BIOGRAPHY page 6
The Grandmaster became proprietor of the Casino Cosmico, a pocket dimensional establishment devoted entirely to the pursuit of games and wagers. At one point, the Casino was visited by the Silver Surfer and his companion, Dawn Greenwood. The Grandmaster saw an opportunity and had the house float them a line of credit, guiding them towards the easier games at first to build their confidence, before getting the pair deep into debt with his casino. When they were suitably in the red (and incidentally, no longer able to see the color red after wagering it in a game), the Grandmaster challenged the Surfer to an Earth game of poker.
Having lost his board (among other things), the Silver Surfer had to accept the gamble. To win back what he had lost, Norrin Radd had to put the Power Cosmic itself in the pot. Grandmaster had the higher hand showing on the board when he upped the wager to an Infinite All-In. Each player could now ask anything of the other and Grandmaster wanted Dawn Greenwood. He enjoyed her faithfulness to the Surfer and wanted it for himself, as well as to deprive Radd of her 
company. With Dawn's consent, Silver Surfer accepted the terms. In turn, he countered the Infinite All-In by asking Grandmaster to give up games. If he lost, En Dwi Gast would no longer be able to play or participate in games of chance. Unwilling to risk his chosen pass-time, despite his better hand, Grandmaster folded. [Silver Surfer (7th series) #7]
Next, the Grandmaster hired the Guardians of the Galaxy to steal a baby universe guarded in the vaults of Citopia. He only told them afterwards they had stolen from his brother Elder, the Collector. Grandmaster blackmailed them into making a second theft from the Collector's vaults. [All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1] The Collector caught the Guardians and pressed them into returning a fake item from his collection to Grandmaster instead. This was all as the 
Grandmaster had hoped, however. The long-term consequences of the birth of the Eighth Cosmos were still permeating through the universe. Grandmaster had detected several of his fellow Elders such as the Contemplator and Gardener were missing or off-balance as a result. He had the Guardians steal from the Collector to measure whether Tanaleer Tivan's reaction would be atypical for him or not. The Elders and the Guardians agreed to seek out the other Elders and the Infinity Stones, which also seemed to be missing and reformed in the new cosmos. [All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #10]
The time came when the Grandmaster faced his greatest challenge ever as the original Grandmaster resurfaced. The banishment he suffered under ended when the old universe was destroyed and the Elder returned with a massive grudge against En Dwi Gast. Ever the gamesman, the Grandmaster proposed they resolve their differences with a wager. Grandmaster 
and the newly-dubbed "Challenger" prepared a high stakes game of "capture the flag" -- each would field a team of players against one another to seize elemental artifacts known as Pyramoids. Earth itself was to be the battleground, removed from its traditional orbit and transported to a far corner of reality to maintain parity. Challenger restored Thanos’ former vassals the Black Order as his players, while the Grandmaster assembled a new Lethal Legion of alien combatants. The Grandmaster and Challenger froze the majority of Earth's heroes and villains in stasis, while a select number of Avengers remained in play as "obstacles" and wild cards.
Hoping to manage the odds, Grandmaster also arranged for his daughter Va Nee Gast to participate. Using the Power Primordial, En Dwi Gast gave his daughter teleportation powers and they created a false history for her as Valerie Vector, aka Voyager, a founding member of the Avengers who disappeared during the first match between Grandmaster and Kang the Conqueror. With the Avengers remembering Valerie Vector as a valiant veteran, she called the Avengers together to deal with the threat.
