing that allowed him to get the operation without the aid of insurance was when the California-based surgery center agreed to cut its price nearly in half — from about $50,000 to $26,150 — if he paid in cash.

Then, on St. Patrick’s Day, Truelove took his daughter to a Harrah’s casino in New Orleans to celebrate her 21st birthday. While there, he hit the $25,000 jackpot at a Caribbean stud poker table.

After taxes, Truelove ended up taking home about $17,000 — leaving him a little more than $10,000 short for the operation, he said. But when he got home from the trip, he found a letter in the mail stating that he had been approved for a $15,000 loan.

“I had been praying to God to provide a way for this to happen,” he said. “You will never convince me that it didn’t happen that way.”

This isn’t in our top one hundred things we’d do with $25k, but to each their own. We’d still rather do two chicks at the same time than undergo an operation, but you go Ray Truelove! To make it even sweeter? His employer ended up on the hook for the expense, and had to reimburse him for the surgery.

Gamble paid off for Truelove, but county will pay [Bryan-College Station Eagle]
Previously: More Fun With Poker Fatties: A Wake-Up Call [Oddjack]

More Fun With Poker Fatties: A Wake-Up Call

READ MORE: Fatties, Gastric Bypass, Linda Johnson, Poker

Well, a late wake-up call, at best. An Oddjack reader alerted us to this 2002 Card Player column by the first lady of poker Linda Johnson who wrote about her experience with the gastric bypass procedure. And as an added bonus, she listed some of her friends who’ve had the surgery:

Many of our friends have had the surgery in the past year. The list includes poker players Rich Korbin, Howard Lederer, Dick Stevens, Don Barton, Dan Lumello, and Robert Williamson. I don’t want to give the impression that the surgery is without problems. Some of us had temporary complications, but others had virtually no problems. There is no norm and everyone recovers at his or her own pace; however, we all had faith that within a few months after the surgery, we would be in very healthy states. We each have lost at least 100 pounds and are thrilled with our decisions to have the bypass surgery. I wrote this column in November, and at that time, Howard Lederer was our role model, having lost about 140 pounds (he works out in the gym every day, as does Don Barton). Those who had diabetes no longer have the disease. Traveling is so much easier. People always are asking, “Is that really you?” We are having fun wearing new clothes and experiencing our new lifestyles. In short, if we had the decision to make again, we all would do it again in a heartbeat.

Man, it seems everybody was once a porker. In fact, the photo to the top left is actually a picture of none other than poker playing legend Johnny Chan before gastric bypass surgery.

Warning: No Poker Content! [CardPlayer]

Poker: A Fat Guy For Generation X-Box

READ MORE: Doyle Brunson, Fried Cheese, Gastric Bypass, Howard Lederer, Poker, Thunder Keller

While America’s overweight elderly can look up to Doyle Brunson and the baby boomer beer bellies to Howard Lederer, who can our fried-cheese youth look up to in the galaxy of poker stars?

Kids, meet 24 year-old heavyweight Thomas “Thunder” Keller.

Keller is the type of roly-poly rebel the X-Games (watching - not participating) generation can get excited about. He’s rocking the frosty tips in his hair which proves he’s cool. His nickname is wicked awesome. He name drops Affleck and Spider-Man in his interviews. He credits Rounders as an influence, and the Internet for shaping his game. He is, as the kids say today, “Huge.” “Blowing up.” “Living large.”

And he is a really, really fat guy. Surprisingly, we glanced through his archives at Card Player and there was not one single article trumpeting the joys of batter dipped chocolate bars. Consider us shocked.

Previously: The Incredible Shrinking Robert Williamson [Oddjack]
Previously: Revel In Your Corpulence: Tomer Benvenisti, Friend To The Fat Man [Oddjack]
Previously: More Gastric Bypass Poker Playing Goodness: Howard Lederer [Oddjack]

Revel In Your Corpulence: Tomer Benvenisti, Friend To The Fat Man

READ MORE: 2+2, Felicia Lee, Gastric Bypass, Poker, Tomer Benvenisti

If stomach stapling is the diet of choice for today’s active poker player (cough), then why does it seem that only mama’s boys and whining little wannabe Zen Buddhists don’t seem to have taken Little Debbie and the Twinkies Cowboy hostage in their jowls?

Like beer-league softball and the great sport of bowling, America has found a pasttime for our morbidly obese. And we’d like to nominate Tomer Benvenisti as the Patron Saint of fat-ass poker players everywhere.

Why Tomer? Well, first off he’s Italian. We fully support the complete range of cured meats that end in vowels, as well as the variety of dishes with awesomely fun names to pronounce like “braciole” and “gabbagool.” Second, he’s delightfully doughy. Look at him, there’s no way he disarms two muggers like Greg Raymer. He’s the perfect role model for today’s sedentary man.

There are lots of fat guys out there to choose from, but give us a guy whose pores reek like the trash can at an Italian deli. Give us a guy who licks his fingers clean, but only after his fifth cannoli has built up the appropriate amount of residue. You can have your Polish and your German tubby folk, give us Tomer Benvenisti and a pound of Prosciutto. He’s the man.

Previously: The Incredible Shrinking Robert Williamson [Oddjack]
Previously: More Gastric Bypass Poker Playing Goodness: Howard Lederer [Oddjack]

More Gastric Bypass Poker Playing Goodness: Howard Lederer

READ MORE: 2+2, Felicia Lee, Gastric Bypass, Howard Lederer, Poker

Think stomach stapling is only the domain of slovenly fat-ass housewives who eat so much sausage (not a euphemism) their fingers permanently taste like fennel? You, my friends, would be wrong.

Enter Howard “The Professor” Lederer, who has turned a talent for cards into a gig where he sits nearly immobile for up to 18 hours a day. That’s gotta be a great lifestyle for your health. Since we’re prone to leaping to wild assumptions, we’re going to tell you we assume Lederer took the easy way to losing a reported 140 pounds with the surgery, and now subsists on a half an apple and three Capri Sun juice pouches per day.

Frankly, we liked him better when he looked like he had just devoured Commander Riker.

Previously: The Incredible Shrinking Robert Williamson [Oddjack]