Roger King, along with his brother, founded KingWorld, the television
syndication company that made Oprah Winfrey a household name and
brought Jeopardy back to the airwaves. King wisely used his found
fortune to gamble…really, really, really high. Some of my favorite
whale stories involve Roger King, who passed away last week at the age
of 63.

My favorite King stories are about his poker playing, a game he
insisted on playing at the highest stakes, with the toughest
competition, completely ignoring the fact that he wasn’t very good.
In his book on Stu Ungar, Nolan Dallas relays one story about a big NL
Hold’em game at the Bike, built around Roger King’s request to play.
King soon lost his table stake, and took a loan out from Johnny Chan.
King kept drinking and gambling, and lost the Chan money as well. He
then proceeded to hit up Stuey for another loan, about $150k…which
he also lost before calling it a night.

The next day, Ungar and his friend and handicapper Mike Salem went to
King’s hotel room to collect. Roger gave Stuey a really hard time,
saying they all set him up to get drunk and lose a lot of money, and
initially refused to pay. Eventually, they settled, and King wrote
Stuey a check for $75,000. Stuey and Salem left the room and started
out of the hotel, when Stuey stopped on a dime and ran back to see
King again.

Ungar couldn’t cash a check made out to him. He had no driver’s
license, no bank account. He had to get a second check, made out to
Salem.

The world needs more characters like Roger King. He will be missed,
both as a television visionary and a degenerate gambler.