ONLINE POKER|
World Series of Poker Sports have their Olympics, movies have their Oscars, and poker has its own World Series. Since 1970, players have gathered each year, at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, to play for the biggest “pot” in the world. The world championship of poker owes its start to Benny Binion, born a gambling Texan in 1904. Benny spent his youth moving in horse trading circles, and traders being gamblers at heart, he soon fell into their “ways”. In the 1920s, Benny had a “numbers” racket going in Dallas. From there he moved on to bootlegging, and in the mid 1930s, dicing. When some of his cronies shifted their activities to Las Vegas, Benny followed, building the Westerner, and later buying the El Dorado Club gaming hall and renaming it the Horseshoe. His “dicey” relationship with the authorities led to a brief prison stint, during which he “sold out” in name only, to a close friend, regaining control of his empire seven years after his release from jail in 1957. In 1970 he hosted the first World Series of Poker, an invitation event for the best poker players of the day. While it was good advertising for the casino, it rapidly became the premier event for poker players. But it wasn’t the first “big” game in town. That took place at Binion’s first casino in 1949, when Nick the Greek Dandalos rolled into town, looking for a high stakes, no limit game, played one-on-one. Binion agreed to set him up with a game…providing it was played in public…at a table placed strategically near the door of his new casino. He then called his friend Johnny Moss, and sat him down across from the Greek. What resulted was a five month long marathon, with breaks every three to five days for sleeping, during which Dandalos often played craps. Moss, who admitted to learning how to cheat before he learned how to play poker, needed his sleep. Not only was it the highest “pot” game ever seen, it would include what is reputed to be the most expensive hand of the century- some half million dollars, won by Dandalos. Over the five months of play, curious bystanders who had the cash, could buy in for ten thousand dollars. But they soon folded. In the end, it was just Moss and the Greek. Eventually, Nick the Greek stood up and excused himself from the table. It was estimated he had lost two million dollars. In 1970, Binion invited the top players in the country to play an elite poker match, and the World Series of Poker was born. There was no big prize money in the end, and the “champion” was elected by his fellow players. The winner that year was Johnny Moss. The tournament grew rapidly, utilizing almost every variation of poker, as well as changing in format to contestants buying themselves into events, and playing “freeze out”, where you play until your chips are gone, and one person has won them all. Ten years after the first event, there were 12 separate competitions held as part of the Series, with $750,000 being divided on a scale amongst the nine players who reached the final table. By May of 2000, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson would come out on top of the 512 contestants who paid $10,000 each to enter the main event and compete for part of the over five million dollars in prize money. In May of 2003, a Tennessee amateur player, named (believe it or not), Chris Moneymaker, ended 28 days of play with 832 entrants, by taking the top prize of $2.5 million dollars. The champion was playing in his first ever, “real time” poker game. A veteran of online poker, Moneymaker parlayed a $40 online win into his entry fee for the WSOP. To cover his expenses in Las Vegas, he sold 20% shares in any wins he would make to his father, and his friend David Gamble (yes, his real name too) for $2,000. Their investment earned each of them a half million dollars. Moneymaker also pledged 1% of his winnings, $25, 0000 to cancer research. |
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