Oh we love to look up to our poker heroes but many of them haven’t exactly always set the best of examples away from the table. Here we present the top seven (technically eight) poker players who have had run ins with the law.
1. Layne Flack
Poker pro, Layne Flack, was arrested in early 2009 for drunk driving charges. Actually, it was drunk driving, speeding, and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. What made this especially troublesome for Flack was that he was in jail while he was supposed to be competing against Vanessa Selbst at the 2009 NBC National Heads-up Poker Championships. Technically, Layne isn’t convicted of the crimes as of yet (case is still pending as far as I can tell). According to Flack he refused to submit to a breathalyzer test. But, Nevada is an implied consent state which means that in order to obtain a license one must agree that they will submit to a breathalyzer test if asked to do so by law enforcement officers so a failure to submit would in itself be a crime.
2. Amarillo Slim
This poker legend pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault on a 12 year old family member in 2004. The original charge had been indecency but was dropped to a lesser charge as part of a plea bargain. After his no contest plea, several members of his family (parents of the accuser and his ex-wife) who had once been convinced of his guilt came forward and said that they now believed that he was innocent. He has also taken a polygraph test which seems to indicate that he told the truth. Asked why he then plead no contest he says his lawyer had worked out a deal that kept his granddaughter from having to testify against him in court and kept him out of jail. Regardless of what did or didn’t happen, poker legend Amarillo Slim has the conviction on his record.
3. Mike “The Mouth” Matusow
In 2003 Mike Matusow was living the hard partying lifestyle. When he met Mike Fento they became friends. So when Fento asked Mike if he could score some cocaine Mike obliged and went out to pick up Fento some blow. The only problem is that Fento was not Mike’s friend unless your idea of a friend is a DEA undercover agent looking to bust you. Matusow was arrested and pleaded out for a six month sentence which he served in 2004/2005.
4. Shahram “Shawn” Sheikhan
Shawn Sheikhan wasn’t really a household name in the poker world until his 2005 WSOP Main Event final table appearance in which he and Mike Matusow traded verbal blows. Both were at each others throats the entire time which made for fantastic television. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone too well for Shawn since then. It seems he had a 1995 conviction on charges of sexual battery and annoyance or molestation of a child. Ouch. Although Sheikhan is a legal permanent U.S. resident he is an Iranian citizen and subject to deportation for certain types of crimes which ICE insists his case meets. As of now his lawyers are fighting the deportation.
5. David “Devilfish” Ulliott
Devilfish while in his early twenties became involved in a safe cracking team. A fellow member of the team was later caught and ratted Devilfish out which got him a nine month stay at Leeds Prison. Devilfish was arrested again when he was 28 for a fight outside a nightclub, and served 18 months in Leeds and Durham Prisons. After serving his 18 month sentence for the nightclub fight Devilfish decided he had enough of the criminal life and decided to go legit as a professional gambler.
6. Stu Ungar
Probably considered the best poker player of all time, Stu’s eventual downfall was drugs. Between the infamous incident in which Bob Stupak staked Stu into the 1998 WSOP Main Event which Stu never showed up for and Stu’s death in a Las Vegas hotel room just a few short months later he managed to get himself arrested on drug possession charges. However this wasn’t Stu’s first brush with the law. He was almost arrested once when he needed to get a passport and was told that he could pay an extra fee for expedited service (a service available to anyone willing to pay the extra fee). Stu misread the agent to mean that he could pay a bribe and attempted to bribe the agent who was going to call the police but Stu’s friends stepped in and explained it was a misunderstanding.
7. Steve Zolotow and Howard Lederer
After becoming friends at the infamous Mayfair Club in New York Steve and Howard struck out to conquer the sports betting world. Steve wasn’t half-bad at handicapping and used another handicappper to perfect a betting system that was making them a lot of money. Steve estimates that clearing a million a season was a good season for them. Unfortunately, the duo got busted by the cops who thought they were bookies rather than bettors. They were released but the police confiscated most of their money which set them back. They set up shop again in Las Vegas but the FBI came calling and seized their funds again. Both decided making money betting sports with the tougher lines and the constant hassle from the police was too difficult and they migrated back to playing poker professionally.
Didn’t Shawn get convicted of manslaughter as well?