The classic painting of pooches 5-betting and triple range merging goes for over half a million at auction.

One of the most iconic cultural artifacts associated with poker has just sold for a staggering amount of money.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's painting 'Poker Game' sold at Sotheby's for $658,000, after being given an initial valuation of between $400,000 to $600,000.

The classic painting worth $658,000

A collection worth millions

'Poker Game' is one in a series of 16 paintings commissioned in 1903 by Brown & Bigelow to sell cigars.

They never received much critical praise at the time, but the series lived on in calendar and poster sales, before becoming a staple part of the walls of bars and college dorm rooms across the world, but in particular in America.

In February 2005, two paintings in the series, 'Waterloo' and 'A Bold Bluff' were sold for a joint price of $594,400 at auction.

This is now the highest price ever paid to own a piece of the series, but the most popular of the 16 is said to be 'A Friend in Need', which shows a bulldog cheating at five card draw.

'A Friend in Need'

Are these paintings a classic piece of poker history, or are they trashy? Let us know in the comments.

Barry Carter Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. Twitter

Google+

Share this with your friends