The Nevada Jacks Story
** As legend has it, this is the story of the Nevada Jacks casino, the shortest-lived gambling joint in the sordid history of Las Vegas. This is the legend of Jack Stroheim...
Originally a low level wheeler dealer card shark, Stroheim cut his teeth in North Reno. There he formed himself into quite a player, as deadly with a deck of cards as the streets were at closing time. Flamboyant and cocky, yet perilous with a deck of cards, Nevada Jack, as he liked to be called, wheeled and dealed his way from the sticks to the glitz -- Vegas baby, the Big Time!
Stroheim started plying his trade along the strip, and he was good, real good. Jack settled in at the Palladium. There high stakes games were a ritual and could last days, with cigar and cigarette smoke swirling, high-octane drinks sweating onto their coasters and the chips constantly moving in a whirlwind of multi-thousand dollar betting. And time after time, the two bit cowboy kept coming up ahead --- again...and again… and again. Envy was in the air.
With precision, over a few weeks, dozens of high rollers and world class players were savaged in this card shark feeding frenzy. Finally, there were only two remaining to witness the card-playing steamroller that was Nevada Jack Stroheim. First, there was Little Nicky Nardello, a reputed "made man" and owner /proprietor of the Palladium. An avid player and gambler himself, Nardello was determined to send Nevada Jack Stroheim crawling back to where he came from. The other member of the menagerie was Jimmie Strauss, a nighttime card dealer and daytime accountant.
Now Jimmie's job was to deal, and deal he did until the morning sky broke the spell of the cards. If you ask any old hand in Vegas, he or she will tell you that skill doesn't always hold, that the best of players can have a bad day, and that sweet Lady Luck can become a real stone cold bitch. But not for Jack Stroheim, not Nevada Jack. After uncountable hours of furious card combat, Jack came out the victor. Nevada's spoils were all of Nicky Nardello's chips in his pile, and the deed to the Palladium in the pocket of his tacky red shirt. Nevada Jack had won the whole damn thing.
Well, people are mostly sore losers, especially when the losing numbers go into six digits, and Nardello had long passed that amount. So, Lil' Nicky stormed out of the Palladium, swearing vengeance on that no good, piece of *!#!, two bit, redneck son of a !**#!! Nevada Jack! Such is life in Sin City.
And then you had Nevada Jack Stroheim, proud new owner of the Palladium, soon to be called Nevada Jacks, as would only be proper. Overnight, the nobody lonesome cowboy had become a local celebrity legend. Well, as anyone in the biz knows, a new casino needs some new chips, so ol' Nevada Jack hired his new favorite dealer and right hand man, Jimmie Strauss, to commission a new cage of casino chips. The design was striking, a one eyed Jack of Spades on the "Nevada" mold. The perfect set; made by professionals for professionals.
One morning shortly thereafter, Strauss pulled into the parking lot of the casino to deliver the new chips. Cruising around to the rear of the building, Jimmie found Nevada's car. In it was Nevada Jack Stroheim. A one eyed Jack of Spades on his chest with a bullet hole through the middle. Nevada Jack's luck had run out. Never one to think clearly in times of stress, Strauss fled, taking with him some traveling money from the till, and the freshly minted chips. Fleeing East, the now ex-dealer changed his identity, assumed his daytime persona of accountant and never looked back.
Upon Jimmie's peaceful passing in 1994, his daughter discovered these beautiful chips in her father's attic, revealing the true history of her father's veiled ties with the 1960's Vegas era. This is where we come in. Using our various entrepreneurial skills, we have managed to purchase the entire NEVADA JACKS casino playing chips collection. A verifiably colorful piece of Vegas history perfect in all its unique glory, an homage to the one and only Jack Stroheim and his casino, Nevada Jacks, the shortest-lived establishment in the history of the Strip. Now you too can own a piece of history.
Abridged from a short story by:
Jeff Mandish
** The story is purely for entertainment purposes only. The story, places and names are fictional and not in any way intended to be taken as fact.
