Celebrated photographer Ulvis Alberts, who captured some of the most iconic images of poker players in the 1970s and 80s, has died. He was 83.

The poker world knew Albert’s from his photos he made at the World Series of Poker starting in 1977, when he was offered the job as series photog.

“The casino was owned by the Binion family, which held the World Series of Poker. They offered me the job of shooting these games, and I thought to myself – why not? I agreed and went to Las Vegas,” he said in an interview. “I spent a lot of time there, at least one month, sleeping in a hotel.

I was no poker player myself, I had no means to play at the time. Most of the players there were very wealthy. I learned my lesson – I recall selling small-sized photos from the previous series every year. The amount I charged, however, was way too small. Poker players were too inconvenienced looking for change, so I just raised the price per picture to $100 dollars. Everyone was satisfied, myself included.”

The windowless, smoky and cramped Binion’s Horseshoe felt more like a movie set for the artist born in Latvia in 1942, and the men in cowboy hats towering over Stu Ungar transfixed him so much he returned another four years.

“It was more of a friends and family affair,” Albert’s said about covering the WSOP in the late 70s. “That’s why I loved the place that held the World Series. As a photographer, I was drawn to the cigarette smoke that streamed in curved lines reminiscent of Picasso. It gave the players character.”

He collected these photos in the books “Poker Face” and “Poker Face 2.” The sequel can be found fairly easily, but the original, long out of print, goes for a mint. There’s one on eBay going for $800-plus.

It would be the centerpiece of any serious poker memorabilia collection. Ulvis spent a months at Binion’s pointing his camera at Puggy Pearson, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim, Gabe Kaplan, Bobby Baldwin, Crandell Addington, Stu Ungar, and all the rest of the cowboys, drug dealers, and card sharps who couldn’t resist the lure of the WSOP.

First stop, Hollywood

Albert’s got the WSOP gig thanks to accidentally becoming a Hollywood-based celebrity photographer after being invited to audit the filmmaker’s program at the American Film Institute in Beverly Hills.

He called his camera and the skill he wielded it a “visiting card,” and it gave him access to some of the most famous actors of all time, including Groucho Marx, Christopher Reeve, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Nick Nolte, Jack Nicholson, Jack Lemmon, Paul Newman and others.

These photos can be found in his book “Camera as Passport,” which is also out of print.

He also took one of the most famous photographs of underground lit darling Charles Bukowski, who had the face of a degenerate poker player, but preferred the horse track. The poster can be found in the bathrooms of degenerate poets around the world.

He lost interest in poker as a subject as the game grew globally, saying he preferred the dimly-lit rooms to the sanitized corporate casinos. This also sanitized the players for him, and they stopped being characters, and therefore, not interesting.

And so it goes.