David “Chip” Reese started his poker career at the age of six, when he was regularly beating fifth graders in school. In addition to playing cards, in high school he was a football player and member of the debate team. His debate team won the Ohio State Championship and made it to the National Finals, so at an early age Reese was a winner.

Reese attended Darmouth University where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He regularly played and beat other students and professors at poker. In fact, the chapter named their card room the “David E. Reese Memorial Card Room” to honor him.

Reese was accepted to Stanford Law School, but before going he made a trip to Vegas. After winning $60,000, he decided that he was going to stay and try his hand at poker. He worked his way up through the cash game ranks and then finally took his shot at the big game at the time, which was $400-$800 Stud 8 or Better. He convinced his business partner Danny Robinson to commit most of their bankroll to buy-in to the game. This game included the likes of Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, and Johnny Moss. At one point, Reese was in a huge hand where at the end he made a steel wheel, which is an A-5 straight flush. This hand was good enough to take the whole pot and at the end of his session, Reese was up $29,000 in the game.

This would start Reese on a run in Vegas that continued for the rest of his life. Regardless of the competition, Reese held incredible composure at the table and was a consistent winner. Doyle Brunson said that Reese was the best 7 Card Stud player that he had ever seen. In fact, Reese took two bracelets in stud games at the World Series of Poker. He took the 1978 $1,000 Stud 8 bracelet and the 1982 7 Card Stud bracelet.

After those two wins, Reese mainly focused on cash games as during the 80’s and 90’s all the big money was in cash games. In fact, Reese was so dominant in the world of poker via cash games that he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1991. He was the youngest living member ever inducted, being 40 at the time of his induction. When the poker boom off 2003 hit, he decided that it was time to get back to playing tournaments. He would then proceed to achieve his greatest accomplishment at the poker tables in 2006.

2006 saw the induction of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker. H.O.R.S.E. is a rotation game including Holdem, Omaha 8 or Better, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Stud 8 or Better. It was created to give the big name pros a showcase where they could battle each other without the huge fields that had began to become a customer in most WSOP events. During Event #4 of the 2006 WSOP, Erik Seidel was asked who he thought would win the event, and without blinking, he said “Chip Reese.”

The final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event looked like a who’s who of poker. The table included Reese, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Jim Bechtel, T.J. Cloutier, David Singer, Dewey Tomko, Doyle Brunson, and Patrik Antonius. The game at the final table was No Limit Holdem since ESPN wanted to televise the event and they felt Holdem would be better to draw ratings. This drew much criticism and future H.O.R.S.E. final tables stuck with the initial rotation format.

Andy Bloch and Chip Reese became heads up in the event and Bloch held a sizable chip lead on Reese. The heads up battle between the two lasted 7 hours and 286 hands. This was the all time record for a heads up match until the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event. Time and again, Bloch had Reese all in and behind and Reese was able to outdraw Bloch each time. The final hand saw Bloch have to call an all in bet with only 9-8 against Reese’s A-Q. The A-Q held up, and Chip Reese was the World Champion. He took home his third gold bracelet and $1.7 Million in prize money.

Many professionals consider the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event the true World Championship of poker; even above the Main Event and this win cemented Reese’s status as the best poker player in the world. For his career, Reese finished with $3.55 Million in career earnings. While he didn’t play many tournaments, when he did play, he usually finished strong with most of his cashes becoming final table finishes. He had many wins in other venues including the Grand Prix of Poker and the Super Bowl of Poker. Rees e

Sadly, Chip Reese died in his sleep on December 4, 2007 in his sleep from the effects of pneumonia. Friends of his speculate that he probably died of a blood clot. At his funeral, Brunson stated that he had expected Reese to deliver his eulogy. Brunson and Reese were best friends.

Soon afterwards the World Series of Poker declared that at all future $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. events, the winner would receive the “David ‘Chip’ Reese Award” trophy in addition to the bracelet and the prize money.

Chip Reese was by far the greatest cash game player to ever play the game of poker. In addition he took world championships from the greatest players in the game. Many of the top professionals looked up to this man whose demeanor at the table was never shaken and that was one of the true consistent winners in the game of poker. When players think of a poker champion, they will always think of Chip Reese. Sadly, we will never know just how much more this legend would have accomplished, but the feats he did accomplish will live on in poker legend forever.