THE FOURTEEN-YEAR POKER GAME – This legendary poker game in all likelihood never really happened but has come to embody the early 20th Century wildness of Thurmond, WV. During America’s coal boom Thurmond attracted the wealthy including mine and railroad tycoons. It became such a hub of gambling, drinking, prostitution and partying that it’s been called the Las Vegas of its era.
The poker game that supposedly lasted for fourteen years was set in Thurmond’s Dun Glen Hotel, also spelled as the Dunglen Hotel. The establishment’s bar and gambling room operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Amounts in some of the individual pots being competed for numbered in the tens of thousands of dollars, which would be equal to hundreds of millions of dollars here in 2026. Continue reading
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