The first two prizes were cast to the game board, with the Pyramoid of Earth landing at the Colosseum of Rome and the Pyramoid of Fire striking ground in Peru. Voyager's teleporting powers ensured the Avengers would be on hand as obstacles during the Pyramoid matches between the Black Order and Lethal Legion. Several Avengers were injured trying to stop the 
environmental damage of the Pyramoids and the warring of the game pieces. Black Dwarf seized the Pyramoid of Earth for Challenger, gaining a point for his team and ending the match. To the Avengers' eyes, Black Dwarf was seemingly obliterated when he grabbed the Pyramoid (in truth, he had been transported away to the Elders' citadel, a "handicap" that caused the teams to lose a player each time they scored). So, when the Human Torch grabbed the Pyramoid of Fire in Peru, nullifying that point, the Avengers believed Johnny Storm was dead. (Challenger - 1, Grandmaster - 0) [Avengers (1st series) #675-678]
With Challenger in the lead, the next two Pyramoids were launched for New Mexico and the Antarctic. But the influence of Voyager and the interference of the Avengers continued to affect the game. Ferene the Other of the Lethal Legion claimed the Pyramoid of Ice in the Antarctic, while Red Wolf of the Avengers took the Pyramoid of Wind in New Mexico, robbing the players of another point in the field. The Grandmaster was amused, for the game could not end in a draw and only one point remained. Having won the last round, he took the initiative and sent the final prize, the Pyramoid of Soul, to a Manhattan hospital where Beast and Wasp were caring for an injured Jarvis. If the Avengers claimed the last Pyramoid to protect Jarvis, the match would be a draw, meaning the Challenger's "challenge" would be void. (Challenger -1, Grandmaster - 1) [Avengers (1st series) #679-682]
Challenger had his own schemes, however. The players were allowed to field seven pawns for the game. When Grandmaster assembled his seven-member Lethal Legion, he assumed Challenger had chosen to operate with a handicap by choosing to field the existing six-member team of the Black Order. In fact, Challenger had held a piece in reserve, to be revealed at a time of his choosing. A sinister new incarnation of the Incredible Hulk was raised up by Challenger to claim 
the Pyramoid of Soul. The Grandmaster's game continued to drift out of his control as Va Nee decided to aid the Avengers directly. She teleported the Pyramoid away from the hospital and into the Avengers Auxiliary Headquarters. With the Pyramoid in a nest of Avengers and his ringer refusing to cooperate, the Grandmaster seemed poised to lose. The ever-uncontrollable Hulk was pushed into rejecting being Challenger's pawn, however, and he destroyed the Pyramoid rather than claiming it. This foul resulted in a "negative point,” giving Grandmaster the point that would have gone to Challenger. (Challenger - 1, Grandmaster - 2)
Despite the rough victory, it still counted as a victory. Grandmaster was ready to claim his winnings and return the Challenger to his eternal banishment. However, as the dust settled, the Avengers chose that moment to confront Voyager about her manipulations. She confessed to the Avengers her true identity, that she was the Grandmaster's daughter and had been influencing the 
game on his behalf. These revelations were caught on the Elders' monitors and Challenger heard how Grandmaster had been stacking the deck. The red-handed Grandmaster tried to equivocate, claiming nothing he or Voyager did was technically against the rules and suggested they play a new game if Challenger was unsatisfied with the current outcome. Instead, Challenger unleashed his anger and struck down the Grandmaster directly. [Avengers (1st series) #683-686]
As the Grandmaster reformed himself, the Challenger had gone down to Earth. Declaring himself Grandmaster Prime, he was prepared to let the entire Earth burn to spite En Dwi Gast for his love of those game pieces. Va Nee had brought the Avengers to the Elders' citadel to stabilize the 
cosmic machinery which moved the Earth originally, but En Dwi Gast cared not. He thought only of himself, preparing to slink away with a few trophies and maybe approach the Challenger for a rematch in a few centuries once his temper cooled. His daughter, the Avengers and the Earth meant nothing to him. All that mattered was the game. And so, Miguel Santos, the Avenger known as the Living Lightning, challenged the Grandmaster to a hand of poker.
