Lyle Berman Aggressiveness: 5 Looseness: 4 Short-handed: 6 Limit: 5 No-limit: 7 Tournaments: 6 Side games: 7 Steam control: 6 Against weak players: 5 Against strong players: 7

Best game : Pot-limit Omaha
Weakness : Seven-card stud high/low

Lyle is the best businessman/poker player, a title previously held by Jay Heimowitz. Lyle used to be one of the most feared short-handed pot-limit Omaha players, but was weak at limit poker. He worked hard to improve his limit game and for some reason as his limit game improved, his ferocity at no-limit declined. Regardless, he still holds his own in the biggest game and would be a clear favorite in the next level down except for the fact that the smaller stakes would bore him.

Amusing anecdote :

One of the first times I played with Lyle, he drove me back to where I was staying. He told me how impressed he had been when he first came to Las Vegas for his honeymoon in 1967. As we drove by Caesar's Palace he said, “I was in awe of this place when I stayed there for my honeymoon, and now I own about 1% of it.” He also told me how he went to Las Vegas in 1984 and won $10,000 at the crap table. He had nothing to do, but he heard someone talk about a $100 satellite for a big poker tournament. He had played poker when he was young, so he entered and then made two rebuys. Along the way, he knocked out the reigning world champion Tom McEvoy and at one point he was the chip leader. He didn't win the satellite but he enjoyed losing the $300 much more than he enjoyed winning the $10,000. That's what got him back into poker.



Title: Rose Garden
Artist: Lynn Anderson
Year: 1971