It is with melancholy that we here at Poker News Daily report on the passing of one of the true “road gamblers” of poker lore, San Antonio, TX’s Crandell Addington. According to friends, Addington passed away on April 14 after complications from a fall he took late last year. A “Celebration of Life” will be held on April 26 in Lincoln Heights, TX, at Paisanos Restaurant. Addington’s passing at 85 is yet another one of the originals in the world of poker leaving this mortal plane.
Texan Through and Through
Addington was born on June 2, 1938, and graduated from Southwestern University with a double major in economics and accounting. Addington would put that ability with numbers to effective use when he hit the Texas “road gamblers” circuit, battling with such legends as “Amarillo Slim” Preston, Bryan “Sailor” Roberts, Puggy Pearson, and Doyle Brunson. These men all respected Addington’s cash game expertise and they all would journey westward at the same time.
The inaugural World Series of Poker was held in 1970 at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas, NV, and Addington was alongside all his contemporaries for those historic festivities. Addington never did grasp the brass ring of a WSOP bracelet, but he does hold a record that will probably never be equaled; from 1972 to 1976, he made the final table of the $10,000 Championship Event and, in 1978 and 1979, he would pull off the feat. That total of seven Championship Event final tables in eight years will never be done again.
Tournament poker was not where Addington made his money, however. Long a cash game specialist, Addington was more apt to take players’ money there than on the tournament felt. According to the Hendon Mob database, Addington made $162,350 from tournament play, but he easily made ten times that in his career in cash game settings.
A Fine Second Act
Addington was not consumed by poker in his colorful life. In the Eighties, the man known as “Dandy” for the fashionable attire he donned at the tables would actually leave the game of poker and enter the business arena. Addington was phenomenally successful in this endeavor also, creating businesses that varied from the oil and gas industries to chemical manufacturing, and deriving plant-based medicines for both animals and humans.
There was one more moment in the spotlight for “Dandy” regarding poker, however. In 2005, Addington was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame alongside former Binion’s Horseshoe operator Jack Binion (the son of Benny). He made a triumphant return to Las Vegas to compete at the WSOP that year, but he did not fare well; his last noted cash on the Hendon Mob was in 1990 at the Hall of Fame Poker Classic at Binion’s.
Addington is survived by his son, Brett; granddaughter, Elia; daughter-in-law, Antoinette; his wife, Judy, and sister, Karen. Poker News Daily passes along our condolences to the family of Crandell Addington and the friends who cherish his memory.