In Texas Hold 'Em, No Limit poker, two cards were dealt to each player. As betting progressed, five cards in total were dealt face up for both players to utilize. Whoever had the best five card hand combined from their hand and the face-up cards at the end was the winner. On the table fell a King, two Queens, a Ten and a Two, with three Suited for Clubs. As betting began, Grandmaster offered the freedom of the Human Torch, still held in captivity, against that of Miguel Santos. The Living Lightning raised, betting his life against the lives of both the Human Torch and Red Wolf, Grandmaster's other captive. En Dwi Gast accepted and raised the stakes further to the fate of the Earth. If Lightning won, Grandmaster would return the planet unharmed to its proper location. If Santos lost, however, En Dwi Gast would claim the planet and all seven billion inhabitants as his trophies. The Grandmaster sat on a pair of Kings, giving him a final hand of a Full House, Kings over Queens. He felt confident in his victory and probability agreed with him.
But then, Miguel Santos raised. The Lightning offered up his history and his reputation to the pot. If he lost the game, nobody would remember his career as a hero or Avenger. If they remembered him at all, it would be as a nobody. A failure. To call, En Dwi Gast would have to put his own reputation on the line. If he lost, endless lifetimes of victories as an Elder would be forgotten by 
the universe, leaving him a loser in the eyes of everyone. Faced with that risk, En Dwi Gast blinked. He refused to call Lightning's final wager and folded, leaving Lightning with the two heroes and the fate of the Earth. The Grandmaster begged to know what Miguel Santos had been holding, whether he would have won or if he bluffed. But the Living Lightning left Grandmaster guessing as he collected his winnings. [Avengers (1st series) #687-689]
En Dwi Gast ultimately learned nothing from these events and quickly returned to gaming. He located the Black Order in the aftermath of the competition and offered them his patronage for a new game. [Avengers (1st series) #690] A tyrannical and insane emperor of his acquaintance believed his throne was unassailable and Grandmaster bet him that he could be brought low by no greater than a group of five. Sure enough, the Black Order defeated the Sinnarian Empire and overthrew Emperor Attican, even acquiring the Bow of Gabriel, weapon of one of Galactus’ Heralds. They chose to go their own way after the mission was over, however, and did not remain as Grandmaster's pawns. [Black Order #1-5]
In time, Grandmaster learned of the existence of Shatterstar. A gladiator from Mojoworld who fought for the appeal of the crowds before joining a revolution and later other causes on the planet Earth, Shatterstar was intriguing to En Dwi Gast. Grandmaster claimed and reactivated the gladiator arenas on the planet Horus IV to be his stage, stoking the audience's need for thrills and bloodshed. He then hired Gringrave and the Death Sponsors from Mojoworld to retrieve their errant lamb. Shatterstar had become a landlord for time- and dimensionally-displaced individuals in Queens and the Death Sponsors kidnapped his charges as bait to lure him to the Grandmaster's clutches.
Shatterstar responded to the prompting with sufficient dramatic flair and Grandmaster's remote cameras captured his pursuit of the Death Sponsors, transmitted back to the eager audience of Horus IV. One by one, Shatterstar cut a swath through the Death Sponsors, killing them and finally Gringrave, his former mentor and lover in the gladiator pits. Grandmaster thrilled at Shatterstar's success, although he did kill and resurrect the warrior with his powers just to prove who was in control. Grandmaster offered to make Shatterstar his new star gladiator, giving him an exciting and enjoyable pawn to use in his games. Shatterstar agreed if his tenants would be sent home safely. Once his friends were home, however, Shatterstar opened a slash-way with his swords, depositing him and Grandmaster into another dimension. The realm of Earth-1218 was boring by 
most standards, holding stricter standards on physics and fantasy. Grandmaster was just a mortal being with no access to the Power Primordial on this planet, while Shatterstar was still a warrior born. Grandmaster was stabbed through the chest and tossed off a bridge in Manhattan before Shatterstar returned to his home universe, seemingly leaving his tormentor to his death. [Shatterstar #1-5]
By the Power Primordial and his arrangement with Mistress Death, an Elder of the Universe like Grandmaster should never die. Or maybe the restrictive rules of reality in Earth-1218 finally brought about his demise.
Who wants to make a bet?