{"id":38386,"date":"2022-02-25T01:28:26","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T09:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=38386"},"modified":"2022-02-23T18:50:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T02:50:52","slug":"seven-decades-of-poker-evolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/02\/25\/seven-decades-of-poker-evolves\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven decades of poker evolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

A screenshot of Morley\u2019s Minyan playing poker. Top row, from left: Al Hornstein, Larry Moscovitz and Carolyn Aronson. Middle row, from left: Lyall Levy, Murray Atnikov (the night\u2019s big winner) and Macey Morris. Bottom left is Tony Aronson. Missing are Steve Bernstein, Joel Finkelstein, Marshall Cramer and Irv Sirlin. (image from Carolyn Aronson)<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1948 or 1949, a group of Jewish students at the University of British Columbia started a weekly poker game. While none of the original players remain, the regular game has continued, with a few interruptions, for more than 70 years. Now, children of some of the earliest members are joining \u2013 and the \u201cyoung\u201d card players are themselves middle aged.<\/p>\n

Murray Atnikov, now 97, joined the poker game around 1960. He enjoys playing, but it\u2019s the kibitzing that keeps him coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company is very, very jovial, to say the least,\u201d said Murray. \u201cWe have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The march of time means the faces have changed, but the endurance of the game has been remarkable. It started out as a weekly event, though it went to biweekly when the Vancouver Canucks joined the National Hockey League in 1970. Since the pandemic began, they have played via an online poker platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe continuity is something that amazes me,\u201d said Murray.<\/p>\n

Lyall Levy, a retired family doctor who is 85, joined the group in 1964. In those days, the games rotated among the players\u2019 homes. The players were all men and the wives would outdo one another preparing refreshments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be like going to a high-end Jewish restaurant,\u201d Lyall said. His daughter, Carolyn Aronson, recalls having extra-special lunches the day after poker nights.<\/p>\n

Carolyn, now 60, broke the gender barrier when she became the first female to join the men\u2019s game. She is one of four members who are a generation younger than the other players. Her husband, Tony Aronson, also plays. Joel Finkelstein joined the game when his father, Norty, passed away, and Larry Moscovitz took the place of his late father, Bill. The others range from 81 to Murray, at 97.<\/p>\n

As the players (and their wives) got older, they moved the games to the Richmond Golf and Country Club, to which they hope to return as soon as the COVID situation makes it reasonable to do so. When some wives complained that the men were driving home on dark winter nights, they moved the games to the afternoon, followed by noshes in the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The group never had a name or any formal structure, but after Morley Koffman, a Vancouver lawyer who was a founding player, passed away in 2015 at age 85, they dubbed themselves Morley\u2019s Minyan in his honour.<\/p>\n

The players and their families formed tight bonds. Morley, a meticulous record-keeper, would hold back some of the cash from the kitty each week to put toward an annual group golfing and eating excursion in Seattle with spouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that appeased the wives because they got to go to Seattle and go shopping or whatever,\u201d speculated Carolyn.<\/p>\n

While her husband joined the game in person before the pandemic, she came in only after it went online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve never said no girls but there\u2019s never been a woman in the game before,\u201d she laughed. She\u2019s not sure she\u2019ll be invited when they return to live games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we go back to live, she will be there,\u201d her husband insisted. \u201cThe other guys will want her there, trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her father foresees some potential gender conflicts, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with adding women is, I can think of at least two others whose wives are better players than their husbands,\u201d said Lyall. Another issue, he said, is that some wives may not know how much money their husbands have been losing all these years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a friendly game \u2013 for the most part. Lyall shared tales of sharp competitiveness, referring to some players as \u201carchenemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

His daughter downplayed the sharp elbows, insisting it\u2019s all fun and games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all fun and games to watch them get at each other,\u201d her father retorted. \u201cThere was a lot of hostility between one player and the next. I could tell you some stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey like ripping each other,\u201d conceded Carolyn, \u201cespecially my dad and Murray, they\u2019re old friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Murray makes a big raise, Lyall studies his opponent\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell \u2013 when his lip starts to quiver, he\u2019s bluffing,\u201d Lyall said. This puts Lyall at a disadvantage in the online game, where faces are obscured and quivering lips are undetectable.<\/p>\n

\"screenshot<\/a>
Morley\u2019s Minyan as their avatars playing on Pokerstars. (image from Carolyn Aronson)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Aronsons used to jet off regularly to Vegas to play the game. When Lyall invited his son-in-law to join about four years ago, he warned him that the group takes things seriously.<\/p>\n

Tony acknowledged, \u201cWhen Lyall first invited me to join, he said to me, \u2018Tony, you gotta think about whether you want to play.\u2019 I said, \u2018I can handle it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But joining a group already (long) in progress involves some adjustments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018What games do you play?\u2019\u201d Tony recalled. \u201cHe said, \u2018It\u2019s dealer\u2019s choice. You can play any game you want.\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh good, that\u2019s nice.\u2019 The first game I arrived at, it came around to me and I said, \u2018OK, we\u2019ll play Omaha.\u2019 \u2018No, no. We don\u2019t play Omaha.\u2019 So I said, \u2018OK, how about Three-card Monte?\u2019 \u2018Nope, we don\u2019t play that.\u2019 I said, \u2018I thought it was dealer\u2019s choice.\u2019 They said, \u2018It is. Seven or five card stud, whichever one you want.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The games are not penny ante, but nor are the pots nothing. A hundred or a couple of hundred bucks may be at stake but the bragging rights are the real jackpot.<\/p>\n

Recently, Murray had a big win.<\/p>\n

Carolyn said, \u201cI heard my dad talking to him two days later and he said, \u2018I\u2019m still walking four feet above the ground.\u2019 He\u2019s phoning everybody he knows to say that he won at poker.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the longer-term players, these connections constitute decades-long friendships.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these people he\u2019s maintained the relationships with them for 50, 60 years,\u201d said Carolyn.<\/p>\n

Added Tony: \u201cFor the younger generation \u2013 Larry and Joel and Carolyn and myself \u2013 it\u2019s just been an amazing way to connect with these people in a way that we probably couldn\u2019t have before and it feels good that, during COVID, we have been able to put them together and give them the joy of something that they love that they couldn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always an entertaining evening,\u201d Lyall said, \u201cno matter whether you\u2019ve won or lost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A screenshot of Morley\u2019s Minyan playing poker. Top row, from left: Al Hornstein, Larry Moscovitz and Carolyn Aronson. Middle row, from left: Lyall Levy, Murray Atnikov (the night\u2019s big winner) and Macey Morris. Bottom left is Tony Aronson. Missing are Steve Bernstein, Joel Finkelstein, Marshall Cramer and Irv Sirlin. (image from Carolyn Aronson) In 1948 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21306,20750,6685,2527,21307,21308,9812,21305,21309],"class_list":["post-38386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-carolyn-aronson","tag-covid","tag-friendship","tag-games","tag-lyall-levy","tag-murray-atnikov","tag-pandemic","tag-poker","tag-tony-aronson"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}