JC Pearson, Puggy's brother, has passed away at 87 -- and he was also a poker pro

Pretty much everyone in poker is aware of old school player Walter "Puggy" Pearson, who was a colorful character, WSOP champion, and sometimes a jerk. Puggy epitomized the rough, sleazy, and street-smart poker pro of the 1970s, who differed greatly from the math and GTO type minds of many of today's top players.

This was Puggy in 1974:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ggyPearson.jpg

Puggy died in 2006, at the age of 77. He was lucky he made it that long, given his unhealthy lifestyle and long history of heart trouble.

However, what most people didn't know was that Puggy had a younger brother who also played poker. JC Pearson moved to Vegas became a poker pro in 1975, starting at the relatively old age of 42. Prior to that, he had been in the dairy business. Presumably he was inspired by the success of his older brother.

JC racked up $975,000 worth of poker tournament cashes between 1983 and 2001 -- a fairly impressive sum considering both the higher value of the dollar then, and the fact that both tournament fields and buyins were smaller. He won a lot of limit tournaments, including lots in limit holdem. He won one bracelet, in 1994, at $2500 O8. He and Puggy were the only two brothers to have WSOP bracelets until Blair and Grant Hinkle did it in 2008.

He was said to have had "long term heart issues" -- the same problem as Puggy, and that's eventually what killed him on January 18, 2021. He was 87. Like Puggy, he lived longer than you'd have expected, given the obviously hereditary heart problems. It is possible that he quit tournament poker at age 68 due to the heart issues. However, he was a regular at the Orleans, and played 8-16 and 15-30 O8 almost daily.

Unlike Puggy, it seems that JC was gentler and lived a more conventional lifestyle. He was married for almost 70 years -- his entire adult life -- and was close to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His obituary describes him as an "avid reader", who went to night college as an adult in order to make up for his rural 1930s/1940s upbringing, where he likely had little education.

JC was the last survivor of the nine children in the family. I don't know anything about the other 7, but I have to imagine some or all of them had heart problems, as well.

Here's the obituary: https://obits.reviewjournal.com/us/o...?pid=197625220

Here's his tournament results: https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=3830

https://twitter.com/robertgoldfarb/s...89783407927296

RIP