Hal Lubarsky: Blind Ambition

[user25067]

Hal Lubarsky's vision has been slowly failing him his entire life. He suffers from a condition called retinitis pigmentosa (Steve Wynn also has it) which causes a person's field of vision to narrow over time until it's reduced to a single, blurry spot surrounded by darkness.

Lubarsky played successful live poker at the Mirage for years, and used to be able to see his cards if he held them right up to his face. However, over the last 5-10 years, his vision has deteriorated so much that he now requires an assistant to sit behind him and whisper his hole cards in his ear, as well as the action on the flop, turn and river--much like Jason Holbrook, another blind player who competed on Day 1B of the Main Event.

Donna Harris, the poker room manager at Mirage, gave Lubarsky special permission to continue to play there with the help of his assistant. He's still there nearly every night and does quite well for himself, much to the chagrin of some of his sighted opponents. He estimates he's up over $20,000.

Today, Hal Lubarsky is tackling the WSOP Main Event. He is seated at Table 70 in the one seat, his assistant right behind him. He tells us that he much prefers playing live poker over online poker "because you get more interaction with people."

Our hats are off to Hal Lubarsky for being a great inspiration to all of us in the poker world.

Tags: Hal Lubarsky