Buying in President Johnston

Chad Holloway

Level 6 : 300/600, 75 ante

Five years ago Richard Sklar offered President Barack Obama a free buy-in into the WSOP Main Event. He also booked some big bets on the president playing even a single hand. It was a crazy situation, but Sklar was serious when he said that if Obama did play he would personally donate $1 million to charity. It was a story that captured poker headlines, but unfortunately the president was a bit too busy to play.

Here in Event #7: $1,500 Seven-Card Razz, Sklar just played a big pot against 1986 WSOP Main Event champ Berry Johnston. We missed the action, but we arrived in time to see Johnston sweat his last card, which he needed to hit to overcome Sklar's J-7-6-5-2 low. There was about 7,000 in the pot and Johnston was all in, meaning his tournament life depended on the next card. He had a Q-6-3-2-A low going in, and lady luck smiled upon him by delivering him a five to stay alive.

Sklar, who was crippled on the hand, fell a short time later, but we thought it'd still be worthwhile to share this throwback PokerNews video on the President Obama offer.