WSOP Top 10 Tuesday - from the World's Greatest Unknown WSOP Historian
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WSOP Top 10 Tuesday - from the World's Greatest Unknown WSOP Historian

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rjen47OP
7mo ago

Welcome to the World Series of Poker Top Ten Tuesday thread. Having spent the last ten+ years researching and analyzing the WSOP, I'd like to share some of my favorite findings each week, with a primary focus on the bracelet events.

Some of these lists are very subjective, so have fun arguing about what's been underrated, overrated, or completely missed.

Other lists are fairly objective but will include unknown factoids and more than a few error corrections (I'll cite my original sources when possible).

Enjoy!

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28 May 2024 at 07:05 PM
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rjen47
7mo ago

Lightning does strike twice (or more).

  • 10. Father-Son: In 1983, Donnacha O'Dea reaches the Main Event final table and finishes sixth. In 2011, his son Eoghan O'Dea reaches the Main Event final table and finishes sixth. They are still the only father and son to both make the WSOP Main Event final table.

  • 9. Biggest Women's Cash: On May 5, 1989, Thomas Chung wins the $2,000 Limit Hold 'Em for his first bracelet as Robin Brown finishes third for a WSOP women's-record $53,000. Two years later, on May 10, 1991, Chung wins the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud for his only other bracelet as Mim Penney finishes second for a WSOP women's-record $88,750, breaking Brown's record.

  • 8. Party Crashers: In 1996, Huck Seed is the last of the 295 entrants to register for the Main Event as he has to beg to be allowed to play as he's technically too late. He wins the championship. The very next year, Stu Ungar is the last of the 312 entrants to register for the Main Event as he has to beg Bill Baxter for a buyin. He wins the championship.

  • 7. Employee Omens: In 2002, Mike Majerus finishes third in the Employee event then goes on to win the $2,000 Limit Hold 'Em the next day for his first bracelet. The next year John Arrage finishes third in the Employee event then goes on to win the $1,500 Limit Hold 'Em two weeks later for his first bracelet.

  • 6. Back-to-Back: Only four players have won the Main Event at least twice. If you include Johnny Moss's 1970 win by vote, all four of them won it back-to-back -- Johnny Moss: 1970-71 (and 1974), Doyle Brunson 1976-77, Stu Ungar 1980-81 (and 1997), and Johnny Chan 1987-88.

  • 5. First Foreigner, Part 1: In 1982, twelve years and more than 100 tournaments after the World Series of Poker's debut, Dennis Zervos finally becomes the first non-American to make the money as the Greek finishes third in the $1,000 Limit Hold 'Em for $20,200. Less than a week later in the next two events, England's Barry Clayton, South Africa's Hugh Todd, and the Philippines's Noli Francisco become the second, third, and fourth.

  • 4. First Foreigner, Part 2: In the first 18 years of the World Series of Poker, every bracelet was won by an American. After the first four events of the 1988 WSOP, nearly 200 bracelets had been awarded, none to a foreigner. On May 7, 1988, Norway's Thor Hansen finally breaks through, winning the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud, defeating a field of 79 for $158,000. It had taken 6,594 days between the time Johnny Moss was voted the winner of the first World Series of Poker to the first foreign winner. It took just four days for the second non-American to collect a bracelet, as France's Gilbert Gross wins the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha over a field of 111 (70 rebuys) for $181,000.

  • 3. Still Short: In 2000, T.J. Cloutier reaches heads up in the Main Event for a second time, a record fifteen years after he lost to Bill Smith. He falls short again, this time to Chris Ferguson for second place. The next year, Dewey Tomko reaches heads up in the Main Event for a second time, a record nineteen years after he lost to Jack Straus. He falls short again, this time to Carlos Mortensen for second place.

  • 2. Turning Lead Into Gold: In 1976, Doyle Brunson wins the final hand of the Main Event with Ten-Deuce, going runner-runner on the turn and river to make a full house. The next year, Brunson wins the final hand of the Main Event again with Ten-Deuce, going runner-runner on the turn and river to make a full house.

  • 1. Rematch Regulars: In 2002, Allen Cunningham beats O'Neil Longson heads up for the $5,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw title and his second bracelet. The next year in the same event, Longson again beats Cunningham heads up for the title and his second bracelet.
    Since then, only three heads-up rematches have occurred at the WSOP, and Shaun Deeb has been in all of them. He beat Paul Volpe in 2015 and 2018, split with Ben Yu in 2017 and 2018, and split with Adam Friedman in 2016 and 2019.
    The previous two decades had only three heads-up rematches, and Johnny Chan was in all of them. He beat Lyle Berman in 1985 and 1997, split with Erik Seidel in 1985 and 1997, and split with Phil Hellmuth in 1989 and 2002.
    In the known history of the WSOP, hundreds of thousands of players have competed and only ten heads up rematches have occurred; Chan and Deeb have been involved in six of them.

