Three Poker Players From Same Home Game Die After Contracting Coronavirus

Three elderly members of a long-standing poker home game have tragically died from coronavirus-related illnesses in Florida, with the other five members all contracting the virus but surviving.

The horrific news was shared this week that Marcy Friedman, 94, Beverly Glass, 84, and Fred Sands, 86, all succumbed to the COVID-19 outbreak late last month.

The octet of retirees played regular poker games in the card room of an Aventura condominium according to press reports, and several were also frequent visitors to South Florida casinos.

Harriet Molko and her husband Ronald, two of the close-knit poker-loving group, both tested positive for the virus, with Harriet narrowly escaping death.

“I don’t know how I made it,” she told reporters this week. “I guess I’m just younger and stronger”, a factor that separated her from the three friends who passed away.

All of the deceased had pre-existing medical conditions, and Molko believes the virus was present when they held their final home game on March 12th – one of the players ‘coughing and sneezing’ throughout the game.

Just days later the state would introduce stringent social distancing and lockdown measures, but by that time it was too late for her friends.

Molko herself had been avoiding the state’s casinos by early March, but explained that several of her friends were still playing at The Big Easy Casino and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

Distraught at the loss of her friends and still recovering from her own brush with death, Molko said:

“It’s just a nightmare and I’m trying to get over it.”

The USA tops the global table of coronavirus-related deaths with 28,554 victims. Despite this, there have been calls for some lockdown measures to be loosened.

Across the country from the Florida tragedy, Las Vegas’ Mayor Carolyn Goodman said:

“This shutdown has become one of total insanity. I am asking: Open the city. Open Clark County. Open the state.”

She is at loggerheads with Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak who this week declared he was ‘nowhere near’ re-opening the state’s economy.

For poker players who may be tempted to dive back into live poker should the casinos re-open, the short answer is ‘don’t, there’s plenty of online poker options even in the USA’. However, here’s a quick poker player’s guide to staying healthy during the coronavirus.