When Phil Hellmuth asks for a selfie with someone at the WSOP, you know you're in the presence of poker royalty.
For 50 years, Perry Green has been part of poker's storied history.
The three-time bracelet winner famously lost to Stu Ungar heads-up for the Main Event title in 1981. Now, aged 90, he's still competing at the WSOP.
Green's road to poker started in Alaska
Poker was never meant to be a defining part of Green's life.
He spent most of his business career as a fur trader in Alaska. He owned other businesses, worked in politics, served on numerous boards and commissions, and was once named Alaskan of the Week by US Senator Dan Sullivan in 2019.
Green was intrigued by poker during high school and learned mixed games while serving in the military, eventually traveling to Las Vegas and playing alongside legends like Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim.
“In the Army, during basic training, I turned $14 into $1,000," he says. "Later, I took about $20 and built that up too. That money helped me get married. I’m still married to the same woman after 70 years.”
Like many players of his generation, poker eventually drew him to Las Vegas, where he played bigger cash games at Binion’s Horseshoe during vacations.
“Someone told me there was a big poker game at Binion’s,” says Green. “So, I went down there and won a lot of money.”
From cash games to WSOP bracelets
Green didn’t have a traditional tournament background and rarely played them. You wouldn’t know that from looking at his 50-year tournament record.
He captured his first tournament cash and a WSOP bracelet in 1976 in the $1,000 Ace to Five Draw event, then followed it with another title a year later in the $5,000 Limit Ace-to-Five Draw Championship.
Green completed a bracelet hat trick in 1979, winning the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event during the WSOP’s 10th anniversary series.
He final-tabled the WSOP Main Event twice – losing to Ungar in 1981 before finishing fifth in 1991, when Brad Daugherty won.
“I was really a lowball player," says Green. "I hardly ever heard of hold’em in Alaska. But I got Doyle’s book, Super System, and was having fun playing the game.”
"If you watch the old videos, I had Stu [Ungar] all-in three times,” says Green. “I was having fun. I had 
in one hand – I just played it for Doyle. The flop came 
. I had a straight and flush draw, but unfortunately, Stu had 
. We got it all in, he won, took the lead, and it was downhill from there.”
Still chasing cards at 90
Green is now 90, and grinding full WSOP days isn’t easy. "Just walking into the room from my hotel room is tough now," he says. "But I wanted to see some old friends.”
But Green can still compete. He made Day 2 of the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event and added yet another entry on his Hendon Mob profile, which stretches back exactly 50 years.
Green remembers the old-school legends mostly for their larger-than-life personalities and humor away from the tables. He once arranged a fishing trip for his good friend, Doyle Brunson.
“Doyle visited me in Alaska once," Green says, "and at the time he was under investigation for some reason or another. I think it was about gaming.”
One of the guests Green invited on the trip was a friend who happened to be the FBI director in Alaska – a detail Green omitted to mention to Brunson.
“I picked both of them up and didn’t tell either one who the other was,” says Green. “When Doyle found out, he just laughed and laughed. He was a great sport.”
Advice is the same 50 years on
Today’s poker world might feel far removed from the one Green entered more than five decades ago. But, he says, the advice remains the same.
“Play for the fun of it," Green says. "Enjoy yourself. Go to work, have kids, grandkids, and a family. That’s what life is really about.”
For Green, poker was never just about winning a massive pot or scoring a gold bracelet. He cared most about the people, the stories, and the life built along the way.
Additional images courtesy of WSOP/Enrique Ivan Malfavon.
