Poker After Dark The Mayfair Club Airs This Week

By Dennis Oehring

NBC’s Poker After Dark takes viewers on a trip down memory lane this week, as six players who frequented the legendary Mayfair Club in New York City will each put up $20,000 and compete for the $120,000 winner-take-all first prize.  Those competing are pros Jay Heimowitz, Howard Lederer, Mickey Appleman, Dan Harrington, Steve Zolotow, and Mike Shichtman, the manager of the club during its heyday.

Originally a club for backgammon and bridge players, The Mayfair Club gradually transitioned into the premier underground poker club in The Big Apple until it was closed by authorities in the year 2000.  But from the mid-1980s until its closure, the Mayfair Club was a training ground for many of the game’s top professional players.  In addition to the players featured this week, other notables who played there included Erik Seidel, Stu Ungar, Noli Francisco, Paul Magriel, and Jason Lester.   The Chesterfield Club in the movie Rounders was even modeled after the Mayfair Club.

This is the first appearance on the show for all of the players with the exception of Lederer and Zolotow.  Howard has two PAD victories, in Match 6 and Match 15, and sports an overall 2-4 record.  “Stevie Z” has one appearance back in Match 1, the one that featured Phil Hellmuth’s classic blowup, where he finished 5th.

The resumes that the remaining players bring to this week’s show are impressive indeed. Harrington, Appleman, and Heimowitz have won a combined total of 12 WSOP bracelets, with Harrington winning the World Series of Poker Championship in 1995.  And longtime gambler Shichtman, while the only player at the table not to have won a bracelet, was the man primarily responsible for the Mayfair Club’s successful changeover to poker during the club’s golden years, and as such knew the players as well as anyone.

Viewers will hear stories galore in this week’s match as these six players reminisce about the good ole’ days while playing one more game together.  Expect to hear discussions about how the games of chess and backgammon parallel that of poker, and stories about Stu Ungar, sports betting, and gambling in general.  It is men such as are featured in this week’s lineup that many younger players today should remember for helping to contribute to poker’s growth over the years, and to the popularity of the game as we know it today.

Heimowitz, Jay:  (Seat 1)
• A native of Bethel, NY, he began playing poker at the age of 9 for baseball cards, and was one of the original players who established the Mayfair Club as an elite poker house
• Winner of 6 WSOP bracelets, and has played in every World Series since 1975, winning a bracelet in the first WSOP tournament he ever played in
• Career tournament winnings in excess of $1.91 million
• After  leaving the Army at age 21 with $10,000 in poker winnings, he opened a beer and bottling company which would become a Budweiser distributorship two years later
• Highly regarded for his pleasant demeanor and respectful nature on and off the tables

Lederer, Howard:  (Seat 2)
• Nicknamed “The Professor,” and one of the most respected of all players among his peers
• Has won two WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles
• Lifetime tournament winning in excess of $4.91 million, and ranks 36th on the all-time money list
• Won the $100,000 buy-in event at the 2008 Aussie Millions, good for nearly $1.1 million
• Highly regarded as a television poker commentator and analyst

Appleman, Mickey:  (Seat 3)
• Long-time poker professional and highly successful sports bettor who was born on Long Island and now resides in Fort Lee, NJ
• Winner of 4 WSOP bracelets, all in different games, and played in his first World Series in 1975
• Lifetime tournament winnings in excess of $1.66 million
• Holds an MBA degree from Rutgers University, and taught statistics upon graduating, a background which has undoubtedly been instrumental in his success
• Once bet 32 people $20,000 each that he could break 100 on a golf course, and holed out a 49 yard shot from off the green on the 18th hole to shoot 99 and win $640,000

Harrington, Dan:  (Seat 4)
• Former champion backgammon player, chess master, and bankruptcy lawyer who played poker at the Mayfair Club with Howard Lederer and Erik Seidel in the mid-1980s
• 1995 World Series of Poker Champion, and winner of two WSOP bracelets and one WPT open title, the 2007 Legends of Poker Championship
• Known as “Action Dan,” he has lifetime tournament winnings in excess of $6.54 million, and ranks 23rd on the all-time money list
• Made the final table at the WSOP Championship event in both 2003 and 2004, an incredible accomplishment given the size of the fields
• Co-authored Harrington on Hold’em, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, which deal with NL hold’em tournament play, and just released two more books on playing in NLHE cash games

Zolotow, Steve:  (Seat 5)

• Nicknames are “Z,” “Stevie Z,” and “The Bald Eagle”
• Winner of two WSOP bracelets, one in Chinese Poker
• Career tournament winnings in excess of $1.80 million
• Owner of several bars in New York City, and played poker at the prestigious Mayfair Club during its heyday
• Earned an MBA from NYU

Shichtman, Mike:  (Seat 6)
• Long-time professional gambler who was born in the Bronx and now lives in New York’s Greenwich Village
• From the mid-1980s was the majority owner of the Mayfair Club in New York, taking it from a bridge club to a club of poker prominence before it was closed in 2000
• Has been playing poker for nearly 6 decades, and still plays 2-3 times a week, mostly in private clubs or home games
• Currently serves as a consultant to an online poker site and to Duplicate Poker
• Married for 47 years and has one son

Dennis Oehring serves as the Public Relations Coordinator for the firm POKER PROductions.  Statistical information courtesy of The Hendon Mob database.