Poker News

Byron Liggett

Poker is more American than baseball, apple pie, or the 4th of July. We invented it, and it is us!

It doesn’t get any more American than a poker game. It’s each rugged individual with an investment, seeking to make a profit through wit, wisdom and luck. It’s the perfect model of free enterprise capitalism!

For many players, summer is synonymous with the World Series of Poker. This is the major leagues. Rookies don’t play here. These are “the best.” Everybody else is “the rest.” Benny Binion, created the WSOP. He left Dallas in 1946 and moved to the town of Las Vegas, Nevada, population 18,000. In 1951, he opened Binion’s Horseshoe Casino. Benny immediately started revolutionizing casino gaming and taking the first steps toward making Las Vegas the gambling capitol of the world.

He was the first to have carpet installed throughout the casino. The dark wood and red velvet wallpaper caused one writer to say the style was “like a San Francisco, gold-rush era whorehouse.” In addition, Benny offered free whiskey to players along with inexpensive food. His philosophy was, “If you want to get rich, make little people feel like big people.” But what really distinguished Binion’s Horseshoe were the betting limits - there were none! An Austin, Texas gambler who wanted to make a million dollar wager on the craps table, once tested Benny. Benny agreed, as long as it was the player’s first bet. The player lost and committed suicide three months later.

With the Horseshoe’s reputation for high stakes,Benny was often called on to arrange big games. When legendary gambler Nick “The Greek” Dandolos came to town, he asked Benny to find someone to play no-limit heads-up poker with him. Benny quickly contacted the best poker player he’d ever met. It was Johnny Moss, a legendary Texas road gambler. Moss caught a plane in Dallas, took a cab from the Las Vegas Airport to the Horseshoe, and immediately sat down at the poker table across from The Greek. The game continued for five months with breaks for sleeping and eating. Large crowds gathered every day to watch the contest that Benny had cleverly positioned in front of a large window. Nick-the-Greek had busted every big name poker player on the East Coast. Nevertheless, after five months playing and stuck for more than $2 million, Nick Dandolos rose from the table and uttered one of the most classy concessions in the annals of Poker, he simply said, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

In 1970, Benny Binion decided to recapture the drama and excitement generated by that earlier poker marathon. The inaugural World Series of Poker featured five games and seven players. Johnny Moss won all five events! He won the title again in 1971 and 1974.

Today, the WSOP belongs to Harrah’s, the world’s largest gaming entertainment corporation and is the company’s most glamorous, premier event. Poker, America’s game has gone global. Nevertheless, the U.S. is still the best. Examining the latest WSOP stats, Phil Hellmuth Jr. could make a good argument (and no doubt does to anyone who will listen) that he’s the best tournament player in world. Phil is No. 1 among the top 20 “Most WSOP Cashes,” with 57! Only Men “The Master” Nguyen is close with 54.

T.J. Cloutier, with 39, is the only player who has more WSOP Final Table Appearances than Phil, with 37. Both players are well ahead of all others in the category.

Finally, Phil is tied with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan for “Most WSOP Gold Bracelets Won.” Each player wears ten bracelets. How many you got?

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