Having already explored the 1970s and the 1980s, our look back into the history of poker’s World Series has reached the 1990s. It would prove to be a decade in which the numbers in the Main Event (ME) would more than double, and where stars old and new would shine against the backdrop of a rapidly changing poker landscape.
While the 1980s ended with a bright-eyed Phil Hellmuth making headlines as the youngest ever Main Event winner, the new decade began with another first. When the Iranian-British player Mansour Matloubi (top-left in the featured image, above) won the ME in 1990, he became the first non-American to claim poker’s crown. Johnny Chan, who won in 1987 and again in 1988, had been born in China, but was an American citizen. Matloubi’s victory had finally put the ‘world’ into ‘world champion’.
The 1990 ME final table was a nine-handed affair, for the first time since 1984. An unexpected name made it all the way to the final table, ultimately finishing in 9th place: Stu Ungar.
While few would be shocked to see Ungar reach the final table of any tournament he played, what made this surprising was the fact that Ungar had collapsed of a drug overdose on Day 3, and so had been absent for much of the four-day event. Such was the size of the stack he’d built, it survived until the final table, netting Ungar a prize of over $25k in his absence.
More side events, more first-time winners
The number of side events offered each year continued to grow as the decade went on, giving names both old and new their moment in the spotlight. 1991 saw the likes of Doyle Brunson and Byron Wolford pick up side event bracelets - players who had paid their dues in the poker world and earned their places at the top table. Brad Daugherty won the ME that year, and would go on to author several strategy books with his fellow world champ Tom McEvoy.
1992, on the other hand, saw a number of new names begin to make their mark. Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen won his first bracelet in a $1.5k stud event, while Erik Seidel managed to shake the runner-up tag and bag his first WSOP title too, in the $2.5k limit hold’em event. Phil Hellmuth locked up the second of what would go on to be a record number of WSOP wins, with victory in the $5k limit hold’em tourney, while Todd Brunson and Barry Greenstein recorded their first WSOP cashes.
For the only time in its history so far, the 1992 ME got fewer entries than the previous year, with 201 players putting up the $10k entry compared with 215 in 1991. Hamid Dastmalchi - a bracelet winner back in 1986 - won the $1m first prize.
Multiple winners, calling blind and a scandalous champion
Bracelet collectors had a field day in 1993, as Hellmuth won three side events (plus was runner-up in a fourth), Ted Forrest won another three, and the previous year’s world champion, Dastmalchi, returned to take down the $2k PLO title.
The ME put the anomaly of 1992’s shrinking field behind it, with 231 entries making it the biggest so far. In the end, Jim Bechtel claimed the title and the $1m payday, beating Glenn Cozen after just three hands of heads-up play.
To be fair, Cozen entered the heads-up phase with a very short stack - so short that in the deciding hand he open-shoved with 
. Bechtel, who had previously made the ME final table in 1988, called blind, showing 
and ultimately winning the WSOP Main Event holding nothing but a jack-high.
1994 marked the 25th anniversary of the WSOP, and an additional prize for the winner in the form of their body weight in silver. That winner was Russ Hamilton - a name that would go on to live in infamy due to his role in the UltimateBet scandal.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission estimated that Hamilton had been largely responsible for cheating UltimateBet players out of over $22m, through a ‘superuser’ exploit that allowed him to see opponents’ hole cards. Hamilton is therefore one former WSOP champion whose face you are unlikely to see on a banner hanging from the rafters.
The ‘Comeback Kid’
The 1995 title went to a much less contentious player, in the shape of Dan Harrington - since famed for the many strategy books he has written. Harrington was one of the old ‘Mayfair Club’ players who had earned his stripes playing in the celebrated New York underground card room alongside the likes of Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel and Steve Zolotow. Zolotow himself also got on the WSOP scoresheet in 1995, beating Doyle Brunson in the inaugural, but short-lived, Chinese Poker bracelet event.
Future Poker Hall of Famer Huck Seed won the big one in 1996, defeating a talent-heavy six-handed final table that featured three other bracelet-winners (An Tran, John Bonetti and Men Nguyen). 295 entries marked the biggest ME field yet.
More than 300 turned out in 1997, however, and the event would provide some of the most memorable images of the decade. Stu Ungar, winner of back-to-back ME titles in the 1980s, was no longer ‘The Kid’, but he still had the ability to dominate a poker tournament. Having made the final table in 1990, despite missing a huge chunk of the tournament, Ungar went one better for his WSOP swansong and won a record-equalling third ME.
Wearing distinctive blue sunglasses - apparently in a bid to hide the damage that cocaine had done to his nose - Ungar dominated play for much of the tournament, but it almost didn’t happen. The story goes that he had been up for over 24 hours trying to borrow the $10k entry by the time his friend Billy Baxter signed him up as the very last entrant to register.
Exhausted, he was close to falling asleep at the table during Day 1, but rallied and rested and came back to record an epic victory. By the time he reached the final table, bookmakers had him as a favorite to win over the rest of the field put together. Here's the moment Ungar made history.
“It’s all over, baby!”
Sadly, Ungar did not return in 1998 to defend his title, which was won by Scotty Nguyen in one of the all-time classic WSOP ME finales.
With the board showing a full house, 
Nguyen put his heads-up opponent Kevin McBride all-in while uttering the line “If you call, it’s gonna be all over baby!”. Sensing a steal, McBride made the call and played the board, only to find out Nguyen had the 
for the winner.
The result was a big win for Nguyen, as well as his friend Mike Matusow who'd backed him for 33%. Ungar, who was reported to have backed out of the ME at the last minute, would never play the WSOP again; he was found dead later that year having suffered heart failure, likely a result of his years battling addiction. He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2001.
The final WSOP of the 1990s saw fewer side events scheduled, but more players for the ME than ever before with close to 400 entrants. Matusow, having backed the big winner the year before, won a bracelet of his own in the $3.5k NLHE event, while Josh Arieh also notched his first WSOP win in the $3k limit hold’em tournament.
The ME final table was another international affair, with Irish players finishing first (Noel Furlong) and third (Padraig Parkinson). For Furlong it was the realization of a dream that began a full decade ago, when he reached the final table only to lose to Phil Hellmuth.
Back then, in 1989, the ME had attracted 178 players. In 1999, that number had ballooned to 393. Big growth, to be sure, but nothing compared to the boom that was to come.
Next week: the 2000s
Images courtesy of PokerGo/Gene Bromberg/LasVegasVegas.com