Honorable Mention:

rjen47
6mo ago

Best WSOP Myths, Busted

  • 10. 1989 Main Event Last Woman Standing

    MYTH: Carmen Valenti was the Last Woman Standing in the 1989 Main Event, finishing 13th for $12,500. This was reported in the annual WSOP pre-Main Event press release in     2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

    REALITY: No women cashed in the 1989 Main Event. Carmen Valenti was a male pro poker player from New York. {I reported this error to the WSOP on March 9, 2016, but they never fixed it (2018 was their final annual media guide but oddly the only one that's no longer online).}


  • 9. 1971 Main Event Runner-Up

    MYTH: Puggy Pearson was the runner-up in the 1971 Main Event, losing to Johnny Moss heads up. This is reported by credible sources such as PokerNews and the Hendon Mob.

    REALITY: Jack Straus was the runner-up. The December 15, 1971 Amarillo Globe Times says on page 2, "Straus has come in second in the World Series of poker {the Ace-to-Five Draw and the Main Event}, held in Las Vegas, losing both times to Johnny Moss of Lubbock, Tex., and Las Vegas. Straus, who thinks of himself as a money player, commented: 'Moss won the trophy (a plaque), but I won most of the money." Amarillo Slim Preston's "Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People" confirms this on page 158: "Well that day apparently the Lord didn't want me to hold on to mine [money], because that giant [Straus] busted me, and there were no prizes for third place. Too bad for Treetop that there weren't any for second either, because Johnny busted him to become the 1971 World Series of Poker champion and took home all $30,000." Another point in favor of Straus over Pearson is that when Puggy won the 1974 Main Event, nobody said anything about what would have been a remarkable 2nd-2nd-1st streak.


  • 8. 1970 Second Vote

    MYTH: Johnny Moss won the 1970 WSOP championship on the second vote, after everyone had voted for themselves the first time.

    REALITY: Moss dominated the cash games and was the obvious choice for "World's Champion Poker Player". The vote may not have been unanimous, but several of the players were single-game specialists while more than a few others finished the games in the red, so this story is undoubtedly apocryphal.


  • 7. First Married Couple With WSOP Bracelets

    MYTH 1: Sandy and Bob Stupak were the first married couple to both win bracelets. Bob Stupak's Wikipedia page and his own web site both make this claim.

    REALITY 1: Although Bob did win a legitimate bracelet in the 1989 Deuce-to-Seven Draw, Sandy's victory in the 1984 Special Casino Operators tournament wasn't considered a bracelet at the time, as she won $14,000 and a trophy. Of the major results sites, only WSOP.com's tournament page deems this a bracelet. They wouldn't have been the first couple anyway (see below).

    MYTH 2: Max and Maria Stern became the first married couple with bracelets when Maria won the 1997 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud. Her husband Max had already won the 1995 $1,500 Limit Omaha 8 or Better. E.g., Shulmans are Third Married Couple to Win... and Day 4 Highlights.

    REALITY 2: The Sterns were the first to both win open bracelets, but Donna and Jim Doman won the 1983 $800 Mixed Doubles tournament together to become the first couple with bracelets.


  • 6. Only Two 1972 Bracelet Winners are Known

    MYTH: Hendon, the Global Poker Index, and CardPlayer.com only acknowledge two WSOP tournaments in 1972 (Five-Card Stud and the Main Event), while WSOP.com says that the Five-Card Stud was Event #2 and the Main Event was Event #5 but has no information on the other three events.

    REALITY: By historical chance, less is known about the 1972 WSOP than the 1971 WSOP, but the same five games were probably played, with Ace-to-Five Draw, Seven-Card Stud, and Razz completing the set. Unfortunately, two of these three winners are still unknown, but Puggy Pearson won in Seven-Card Stud. In an article titled "Amarillo Slim Paid $31,000", page 3 of the November 30, 1972 Big Spring Herald says, "Slim won the so-called world series of poker here earlier this year. His partners apparently were no slouches in that contest. Pearson won top honors as the best seven-card stud player, and Boyd took top honors in five-card stud." {See followup post.}


  • 5. Three Consecutive Bracelets for Hellmuth and Forrest

    MYTH: Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest each won three consecutive events during the 1993 WSOP. Hellmuth won events 7, 8, and 9, then Forrest matched him in events 11, 12, and 13.

    REALITY: Forrest actually won his third bracelet of the year first, but his victories were in events 5, 6, and 17, while Hellmuth's were in events 7, 18, and 19. Hellmuth discusses his feat with the correct dates in his book "Poker Brat" on pages 169-170. (See next list item.)


  • 4. WSOP Tournament Chronology, 1976 to 1993

    MYTH: WSOP.com, the Hendon Mob, the Global Poker Index, and CardPlayer.com all agree on the order of the WSOP tournaments from 1976 to 1993, so they must be right.

