Chip Reese, whose mix of intellect, poise and nerve propelled him to renowned eminence among the minuscule club of humans who convene to wager millions on poker games, died Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 56.

His friend Doyle Brunson, also a renowned poker player, said Reese, whose birth name was David, appeared to have died of a heart attack after learning he had pneumonia the same day.

At age 6, Reese was beating fifth-graders at card games. He so dominated poker play at his Dartmouth fraternity that it named the card room after him. He was admitted to Stanford Law School but gave up plans to go there after stopping in Las Vegas and turning $400 into $66,000. His placid sans-souci mien was a professional gambler’s dream.

“I can bet $100,000 and feel nothing,” he said in an interview with People magazine in 2003. “If you think about the money and what it means, you’re gone.”

Reese won three World Series of Poker events, the crown jewels of tournament poker, but his preference was for high-stakes private games with high rollers. Even as better-known poker players appeared under bright lights for television, he lurked off camera in games with considerably more remunerative potential.

“Many consider Chip the greatest cash player who ever lived,” said Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker.

Brunson, who billed himself as Texas Dolly in winning 10 World Series events, added that Reese was “arguably the best poker player who ever lived.”

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Recovered from the Poker Players Alliance archive index. This is the archived item as preserved.