Chip Reese’s son, Casey, passed away less than two years after his father died. Casey was 20 years old. When Chip passed away in December 2007, Doyle Brunson had said, “He’s certainly the best poker player that ever lived.” Little did he realise then that he would have to say something at Casey’s death. And Doyle did speak up at his blog in Doyle’ Room. The full text is reproduced below.
“It seems like yesterday when my nephew called and gave me a message that made my blood run cold, “I think Chip just died” he told me.
It happened again yesterday, only this time it was Chip’s only son, Casey Reese. Casey was found in his apartment from an apparent overdose of prescription drugs. I had seen Casey a few days ago and he looked great. He was very handsome and extremely personable. I will always remember the closeness between Chip and Casey.
My deepest condolences to the Reese family. I feel like I’ve let Chip down but I don’t know what I could have done to help Casey.”
Trust Doyle to speak up when required to. The Reese family will take comfort from his words. Chip had died in his sleep statedly from the effects of pneumonia. However Doyle believed that the death was caused by a blood clot resulting from an earlier gastric bypass. Chip and Doyle were close friends. Chip had contributed to the Seven Card Stud section in Doyle’s famous book “Super/System”. At that time Doyle had described Chip as one of the two finest young poker players in the world and the best Seven Card Stud player he had ever played.
This praise was totally justified. 1n 1991 Chip became the youngest living player to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. He won his third WSOP bracelt in 2006 in the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. From 2008 the winner of this event at WSOP will be given a trophy named the “David ‘Chip’ Reese Award”. Unfortunately Casey was not able to attend the unveiling ceremony of that trophy.
Another player to express anguish at Casey’s death was Daniel Negreanu. At the forum in Full Contact Poker he posted, “I was at Bellagio last night when we all got the news. Very sad. Everyone took it pretty hard. Kid was 20 years old, an incredible baseball pitcher, super smart, good looking kid… very sad.
Chau was a very good friend of both Chip and Casey and while he came down to play poker he just couldn’t do it. It was a shock. People were both sad, and also pretty angry at the same time.” At that same forum someone heartlessly asked. “Daniel, was Casey into drugs before Chip passed away?” and Negreanu rightly replied. “I’m not going to answer any questions like that, what does it matter now…”
