The man responsible for changing the way we watch poker on TV, Henry Orenstein, passed away at age 98. Details of his passing weren’t immediately available.
Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, is credited with inventing the hole card cam, arguably the top game-changer in poker.
The hole card, which exposes each player’s cards to a television audience, was invented and patented by Orenstein in 1995. He didn’t introduce the revolutionary product to the public until 1999 when the BBC’s Late Night Poker show was first to use the hole cam.
Poker has never been the same and has grown significantly in popularity since that creative invention. Nowadays, virtually every poker event on TV or livestream utilizes the hole cam. Without it, there likely never would have been a poker boom in the early 2000s, and few recreational fans would be able to pick Chris Moneymaker out of a lineup.
What a Life, What a Legend
Orenstein lived a full life and was one of the most respected and treasured members of the poker community. He was born October 13, 1923 in Poland. He survived a Nazi concentration camp, dealt with his parents being murdered by Nazis in Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. where he became a successful businessman and poker player.
When Orenstein arrived in the U.S. in 1942, he lived with his uncle in New York. He’d go on to start a toy company that was highly profitable and innovative. The future Poker Hall of Famer left such a mark on the toy industry that he was given credit for being the catalyst behind the creation of Transformers, one of the hottest selling children’s toys in history. Without his vision to see potential in an unknown toy in the 1980s, Transformers may have never become so popular.
As a poker player, he could hold his own on the felt. In 1995, he reached the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table and took eighth place for $51,900. The following year, he won his first and only bracelet, a $130,000 score in $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud. In 2014, he reached the $10,000 Seven Card Stud final table and was eliminated in eighth place for $31,419.
Orenstein was deservedly inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2008 along with Dewey Tomko.
PokerNews sends our condolences to Orenstein’s wife, Susie, and his friends and family. He will forever be remembered in the poker community for revolutionizing the way we watch poker on TV.