The poker world lost a giant of the industry with the recent passing of Hall of Famer and longtime Tournament Director Jack McClelland. He was 74.
McClelland spent more than three decades as one of the most respected figures in the game, running big buy-in tournaments all over the world.
The Ohio native was in charge of the World Series of Poker for most of the 80’s and 90’s, and made Bellagio in Las Vegas one of the flagship casinos of the World Poker Tour from 2002 until he retired in late 2013.
Poker Beginnings
Although McClelland was introduced to the game at a very early age, learning stud from his grandmother and even organizing his own games in high school and college, his original ambition was bowling.
In 1976, he moved from Ohio to Las Vegas to take care of his ailing mother while bowling in the occasional tour event. But it wasn’t paying the bills. As he put it, he was “just good enough to stay broke.”
“While I was [in Vegas] I wanted to get into the casino business,” he recalled to Card Player in 2013. “Back then they didn’t have any dealing schools for poker, so I signed up for a blackjack school. They made up their mind to hire the three pretty girls on the first day and just tried to bore the rest of us in to quitting, which I did.”
“At the time I was a semi-professional bowler, playing in a few tour and regional events. I ran into a guy who was a dealer at the Sahara, and he had me go see his boss.”
“I got real good,” he admitted to the Card Player Poker Stories Podcast back in 2019. “The faster you deal, the better you deal, the more money you make. Plus, there was a lot of heat back there because the Sahara had the high-limit games. So, you either got good or you got out. After about 18 months I was promoted to shift manager.”
That unexpected detour into dealing would become the start of a decades-long career shaping the biggest stages in poker.
World Series Of Poker Era
McClelland would eventually leave that job to play poker professionally, but it wasn’t long before fellow Hall of Famer Eric Drache called him up to run a shift at the World Series of Poker at Binion’s.
In 1984, he was promoted to Tournament Director, a role he would hold until 1998. This was long before the days of the Tournament Director’s Association with standardized rules.
“Back in 1984 you just started a tournament with a quick shuffle up and deal, and as it went along something would come up, someone would try to shoot an angle or something and you’d have to make a ruling,” McClelland said. “There were thousands of them, and one of you, and it was hard to stay ahead of them.”
During his time at the helm, McClelland oversaw legendary championships such as Johnny Chan’s back-to-back titles in 1987 and 1988, which later earned him a cameo in the movie Rounders.
The next year he bore witness to the birth of the ‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth, who denied Chan his three-peat. That same summer, he was forced to give a tournament penalty to his wife Alma, who would go on to win the Ladies Championship.
“After the final hand, she looked over and said, “Jack Binion, you owe me a bracelet!”
He was also there to pay out Russ Hamilton’s weight in silver in 1994, and standing tableside announcing all the action to a crowd gathered on Fremont Street for Stu Ungar’s third main event title in 1997.
The very next year, he was right in the thick of it again, relaying the infamous hand where Scott Nguyen declared, “You call, it’s gonna be all over, baby!”
Global Influence On The Game
Although he enjoyed the operations side of poker, there were times in his life when he preferred to play. McClelland once told Card Player about a $300-$600 stud game against Larry Flynt and Sarge Ferris that essentially ended his playing career.
“I got three rolled up kings… Sarge started out with deuce, jack, ace of diamonds… and made three aces. It was like a $30,000 pot! So that was a bad trip. We went home and I said, ‘I’m going to go look for a job.’”
When it came to his career as a Tournament Director, only a handful of others have been as prolific. McClelland not only ran the big show at the WSOP, but also the Grand Prix of Poker at the Golden Nugget, the U.S. Poker Open for Donald Trump in Atlantic City, and the very first tournaments ever held at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. He also spent a decade running events for the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.
“Since I played and dealt, I understood both sides of the table. I understand the emotion of the players when they lose a big pot or the dealers when a player is throwing cards at them. I came up with the penalty rule to help protect dealers from abuse.”
“You had to slap them on the wrist, but give them a little sugar because they had to keep coming back otherwise you didn’t have any customers.”
After the passing of his first wife, McClelland married his second wife Elizabeth and spent time traveling the world and bringing tournaments to new international locales, including the first tournaments to be hosted in Russia, Vienna, Cyprus, Aruba, and the Isle of Man.
World Poker Tour Comes Calling
McClelland then spent 12 years at the helm of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, helping to launch and host numerous events on the World Poker Tour such as the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship, Bellagio Cup, and many years of WPT Championships.
McClelland was even there for the very first WPT broadcast back in 2002.
“Steve Lipscomb, Mike Sexton, and Lyle Berman had this crazy idea for showing hole cards on TV. My partner, the Director of Poker Doug Dalton had handled cash games all of his life, and asked me what I thought. I said, ‘It will work.’”
He also had a hand in kicking off the high roller circuit.
“I wanted to be different than the World Series of Poker, so I made the WPT Championship a $25,000 [buy-in] and everybody thought we’d only get 10 players. We got 111 the first year and built it up to 655 before the internet poker laws changed and the economy crashed.”
Legacy
Few individuals have left a bigger mark on the modern game. McClelland’s voice, rulings, and vision helped shape poker into the global sport it is today.
McClelland was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2014, alongside Daniel Negreanu, as one of the few non-players to receive the honor.
He retired in 2013 and spent the last decade of his life playing cards in Las Vegas. He did quite well despite his senior status, racking up 11 wins in the last five years alone.
In 2021, McClelland finished fifth in the WSOP $10,000 Stud Championship. He had three stud final tables at the series overall, and in 2024 made a deep run in the Hall of Fame Bounty Tournament, finishing 15th. His last cash came in July at the Wynn.
The Poker World Reacts
“Jack was a giant in our industry. He was the best tournament director of all-time,” said fellow Hall of Famer Phil Hellmuth. “He was just a pleasure to be around, a pleasure to talk to. You can ask anybody in poker, they’ll confirm that that’s the case.”
“In 2000 I made back-to-back final tables in Tunica, both w disappointing results, and Jack McClelland’s exact words were ‘Keep knocking and the door will open.’ To this day, I still remind myself of this every time I bust with a disappointing finish,” said Josh Arieh.
“Jack was a friend to all poker players, even us young whippersnappers finding our way in the game,” said Andy Bloch. “He made sure poker players were taken care of. Without Jack, poker tournaments would not be what they are today. He set the standard for how events were run. His rules were well-thought-out and clear, drafted with a keen eye for reducing angle-shooting.”
“Thank you, Jack McClelland, for your service and unwavering passion for the game,” shared WSOP CEO Ty Stewart in a statement. “A true poker man and even better gentleman. Whether as player, tournament director, or friend, everyone knew the poker room was made better by your presence.”
- Photos by PokerGO, World Poker Tour, and Card Player