Richard Munchkin — Blackjack Player and Biographer
Richard Munchkin, one of the leading blackjack tournament players, is also known as an astute interviewer of other blackjack wizards. He was elected to the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2009.
Richard Munchkin was born in 1955 in a suburb of Chicago. His actual birth name was Richard Jacobs. A prodigy in the field of gaming, he was already playing gin rummy and chess when he was only 3 year old.
Then, when he was 12 years old, Jacobs discovered something even better than playing games, and that was playing games for money. His game of choice was backgammon, and he was so successful that he was able to put himself through college on his backgammon winnings.
Munchkin graduated from college in the late 1970s and immediately moved to Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world, and found a job as a casino blackjack dealer. His experiences in Las Vegas gave him the opportunity to develop his own considerable blackjack gambling skills.
An Interlude in Hollywood
Munchkin's gambling career was interrupted when he met another love: the movies. He left Las Vegas and moved to Hollywood, where he became a successful writer, director, and producer of motion pictures. His first movie, Dance or Die, starred his brother Jake Jacobs. Other Richard Munchkin movies include Ring of Fire, Fists of Iron, Texas Payback, and Evil Obsession.
And Back to Blackjack
Munchkin's return to the world of blackjack came about when he was invited to participate in the first World Series of Blackjack tournament in 2004. His second-place finish in the first round was enough to earn him a place in the Wild Card game, but he could not advance any further than that. His encounters with his fellow elite world-class blackjack players at the tournament, however game him the idea for another project.
Munchkin discovered that the top gamblers in the world had had fascinating life experiences, and he decided to help them tell their stories to the world. He became an interviewer of gamblers, known for his incisive and insightful interviewing style. The result of this enterprise was the book Gambling Wizards, featuring Munchkin's interviews with blackjack players Tommy Hyland, Alan Woods, and Cathy Hulbert as well as with poker players, backgammon players, and sports and horse-racing betters.
Additional Munchkin interviews with top blackjack players have appeared in Arnold Snyder's Blackjack Forum, including interviews with Keith and Marty Taft, Al Francesco, Johnny Chang, and Darryl Purpose. Munchkin's second book, to be called Blackjack Wizards, is expected to be published soon.
Richard Munchkin's interviews have helped to bring the accomplishments of the world's great blackjack players into public consciousness. For this, and for his entire well-rounded career, the blackjack community is grateful.
