It’s the biggest event in the poker calendar; close to 100 tournaments over seven weeks, buy-ins of up to $250k, and the very best players in attendance.
But the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is also the longest-running annual poker series in existence, its reputation forged over six decades. When the WSOP returns to Las Vegas in May, it will be for its 55th running. It’s a brand older than Microsoft, Lucasfilm, Jiffy Lube and Atari.
As the 2024 WSOP approaches, we’ll be exploring the history of the iconic festival, one decade at a time. And it all began with a group of friends, an idea for some publicity and… no tournaments?
The birth of the WSOP
The very first WSOP took place in 1970, but the real story of its birth begins the year before. The Texas Gamblers’ Reunion (TGR) was a gathering of gamblers - not all from Texas - which took place in Reno in 1969, organized by Vic Vickrey and Tom Moore, proprietor of the town’s Holiday Casino.
A number of high stakes cash games were spread, featuring the likes of poker players Doyle Brunson, Thomas ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston, Johnny Moss and Puggy Pearson, as well as other notable gamblers of the era such as Jimmy ‘The Greek’ Snyder and the pool legend Rudy 'Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone. One other player of note was Benny Binion, of Binion’s Horseshoe in Downtown Las Vegas.
When Vickrey and Moore opted not to repeat the TGR the following year, Binion saw an opportunity. Relocating the action to his own casino, Binion hosted the first WSOP in 1970, but it was far from noteworthy. Seven players, mostly buddies who had attended the previous year’s TGR, gathered at Binion’s Horseshoe to play some cash games. When it came time to go their separate ways, the group voted for who had been the best player. Johnny Moss won the vote, plus a small silver cup to mark the occasion.
Putting the ‘S’ in WSOP
Binion realized that for the WSOP to take off and become the crowd-drawing spectacle he wanted, it needed that vital Las Vegas ingredient: More. More players, more prize money, more drama. It was decided that tournaments would provide more drama than cash games, and the tournament series was born.
1971 saw five freezeout tournaments held, including the $5k Main Event which featured just six players: Johnny Moss (who won), Jack Straus, Doyle Brunson, Jimmy Casella, Puggy Pearson and Bryan ‘Sailor’ Roberts.
The side events were mostly played and won by the same players who contested the Main Event, revealing what a closed shop the WSOP was at that time. The only player to win a side event and not play the ME was Bill Boyd, who won the 5-Card Stud tourney.
Boyd would go on to win the same event in 1972, 1973 and 1974, after which it was removed from the schedule, giving him the unusual distinction of winning every 5-Card Stud event the WSOP put on. Whether it was his dominance or a general lack of interest - in 1972 he beat the only other entrant to win the title - 5-Card Stud would not survive to the end of the decade, and is barely played today.
The unusual deal of 1972
Things were much the same for the following year’s series. While the Main Event buy-in was doubled to its now-customary $10k, Benny Binion subsidized half of each player’s entry. Even with all that extra value, only 8 of the scheduled 12 players turned up to play the ME.
When play got down to three-handed, with Brunson, Pearson and Preston remaining, an unusual meeting was called. Brunson had cold feet about the effect winning the event could have in terms of publicity and attention - both from potential future opponents and the tax man.
The story goes that Brunson was excused from play on ‘health grounds’, with he and Pearson taking a large buy-out in exchange for letting Preston win the title. Preston was someone not afraid of publicity, and he soon parlayed his ‘poker world champion’ title into books, movie appearances and a string of guest spots on The Tonight Show and other TV shows.
The only side event held during the 1972 series was the 5-Card Stud event, won by its ‘patron saint’, Bill Boyd after he eliminated his only opponent for the fastest and easiest WSOP title anyone ever won.
Gathering steam
As the WSOP returned each year throughout the 1970s, the numbers continued to grow - not in any way comparable to now, but more side events were added and more players took part.
1973 saw 7 events take place, with new winners picking up titles such as Sam Angel, Joe Bernstein and Aubrey Day. Puggy Pearson won the ME, beating out a group of familiar names including Moss, Straus, Brunson, Preston and Roberts, though notably this year the event was too big for a single table, with 13 entrants.
Perhaps the most significant difference in 1973 was the presence of CBS Sports cameras, covering the event for TV. It seems that giving publicity-friendly Preston the title in 1972 had paid off.
In 1974 the number of players in the ME grew to 16, as Moss won again, with 21 playing in 1975 as Sailor Roberts had his time in the spotlight.
1976 saw Doyle Brunson relax his attitude to that spotlight, winning the first of two back-to-back titles. The $220k winner-take-all prize may have helped change his mind, and he also picked up an iconic WSOP winner’s bracelet, the first time they had been awarded.
Brunson repeated his feat in 1977 for another $340k, scooping the entire prize pool generated by the ME’s 34 entrants. The year also saw Bobby Baldwin win two of the series’ 12 side events (both featuring rebuys for the first time), and the first running of the WSOP Ladies’ Event, won by Jackie McDaniels.
Baldwin would go on to win the 42-runner ME in 1978, the first time it paid more than one place. It was also the first time a woman played the ME, with Barbara Freer taking a seat alongside the usual crowd. Chip Reese picked up a side event win, and Gabe Kaplan played his first WSOP.
By the time 1979 rolled around the Main Event drew 54 entrants, more than 7 times the number who sat down to play in 1970. The final table featured some of the names who had helped build the WSOP from the ground up, like Crandell Addington and Johnny Moss, but it also featured a new name: Hal Fowler.
Fowler was not a pro, but a recreational amateur who managed to out-flop and out-fox a field of skilled poker pros to take down the biggest prize in poker. It wouldn’t be the last time an amateur would scorch the WSOP tables and fire the public imagination, but the days of Chris Moneymaker were still decades away.
The 1980s were just about to start, however, and would bring with it a new face, destined to become one of poker’s greatest ever legends: Stu Ungar.
Next week: The 1980s
Images courtesy of the UNLV Special Collection/Ulvis Alberts/Creative Commons.
