New Yorker Gabe Kaplan
Gabe Kaplan is one of the household names in the United States. He is well known and kindly remembered and respected for his role as the unconventional instructor in the 1970s television series Welcome Back Kotter, and throughout the decades has remained associated to this iconic character. He was born in New York city, and as is true for many New Yorkers, there is a certain quality of character, and of course regional dialect, that never quite leaves the person. That is to say, you can take the person out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the person. And after all, who would want to take New York out of anyone? That’s certainly a question most guests in one of the great NY hotels wouldn’t hesitate to answer.
Interestingly, Kaplan initially sought to establish a career as a major league baseball player, however that didn’t pan out and he decided to pursue an alternative interest he had developed, which was to be a stand up comedian. He became successful in comedy, and appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson five different times. In recent years he has become a standard player at many poker tables and tournaments. He actually became interested in the game while he was at the height of his acting career and entered his first World Series of Poker in 1978. He is also a regular guest on the Poker After Dark series, which features some of the best known names in the game, including Chris Ferguson, Doyle Bronson, Andy Bloch and many more. In February of 2008 he beat all of the previously mentioned players and more during Cowboy Week of the series. Not only is Kaplan well respected by other players, he is also well liked and has been reported as being fun to play with and typically establishes a positive atmosphere at his table.
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