The Biggest Game in Town
Although the first WSOP took place in 1970 the background of the tournament goes much further. In fact to understand the evolution of the tournament you really should know a bit about “The Biggest Game in Town”.
In the summer of 1949 a man called Nick “The Greek” Dandolos, renowned as an incorrigible gambler, approached Benny Binion, a casino owner and poker enthusiast, asking if he could organise a game of high stakes poker against the best poker player around. Binion agreed, but only on condition that the game was played in public. He then set out to find the only player who would be willing to take on “The Greek” for such high stakes, namely the best poker player in the land, Johnny Moss.
The game, which became known as “The Biggest Game in Town” lasted five months, and stopped only occasionally for sleep. Legend has it that when Moss slept Nick The Greek would simply head over to the craps tables and carry on gambling. Eventually, after losing somewhere between $2 and $4 million (well over $100 million in today’s money), Nick the Greek conceded defeat, uttering one of the most famous of all poker quotes: “Mr Moss, I have to let you go,” before heading up to bed to get some sleep.
Ever the opportunist, Benny Binion meanwhile had noticed that the game between caught the Vegas public’s imagination. People were gripped by the spectacle of two poker heavyweights playing for vast sums of money and were coming on a daily basis to watch them slug it out. The seed was planted but it would be another 20 years before it began to grow.
The Texas Gamblers Re-Union
In 1969 Tom Morehead, who owned the Holiday Inn in Reno, held an invitation only poker festival which he called “The Texas Gamblers Re-Union”. He solicited the best poker players and the biggest gamblers from around the world to create a guest list that read like a who’s who of the gambling world. The list included, among many others, Benny and Jack Binion, Johnny Moss, Amarillo “Slim” Preston, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Jack “Treetop” Strauss, “Corky” McCorquodale, Puggy Pearson and even Minnesota Fats.
The festival was a huge success and was enjoyed immensely by all involved but the following year Tom Morehead sold off his casino, leaving the Texas Gamblers nowhere to re-unite, so to speak. Fortunately Benny Binion was on hand to take the idea forward, deciding to stage a similar event in his own casino – Binion’s Horseshoe.
1970 – The First Ever WSOP
The first World Series of Poker, as Benny Binion grandly called it, was modelled on the Texas Gamblers Re-Union. Like the “The Re-Union” it was an invitational event and once again involved the world’s top players but this time there was a twist. First off the festival would be played in the open, for anyone to see. Binion was hoping it would attract the same attention as the Greek v Moss game. The other difference was that this time there would be a Champion.
With no tournament to decide the Champion (the first WSOP was exclusively cash games) the 1970 WSOP champion was decided by a vote. The player’s overwhelmingly backed Johnny Moss, naming him the best player at the WSOP, the first ever WSOP champion.
The Early Years
In Binion’s eyes the first WSOP was a bit of a disappointment; it simply didn’t grab the limelight as he hoped it would. Speaking to a journalist from the LA times called Ted Thackery, Binion was advised that in order to really capture the public imagination there would need to be an outright winner. He suggested that a tournament, played until only one player was left, would be the ideal solution.
So in 1971 the first WSOP Championship tournament took place. It took the form of a No-Limit Texas Hold’em Freezeout tournament (freezeout means you cannot buy more chips – once you lose your stack you are ‘frozen’ out). Six players paid $5000 each and the winner would pocket the lot - $30,000. This time Johnny Moss backed up the previous years elected title by winning the tournament.
1972 saw the first $10,000 buy-in for the WSOP, when Amarillo ‘Slim’ Preston won the Championship. It has remained $10,000 ever since.
After Johnny Moss won his third WSOP Championship in 1974 Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson took over the mantle, winning back-to-back Championships in 1976 and 1977. He would quickly become one of the game’s greatest stars, winning countless WSOP events. By 2005 Brunson had accumulated ten WSOP bracelets, which along with Johnny Chan is more than any other player in the history of the WSOP.
The 1980’s
Slowly but steadily the WSOP began to grow, attracting more people year-on-year. Doyle Brunson remained a dominant force in the early 80’s, coming second in 1980 and making the final table in 1982 and 1983, but it was Stu “The Kid” Ungar who was the new man about town.
The 27-year-old, who looked not a day over 15, became the youngest WSOP champion when he won “The Big One” in 1980. Nicknamed “The Kid” for his boyish looks, Ungar was already a sensation when he returned the next year and won the title again. Ungar would win the title for a record third time, before succumbing to a drug addiction in his forties – he will forever be remembered as one of the greatest no-limit Hold’em tournament players of all time.
But by 1987 a new sensation had emerged in the shape of “The Oriental Express” – Johnny Chan. If Ungar’s back-to-back WSOP victories were momentous, what Chan achieved at the end of that decade will go down as the greatest accomplishment in the history of the tournament.
When Chan won his first title in 1987 he overcame a field of 152 – twice the number of entrants that competed in the 1980 WSOP – the year of Ungar’s first triumph. The following year Chan outplayed an even larger field of 167 to defend his crown, and in 1989 Chan incredibly came within a 32 percent shot of winning his third back-to-back title, a feat which would surely never have been equalled. As it was his As7s couldn’t outflop Phil Hellmuth’s pocket nines, and Chan’s run came to an end. Nevertheless, it was still a near miraculous achievement.
The 1990’s
The 1990’s was a steady decade for the WSOP; the calm, if you like, before the storm. Player numbers continued to rise steadily, going from 178 in 1989 to 393 in 1999.
