Unlit Cigarette: Catching up with Poker Legend Sammy Farha

Unlit Cigarette: Catching up with Poker Legend Sammy Farha 0001Many look back fondly to the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. It kickstarted the "poker boom" that stretched throughout the the 2000s with the aptly-named Chris Moneymaker as a messianic figurehead of this new card-playing revolution. Big-money games, tournaments, and TV shows followed and online poker sites now flush with cash dished out sponsorships to every young poker hot shot from Nevada to the Netherlands.

Beyond Moneymaker and the dotcom card rooms, another man played a big role in the significance of that final table – Houston's Sammy Farha. The Lebanese-born professional poker player at the time had limited…