Several years ago I came up with an idea for an article on poker. I wondered what the major league poker players spent their money on and after doing some research wrote the story and sent it to Hustler Magazine, owned by a former Kentuckian named Larry Flynt.
The article was accepted and I was paid $1,500.
Flynt is an outspoken defender of free speech and a political liberal who has published X-rated articles that outrage the people his authors write about. He deliberately offends society and has been the target of many lawsuits, including one about the late television evangelist Jerry Falwell when he suggested Falwell's first sexual encounter was with his mother.
My article was not sexually outrageous. I simply interviewed some of the leading poker giants living in Las Vegas and wrote about what they spent their millions on -- girls, yachts, mansions, expensive cars, and travel. I think my story was the only one in the issue that you could read without blushing.
Flynt was born to a poor sharecropper's family in Lakeville, Magoffin County, KY. 75 years ago. His father joined the U.S. Army and served in the European Theater of Operations, leaving Larry to be raised by his mother and maternal grandmother.
At 15, he ran away from home, lied about his age and joined the Army where he learned to play a mean game of poker.
After his honorable discharge, he returned to Kentucky where he bootlegged whiskey until he learned sheriff's deputies were looking for him. After depleting his savings, he joined the U.S. Navy and served on the USS Enterprise as a radar operator. He did a good job and after his honorable discharge, he used $1,800 of his savings to open a bar.
Flynt was making over $1,000 a week and parlayed his money into opening other bars, including one that featured nude hostesses and dancers. He named it the Hustler Club and it took off like a lightning bolt.
He began publishing a newsletter that quickly grew into 16 pages. It became the prototype for Hustler Magazine. The first issue of the sexually explicit magazine was published in July 1974.
The magazine was so pornographic that retail store owners used to hide it under the counter.
When Flynt discovered a photographer had taken nude photos of former First Lady Jacquelyn Onassis Kennedy, he paid $18,000 for the pictures and published them in his magazine. The issue sold over one million copies and turned him into a millionaire. He bought a $375,000 mansion with some of his profits.
On March 6, 1978, while defending himself in an obscenity case filed against him by the government, he was shot by a sniper and left partially paralyzed. The gunman turned out to be a serial killer named Joseph Paul Franklin who was incensed by an article in Hustler showing an interracial relationship. Franklin was executed by lethal injection on Nov. 20, 2013.
Because of his passion for poker, Flynt opened the Hustler Casino in Gardena, CA. on June 22, 2000. The casino offers gamblers major poker tournaments that guarantee winners up to $1 million.
Flynt has been married five times. His current wife, Elizabeth 'Liz' Flynt, has been hosting a series of poker tournaments. From Oct. 19 to Nov. 2, for example, she will host the Fall Poker Classic with a guaranteed $500,000 prize pool, including $100,000 for first place.
Buy-ins range from $80 to $2,500. All the events are no-limit Texas Hold'em except for a pot limit Omaha tournament on Oct. 31.
Flynt and his wife are liberal Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election. They have backed liberal causes and Flynt even went on the record opposing the death penalty for convicted killers, including the man who shot him.
I only wrote one article for Hustler Magazine. I kept the issue that published my story for quite a while but was reluctant to show it to friends because of the offensive photos and stories in the publication.
Flynt has run unsuccessfully for political offices. He stunned his critics when he claimed to have had a born again experience and declared himself a Christian. He later renounced those views and says he is an atheist.
A movie was made about his life. It was called 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt' and actor Woody Harrelson played him. Flynt may be down because of his gunshot wound, but he is not out. He plays poker big-time for the biggest stakes. He is a hustler.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
