So Brent McKee wants to know — and he wasn't the only person to ask this…
Related to the video of Ricky Jay discussing poker with several of his friends, you mentioned that you had played a little poker in your younger days, but that "it never grabbed me the way it grabbed some people I know." Since you worked as a writer on Welcome Back, Kotter and therefore worked with/for Gabe Kaplan, and I know that Gabe is or maybe has been a high level Poker player who has finished in the money in a number of major tournaments including the World Series of Poker, I have to ask: have you ever played Poker with Gabe Kaplan, and what were the results?
I never played poker with Gabe. In fact, I don't recall him ever mentioning the game, not even in those long nights at his home when a bunch of us were there into the wee hours rewriting the rewrite of the rewrite of the rewrite of that week's script. It was long after I was outta there that I heard about him winning all that dough in high-stakes poker tourneys.
If he'd asked…well, no. Poker is not my game and even when I was playing it occasionally, I had trouble remembering what beats what. I've really never had any interest in any game where I'm playing against someone and my goal is to take money away from someone and their goal is to take money away from me. Not unless they're a big casino and the game is Blackjack…but I've even given that up.
