Jerry Buss To Be Honored By World Series Of Poker

Jerry Buss, the fallen owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, will soon be honored by the World Series of Poker. Officials for the WSOP announced on Monday that they would like to name a tournament after Buss.

A rep for the high stakes poker league tells TMZ:

“At the appropriate time, we will seek to ask the family to honor [Jerry’s] legacy by possibly naming our WSOP Seven Card Stud Championship after him or awarding the victor a special perpetual trophy in his honor.”

The move is not a simple attempt to capitalize on the Jerry Buss name. The Lakers owner was a well known figure on the high-stakes poker circuit for many years. Buss even managed to finish in 3rd place at the 1991 WSOP 7-card stud tournament.

The WSOP adds:

“We’re definitely going to miss seeing him … Even when the Lakers were playing in the NBA Finals, you could often find Dr. Buss playing his favorite game — Seven Card Stud — at the World Series of Poker.”

As we reported earlier today, the 80-year-old Jerry Buss died at a Los Angeles hospital after a long battle with cancer.

Buss was such a big poker player that, back in 2009, he was caught playing the game in a cheesy casino just 10-minutes after his Los Angeles Lakers won yet another NBA championship.

While Jerry Buss was a big spender at the poker tables, he was an even bigger spender on the basketball court. During his ownership of the Lakers, Buss bankrolled the paychecks for such players as Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and others.

Jerry Buss was a powerhouse in the sporting world, and he will be missed by Los Angeles Lakers and NBA fans alike.