    REALITY: There was a site called PokerPages.com that posted historical WSOP tournament results in April 2000. I don't know where they got their data from, so it might not be their fault, BUT they listed most of the early years' results alphabetically by the winner's last name. WSOP, Hendon, et al., all copied this incorrect order! Even more bizarrely, 1991 to 1993 are in reverse alphabetical order. 1990 is actually correct somehow, while 1986 is about half correct. 1975 was the one year when alphabetical order would have been correct, but they moved Johnny Moss's win from #4 to #1! The dates of the tournaments are then incorrectly guestimated by working backward from the Main Event, which is correctly listed last at least.


  • 3. Chris Moneymaker's Satellite Buyin

    MYTH: In 2003, Chris Moneymaker qualified for the WSOP Main Event via a $39 online satellite. Even his 2005 autobiography, "Moneymaker", touts a rounded version of this in its front cover subtitle, "How an amateur poker player turned $40 into $2.5 million at the World Series of Poker".

    REALITY: A few years later PokerStars unearthed the correction that the satellite had an $86 entry fee. And that only won him entry into a second satellite, which got him his Main Event ticket.


  • 2. Dandolos-Moss Match

    MYTH: Benny Binion was inspired to create the World Series of Poker by a marathon multi-month Nick Dandolos-Johnny Moss cash session in front of his casino two decades earlier. This story was first told in depth in Jon Bradshaw's 1975 book, "Fast Company", starting on page 148 (in the chapter on Johnny Moss), including Dandolos's famous quote after losing a million dollars or so over five months, "Well, I guess I got to let you go, Mr. Moss." Al Alvarez further popularized the story in his 1983 book, "The Biggest Game in Town".

    REALITY: Most of the details of this match have been exaggerated beyond recognition. It either occurred in 1949, as Alvarez claims, or in 1951, as Bradshaw states (both authors place the game at the Horseshoe, which opened in 1951). The event merited no press coverage in either year. In actuality, the World Series of Poker was inherited from Tom Moore and his 1969 Texas Gambler's Reunion in Reno, which featured a similar setup (and a similar result according to Johnny Moss, who claims to have been declared the champion). When Mary Ellen Glass asked Binion, "How did you start that [the World Series of Poker]?", he gave full credit to the Texas Gambler's Reunion in his 1973 University of Nevada Oral History i....


  • 1. Jack Straus's Chip and a Chair

    MYTH: Jack Straus came back to win the 1982 Main Event after being down to "a chip and a chair".

    REALITY: Jack Straus made a great comeback to win the Main Event, but at his lowest point he had at least two chips (and possibly six or more). The May 25, 1982 Las Vegas Sun says on page 6, "At one time in this championship go-round, he was down to his last $525." This got rounded down to 500 just one day later in the WSOP's handwritten player notes, which said, "at one point he was down to one hidden chip." The May 26, 1982 UPI article (e.g., Brownsville Herald, page 9) echoed this: "Strauss [sic], down to a single $500 chip on the first night of the four-day no limit Hold 'em event, beat out 103 of the world's best poker players." The December 1982 issue of "Hustler" magazine, page 38, then made up the part about the chip being "stuck between the rail and the table" when his opponent carefully bet an amount equal to the visible chips (FWIW, Straus then called the bet, so he wasn't bluffing), while more recent retellings say the rogue chip was under a napkin under his drink or "between a napkin and the bumper" as Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback's claim on pages 100-101 of "All In".


Etymology of "A Chip and a Chair"

Poker tournaments basically didn't exist before the 1971 WSOP, but the phrase, "a chip and a chair" was already popular enough by early 1965 that Aviation Week, Volume 83, page 99 used it. The difference is that the full phrase back then was "all you need is a chip and a chair to enter the game" (i.e., to play not to win).

The first reference I've seen in poker literature occurs much later and has the same meaning despite coming almost two years after Jack Straus's comeback. In the January 9, 1984 Poker Player newspaper, page 9, the article, "Brunson Picks Reese as Top Pro", includes in its list of top poker players, "4. Johnny Chan. A young player who took a chip and a chair and has shown his versatility regularly."

The first documented usage in the comeback sense was a full three years after Straus but already considers it a well-worn phrase. On page 5 of the July 22, 1985 Poker Player newspaper, an article titled "It’s Time to Live It Up at the Union Plaza" says, "Over at the Stardust, a visitor from Indianapolis, Indiana, once again demonstrated the significance of what tournament coordinator Bob Thompson insisted is the old adage: 'If you have a chip and a chair, you still have a prayer.'" Tex Sheahan then mentions Straus: "With one exception, I have never seen a player win a tournament with only one chip left. That one exception was Jack Straus when he won the World Series of Poker a few years ago."

Certainly, earlier references for both senses of the phrase must exist. Anyone?

rjen47
7mo ago

Welcome to the World Series of Poker Top Ten Tuesday thread. Having spent the last ten+ years researching and analyzing the WSOP, I'd like to share some of my favorite findings each week, with a primary focus on the bracelet events.

Some of these lists are very subjective, so have fun arguing about what's been underrated, overrated, or completely missed.

Other lists are fairly objective but will include unknown factoids and more than a few error corrections (I'll cite my original sources when possible).

Enjoy!

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