The WSOP: 1971-1981

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) began in the early seventies when Benny Binion, owner of the Horseshoe Casino, invited six players to compete against each other with the champion to be determined by secret ballot. Obviously this voting approach was unsatisfactory and in subsequent years the winner was determined by a “freeze out” tournament.

The main event of the WSOP has, over the decades, proven pivotal in dragging poker out of the disreputable gambling dens and into the light of public acceptance. Perhaps the first big step on this journey occurred when Amarillo Slim Preston won the first tournament contested WSOP in 1972. Slim almost perfectly fit the public’s romantic ideal of a poker player; a thin, leathery cowboy with an endless supply of anecdotes, he was impossible not to like. Slim went on several talk shows, including The Tonight Show, and his charisma did wonders for the reputation of the game.

As the years passed, more “events” were added to the WSOP. Championship bracelets were given for different types of poker: Limit and No-Limit Hold ‘em, different stud games, various Omaha and even Razz tournaments all became part of the WSOP. The big championship game came to be known as the “Main Event”. When you hear so-and-so won the WSOP - it usually is referring to the main event, which is a massive No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament.

Throughout the seventies and eighties the main event drew relatively few contestants, possibly because the $10,000 entrance fee was too much for most people to pay. It was 1982 before the 100 player mark was broken and it was 1991 before the main event drew more than 200 players. As the entrance fee remained fixed, over the years it gradually became less of a barrier to professional and amateur players alike.

In 1983 Al Alvarez wrote a book called The Biggest Game in Town. It was both a history of poker and an account of the 1981 main event which was won by Stu Ungar. Alvarez was and is a great writer of both poetry and prose, and was also Sylvia Plath’s close friend and editor. He knows how to put words together. But he also knows a lot about poker, being a long-time player himself. The combination of writing ability an deep knowledge of his subject makes The Biggest Game in Town, in quite a few people’s opinion, the best book about poker. I have read it a few times and I have recommended it to people who want to understand what all the fuss is about. The game has never had a more eloquent spokesperson.

I do, however, two small quibbles. Quibble number one: historical inaccuracy.

After Benny Binion took over the Horseshoe Casino, he slowly began to develop it into the main poker place in Las Vegas. Binion achieved this in part by creating a myth - the myth of Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek. In a nutshell, the story goes that Nick the Greek, the most famous gambler in the world at the time, came to Vegas in 1949 and asked Binion to set up the highest stakes poker game possible. Binion called in Johnny Moss (who would later win the WSOP main event twice) to duel it out with The Greek. The game, according to legend, lasted five months with only short breaks for meals and rest. Binion set up the table right at the front of his casino and the epic struggle drew thousands of curious onlookers who, it is assumed, spent their money in Binion’s place. Binion even went so far as to claim Albert Einstein came to the Horseshoe and was introduced to Binion’s friends as “Little Al. He runs a lot of the action in Jersey.” After five months of fortunes sliding back and forth between the two men, Moss finally wore The Greek down, until The Greek finally stood up and uttered the famous words: “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

That’s the story. Binion claimed the epic game was the inspiration for him starting the WSOP. The story quickly became accepted as truth and was given credibility when Alvarez repeated it in detail in The Biggest Game in Town. The only problem is that it almost certainly did not happen. There is no record Nick the Greek ever spoke of such a match, much less participated in it, and the story seems to have started only after Nick’s death. If such as match took place, with thousands of tourists serving as witnesses, then there must be a mountain of photos to prove it - but the fact that no one has ever brought forth a single picture of this game is a pretty strong argument that it never happened. Still a great story. One really can’t blame Alvarez, who was a poet not an historian, for perpetuating the myth.

The only other quibble I have is Alvarez’s obvious dislike for the man who won the 1981 WSOP main event, Stu Ungar. If Amarillo Slim Preston moved poker towards the light of respectability, then Ungar certainly moved it back towards the dark. Far from eloquent, Ungar is portrayed by Alvarez as barely human - communicating with monosyllabic grunts. Ungar was a terrible drug addict, which may have also fuelled Alvarez’s distaste. Still the portrait of Ungar as somehow sub-human reflects poorly on Alvarez.

People are rarely as good or as bad our snap judgements make them out to be. Ungar was almost certainly a much more complex person than Alvarez makes out and Amarillo Slim Preston would become a pariah in the poker world when in 2003 he was charged with indecency in an incident involving a 12 year old child.

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Year - Winner- Prize Money (USD)-Entrants

1971-Johnny Moss-$30,000-6
1972-"Amarillo Slim" Preston-$80,000-8
1973-Walter "Puggy" Pearson-$130,000-13
1974-Johnny Moss-$160,000sm-16
1975-Brian "Sailor" Roberts-$210,000-21
1976-Doyle Brunson-$220,000-22
1977-Doyle Brunson-$340,000-34
1978-Bobby Baldwin-$210,000-42
1979-Hal Fowler-$270,000-54
1980-Stu Ungar-$385,000-73
1981-Stu Ungar-$375,000-75