Las Vegas casino owner Bob Stupak loved poker.
Stupak's casino, Vegas World, hosted the America's Cup of Poker throughout the 1980s and Stupak himself was a regular at Benny Binion's World Series of Poker down the street. He won a 2-7 bracelet there in 1989, the same year he won the Super Bowl of Poker at Caesars Palace. Stupak later appeared on the first season of High Stakes Poker and continued to cash in Las Vegas tournaments throughout the 2000s until he passed away in 2009.
So, it's no surprise that Stupak, along with his "Resident Wizard" David Sklansky, tried to turn poker into a casino game. Their wacky, tacky Vegas World was known for such a thing. They invented the now-prevalent crapless craps and what was then called Double Exposure 21, a Blackjack game where players could see both of the dealer's hole cards. The player lost on a push and Blackjack paid 1:1, so it didn't catch on.
An archive of Stupak's personal and professional papers now sits at UNLV in the Special Collections department. Inside you'll find plans for a number of casino resorts, both built and not built, along with legal documents, advertisements, and everything else Stupak saw fit to keep from his time at a Vegas casino mogul. His World Famous Gambling Museum at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip would eventually become Vegas World, and Vegas World would evolve into what is now the Stratosphere. Stupak envisioned all of it, along with a Titanic-themed casino that never broke ground.
The archive also includes a draft of his screenplay, Bloody Mary, and 62 other boxes of odds and ends. His antics have a certain variety to them, from building a large tower in the middle of Las Vegas to going to war with Donald Trump over a board game. There's a lot to unpack.
Play poker against The House
We start with Vegas World's attempt at a poker table game, now unearthed thanks to the digitized VHS tape of a March 1982 press conference starring Doyle Brunson, Sailor Roberts, Puggy Pearson, and Johnny Moss.
Stupak invited poker's biggest and most available stars to Vegas World to try out the new game with host Sklanksy, who would walk everyone through the rules while the foursome sat down for a few hands. They called it a press conference, but it was more like a loose gathering of gamblers and it was documented with the early handheld camera style of the 1980s.
Roberts was introduced in Seat 1, followed by Brunson to his left and then Pearson and Moss. Pearson sat chewing on a cigar and Brunson held a stack of $100 bills in his hand, while Moss seemed confused but ready to gamble.
The rules boil down to a simplified version of poker:
- Every player antes and is dealt five cards.
- The dealer shows two cards face up and three cards face down.
- The player has the option to bet or fold.
- If they bet, it must be twice the ante.
- If the dealer's hand ace-king or better, they'll call all of the remaining bets.
- If it's worse, the dealer will pay off the remaining antes, regardless of the player's hand.
A few bonuses come into play, as well. Three aces or a straight pay three times the ante, while a flush or better is 10x. Straight flushes earn a $500 bonus and a dealt Royal Flush wins the big jackpot of $1,000.
The four World Champions were trying to work out some of the strategy while Doyle flicked in $100 bills without much worry. On one particular hand, the dealer showed 
and Roberts doubled his bet with a pair of face cards. Doyle went deep into the tank and tried to work out the odds before he tossed in a double bet with what looked like ace-high. Pearson came along and Moss ducked out of the way. The dealer turned over another ten to make a pair and Doyle lost. Roberts and Pearson had high pairs and they won their bets.
Doyle spent the rest of the video tossing around $100 bills while a small crowd enjoyed the light spectacle. You can find the whole thing on the UNLV website.
Prelude to Ultimate
It's unclear how long Casino Poker lasted at Vegas World, but it laid the groundwork for the very popular Ultimate Texas Hold'em, now found in casinos all over the country. In "Ultimate", players put out a blind bet and an ante before they receive two cards against the dealer's two. You can check or raise, usually 3x or 4x your original ante.
Once you raise you're locked in, but you can check to see the first three community cards. You can check again or fire in a raise, this time 2x your ante bet. The final two cards are then revealed and you can once again check or match your ante for the final bet. Cards are revealed and if you beat the house's hand, you win.
There are a few quirks, like the dealer needing to make a pair to qualify, and some bonuses depending on where you play it. The game started as an electronic machine, but its popularity led to the live table version and it is now the most successful version of poker found on a casino floor.
Casino Poker was just one of many innovations by Stupak, who was one of the early believers in poker as a spectacle. Vegas World closed in 1995, leaving behind the world's largest Big Six wheel and what was at one time the World's Largest Sign. In its place now sits the Stratosphere, Stupak's most glorious contribution to the Las Vegas Strip.
