Floppies: casino guitars and poker’s most iconic musical instruments

Poker and music share certain fundamental characteristics.

Both require discipline and practice to master, give players a chance to show off their personalities, and provide plenty of opportunities for people to lose their money.

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More than that, though, music and poker are interconnected in many other ways, and have been throughout history. Over the last few decades, this connection has become more apparent with so many famous poker players picking up instruments and forming bands.

The Origins of Casino Guitars

Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, and Tony G all have past or present musical endeavors but the most famous poker band of them all is the Grinder’s Lock, made up of Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, Huck Seed, and fellow musician Olivier Busquet.

Before these famous poker players were household names in the poker world they actually cut their first (and only) album under the name “Casino Guitars” back in 1996 at the California Palace of Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

The idea for Casino Guitars was actually Busquet’s. At the time he was living in San Francisco playing in a folk revival band and he got a couple of his friends in that band together with Negreanu, Lederer and Seed to record an album of traditional folk songs.

“It wasn't a big production," Busket said. "We went into the studio and did it live. We didn't overdub anything.”

The result is a raw, sometimes uneven album of mostly traditional songs like “Matty Groves,” “Barbara Allen” and “Blackwaterside.”

The one original song on the record is “Casino Song,” which was written by Busquet and provides a glimpse into the world of poker long before any of these players were famous.

Some of the lyrics:

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You gotta watch out for the dealer, he'll rip you off blind *
- Takes your money and makes you grind
- He's gotta make action, he's got a lifestyle to maintain
- And his lifestyle includes keeping you in torment and pain

After the recording session the group forgot about the album until two years later when they received a call from a radio station in Reno saying that the album had caught on in the folk music scene and was getting heavy rotation on local radio.

Shortly after that Negreanu, Seed and Lederer would all appear on the Late Show with David Letterman performing a folk song accompanied by Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra.

Today the albums primarily value is as collector’s item for poker fans but listen to it below and you can hear the musicianship that would help these players find success both on the felt and in the recording studio.

Listen to Casino Guitars full album here:

Fort Lauderdale Casinos and Folk Music Revival

In 1997 another notable poker album was released. Fort Lauderdale Casinos is a solo effort from former professional poker player and prolific singer-songwriter David Roth.

Roth played poker during the no-limit hold’em pre-Internation boom period of the early 1980s. After losing most of his bankroll he decided to take up songwriting as a potential new career path.

He moved to Nashville to pursue a country music career but ended up signing with a small label based in Fort Lauderdale and began touring with another up-coming artist named Nelly Furtado.

Eventually Roth gave up music to raise a family but when his kids grew older he picked up the guitar again and started playing open mics in coffee shops around Los Angeles.

One night he was playing an open mic at the Ice House in Pasadena when Bill Brucher came in to watch him play.

At the time Brucker was working on a screenplay about Roth’s life and Roth agreed to let him stay in Bruckner’s guest house while he wrote.

During this time Bruckner was struggling with addiction and just before the screenplay was set to go into production he relapsed and wound up in rehab.

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While there he came up with the idea for Hollywood Homeboy, a semi-autobiographical movie about a poker player turned musician who winds up in Hollywood.

With Brucken’s rights to Roth’s story, the singer-songwriter was forced to turn down offers from major labels and instead self-released his debut album in 1997.

Roth describes the album as a combination of folk, pop and a bit of country and blues. Many of the songs deal with Roth’s life as a poker player and gambler.

Tracks like “High Card Low Card,” “Queens Up,” and “Straight Draw Nothing” give insight into what the life of a professional poker player was like before the game became a mainstream phenomenon.

A few years later Bruckner's Hollywood Homeboy was released to mixed reviews but today Roth is considered a pioneer of the folk revival movement and remains active as a musician, performing hundreds of shows a year and releasing seven albums since Fort Lauderdale Casinos.

Listen to Fort Lauderdale Casinos full album here:

Phil Hellmuth's Heavy Metal Poker Album

If Comedy Central Presents from 1998 is to be believed, at the end of the 90s Phil Hellmut had more time on his hands than most young poker pros.