The 90’s also saw the release the now classic Hollywood movie “Rounders” (in 1998) featuring a scene between Johnny Chan and Matt Damon as well as a real clip of Johnny Chan’s 1988 victory against Eric Seidel.
The highlights of the decade were Mansour Matloubi becoming the first non-American to win the title in 1990, Brad Dougherty’s $1 million payday the flowing year (the first $1 million prize in the tournament’s history) and Stu Ungar making his fairytale comeback and winning his third title in 1997.
The Millennium
In 2000 Chris “Jesus” Ferguson became the first WSOP champion of the new millennium, delivering a painful beat to T.J. Cloutier in the heads-up stage when, holding As9c, he spiked a 9 on the river to beat Cloutier’s AQ.
In 2002 we saw the first $2 million payout; Robert Varkoni’s triumph also ensured Phil Hellmuth had to eat his words, and literally shave his head, after he promised to do so if Varkoni won the title. 2002 was also the first year that the WSOP featured “sneak peak” cameras on the final table.
But it was in 2003, when the appropriately named Chris Moneymaker (his real name) won the title after qualifying for the event in a $40 online satellite at PokerStars.com that things went a little crazy.
The effect Moneymaker’s win had on the poker industry is almost impossible to exaggerate. Moneymaker, an amateur, was an accountant earning just $40,000 a year when he won the WSOP, beating the best players in the world along the way, and becoming a millionaire overnight. And it had cost him just $40 to get there.
Moneymaker’s victory sent the poker world into frenzy. The dream was no longer a dream, he had made it reality, and all around the world amateur poker players (and complete novices) were signing up to online poker rooms in the millions.
In 2004 the WSOP was overrun. 1737 extra players made a beeline for Binion’s Horseshoe that year, making a total of 2576 entrants for the main-event - three times that of the 2003. Once again it was an online qualifier from PokerStars.com who came out on top: Greg “Fossilman” Raymer won a staggering $5 million for first place.
Harrah’s buys-in
2004 was also the end of an era for the WSOP – it was the year the tournament finally left the bosom of the Binion family. Six years earlier, in 1998, Binion’s Horseshoe had been taken over by Benny Binion’s daughter Becky. Becky’s presidency was not a good one; she was unpopular with customers and employees and was not a good businesswoman. In January 2004 things came to a head when the Horseshoe was closed by the IRS for non-payment of taxes, and it was revealed the casino was mired in debt.
In March that year, Harrah’s Entertainment Ltd., one of the world’s biggest hotel and casino companies, purchased Binion’s Horseshoe along with the rights to the World Series of Poker. It proved shrewd timing, given the figures for the 2004 WSOP. Harrah’s announced that the 2005 WSOP would take place at the Harrah’s owned Rio Hotel and Casino, with only the final two days of the event held back at Binion’s Horseshoe.
It was to be a happy inauguration for the Rio, with the WSOP breaking all expectations (and records) for the second year running. The number of entrants more than doubled the figure for 2004, meaning a mind-blowing total of 5619 entrants showed up to compete, over 1000 of who qualified on PokerStars.com. It was an extraordinary figure and the competition took over 6 days to complete as a result. The prize pool was in excess of $50 million and the winner – Joseph Hachem of Australia – won $7.5 million.
2006 and beyond
The popularity of the WSOP does not look like fading any time soon. Indeed it may be only the constraints of physical space that prevent the tournament from growing ever bigger. Harrah’s is already predicting that around 8000 players will compete for the 2006 Championship, and has warned it may even have to turn potential competitors away.
Television producers are also still madly in love with the WSOP Championship, which is no surprise given that ESPN audiences for the tournament are some of the highest for any telecast worldwide.
But amid the success are the rumblings of discontent. Harrah’s in particular has been the focus of much criticism lately, with certain high-profile players publicly bemoaning the shift towards a predominantly Hold’em dominated competition. Harrah’s, to its credit, has responded by adding a $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E event (a mix of Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight or better) to the 2006 schedule. In addition they have created a players council, which they plan to consult about future decisions concerning WSOP events. This should prevent similar falling outs in the future, but with 35 out of the scheduled 45 events still pencilled in as Hold’em events, they may have more work to do yet.
The WSOP has also come in for criticism because of its sheer size. While most professional and amateur poker players would still put a WSOP victory at the top of their ambitions, many players would also admit that it is more unlikely than ever.
With well over 5000 players competing in the 2006 main-event the chances of winning the competition have become incredibly slim. Far fewer big-name players made the final tables of the previous two WSOP’s than usual, and the amount of luck required to make the final table now threatens to make the competition a near crap shoot. Never again are we likely to see the likes of Chan, Ungar or Brunson’s back-to-back WSOP wins.
But those who regret the expansion of the WSOP main-event should perhaps be a little more optimistic. The H.O.R.S.E event may provide an even better spectacle, and is certainly a greater test of skill. With a $50,000 buy-in the prize will be significant, and many pro’s are predicting it could even overshadow the WSOP by 2010.
The truth is that the phenomenal growth of the WSOP is great for poker as a sport. If well known professionals do not always make the final table, well, so what? The fact that The Big One is no longer a no-go zone for amateurs should be celebrated, not mourned. Whoever said fairy tales weren’t exciting?
Growth and popularity are vital to all sports; if the WSOP remains elitist it will lose its appeal and it’s magic. What makes the WSOP so absorbing is that anyone can win it, and that has never been truer than today.
In fact, the next one could be you…