From Pulpit to Poker

There is nothing like a small town restaurant to bring back the pleasures and memories of the past.

I think people go to those cafes for more than the food. There they meet old friends, talk about old times, laugh over shared experiences, suffer along with a friend who has lost a loved one, and generally life as it happens.

The favorite cafe gathering place in my hometown of Sutersville, PA., population 983, is Miller's Place. It sits on the downtown main street where a dozen businesses still operate along a river where coal barges once floated carrying coal to Pittsburgh and other destinations.

Linda Irvin has owned and operated the restaurant for the past two years. She wears many hats -- cook, town historian, and dispenser of news, both good and bad. She opens at 5:30 a.m. daily and closes in the early afternoon.

Nearly all the food she serves, from breakfast to soups, is homemade from scratch. She keeps her prices low to reflect the economy of a small town made up of retired steelworkers and coal miners and she makes sure the quality of her food is the best.

Her daily visitors include Frank Rocco and several members of his church. Rocco grew up the way my brothers and I did -- a motorcycle-riding gadabout who lived for worldly pleasures, who played baseball in the pastures surrounding Sutersville, and who chased girls.

One day all of that changed. As Frankie explained it, he saw the light, became a Christian, and built a church in a forested area on top of Sutersville Hill which he named The Church.

Pastor Rocco and his friends order the daily special, which is always something tasty that Linda concocts in her small kitchen. They sit at a table in the back room and talk about everything from their school days, childhood experiences, illnesses and deaths of family members and friends.

My brother Legs and I attend Sunday services at The Church. Each service starts out with a lot of hugs and greetings before Pastor Rocco takes to the pulpit to lead the singing before preaching a powerful sermon about salvation and leading the good life. He is an unabashed supporter of President Donald Trump and he minces no words in his sermons.

When we aren't in church, my brother and I can usually be found at The Meadows or the Rivers. These are casinos located in Washington, PA. and Pittsburgh where Legs plays the slots and I play poker or the horses.

Now some people will frown and call what we do hypocritical, arguing that church and gambling don't mix. Yet they can't specifically point to anything in the Holy Bible that prohibits gambling if it is done reasonably without harming the family.

Doyle Brunson, the legendary poker player who won the World Series of Poker three times, has been teaching a regular Bible study class in Las Vegas for many years. The members of the class included the late Chip Reese, one of the best seven-card stud players who ever lived, and several other world-class poker players.

An interviewer once questioned Brunson on his Bible activities. Doyle simply smiled and quoted the Bible saying, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' He added, 'I can assure you that poker players do a lot of praying.'

Doyle's wife has had a prison ministry for years. She visits and comforts convicts at Nevada prisons and shows a genuine love for them despite their crimes.

Gambling and churches have a history that goes back to the 1800s when circuit-riding preachers would ride their horses into a new town, play a few hands of poker, and then announced to the crowd that they were planning on building a church. The sinners -- soiled doves, gamblers, gold prospectors and even gunslingers -- would reach deep into their pockets and come up with donations to help build the church. Many houses of worship and even universities were funded in that manner.

In closing, Brunson has finally made his announcement official. He is retiring from competing in the WSOP, but he is still planning on playing in cash games from time to time. That is good news for the poker world and players like me. The game of poker just wouldn't be the same without a Bible believer like Texas Dolly Brunson around.

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 ).