On the comedy club circuit Hellmuth billed himself as “The Poker Prodigy” and did a set consisting almost entirely of material about his own incredible accomplishments in poker.

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Apparently that wasn’t fulfilling enough because around the same time Hellmuth joined forces with fellow poker pro Josh Arieh to form a heavy metal band called Panther Jack.

In 2000 the band entered the studio along with a few additional musicians including future superstar Gus Hansen to record an eight song demo of original material.

The demo consists largely of fast, heavy riffs and lyrics about women, partying, women, drinking, women and - you guessed it - women.

Songs like “Be With Me,” “I Believe in Love,” and “Baby Please Don’t Go” reveal a more sensitive side to Hellmuth and Hansen.

Actually, scratch that. Listening to the high-pitched whining on “Baby Please Don’t Go” it’s clear that the only thing sensitive about this song is Gus Hansen’s era.

Listening to Panther Jack is not a pleasant experience. Even for diehard Hellmuth and EPTera haters it’s hard to come up with reasons to dislike these guys.

The music is awful and the lyrics are unbearable. To add insult to injury the website for the album is no longer active but thankfully Archive.org has a copy of the lyrics available.

Here’s a sample from “Don’t Know Why":

I saw her walkin' down the street *
- Her hair was black and her eyes were bright
- She looked at me and I froze in my place
- I couldn't move, it seemed so unright

Although the album never saw a proper release the Panther Jack demo has achieved legendary status among poker fans.

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In recent years Gus Hansen has distanced himself from the project but Hellmuth still performs from time to time.

In fact in 2010 he put together a new lineup that included poker pros Ronnie Bardah and Jonathan Duhamel.

The new single, titled "Poker Rock", isn't quite as bad as "Baby Please Don't Go" but it's close.

More Poker Albums Worth Listening To

When Phil Galfond recently announced that he was releasing an album with his indie rock band Yesterday's Gone it came as a surprise to many.

As far as most people knew Galfund was a mathematician turned online poker legend, not a musician. As it turns out he’s been playing guitar and singing for much longer than he’s been playing poker.

When he was 13 Galfond’s dad showed him chords to a few three-chord wonders and he quickly taught himself to play green day and Nirvana songs. A few years later he started writing his own material.

Musically Love & Gambling fits nicely into the current indie rock landscape. Think Death Cab For Cutie fronted by Andy Samberg.

There’s nothing groundbreaking about the music but Galfond’s pop sensibility and genuine vocals make it listenable.

Lyrically however it’s clear that Galfond saved his songwriting energy for the second half of the album where he launches into some pretty cheesy love songs. The first half is filled with poker themed ditties like “Poker Town,” “All I Need is a Win,” and “Card Shark.”

Check out Yesterday's Gone full album here:

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Another surprising entry in the somewhat barren genre of poker music is Kara Scott’s 2012 EP Lucky in Love.

Scott has been a fixture in the European poker media since 2005 but before deciding to record a few original songs she teamed up with British comedian AL Kennedy to record an excellent poker comedy album called 52 Cards of Happiness.

Musically Scott leans towards the more polished sound of Adele and Amy Winehouse but hasn’t quite reached their level of artistry. That said the songs are well written and catchy and Scott’s voice fits the style perfectly.

Check out Kara Scott's EP here:

Over the last few years several other poker players have attempted to follow in the footsteps of Hellmuth and company, most notably UK player Paul Gibson who formed a heavy metal band called ‘Straight Flush” and even shot a video for a song called “Queen of Diamonds.”

Unfortunately Gibson passed away in January of 2014 and the music has been taken down from Youtube but you can listen to Straight Flush's only album on Soundcloud.

As Gibson's music fades into obscurity Love and Gambling and Lucky in Love remain the best non-Hellmuth/Hansen poker albums. However, with Phil Galfond currently on his break-even challenge it’s only a matter of time before he unleashes a third Yesterday’s Gone album and tries to claim the crown.

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Maybe this time he’ll enlist a few musical friends for a poker supergroup featuring Galfond, Negreanu, Scott, and maybe Bruce Bratston on drums. One can dream… at least until the break comes.