The Best World Series of Poker Main Event Moments (part 2)

It seems almost surreal that the WSOP has been the headlining poker event for 40 years now: So in honor of the World Series of Poker here is part 2 of my list of WSOP Main Event moments throughout the years:

1980: The 80’s were ushered in at the WSOP by a young kid who would turn into an enigma and a legend: Stu Ungar. Ungar’s skills at poker, blackjack, and especially Gin are truly the stuff of legends; Ungar is also credited with bringing a hyper-aggressive to the forefront of poker.

1981: Ungar’s win in 1981 put the youngster into legendary company, at the age of 28 he joined Johnny Moss and Doyle Brunson as the only back-to-back champions. Basically cementing his place in poker history, and proving the game is not just for middle-aged men.

1982: Long-time poker pro, Jack “TreeTop” Strauss took home the title in 1982. Strauss is credited with the famous poker line of “A chip and a chair”, when it was discovered he had but a single chip left after an all-in loss. 1982 also marked the WSOP Main Event passing the 100 entrant mark.

1983: This is the year we were made familiar with the term “satellite”. Tom McEvoy became the first WSOP champion who entered the tournament for less than $10,000: How did he do it? He won a satellite tournament!

1984: One of the least known poker greats has to be Jack Keller: Keller not only won the Main Event at the WSOP in 1984, but also over $3 million total, a huge sum for a poker player of his era. Sadly Keller passed away in 2003, just as poker was about to explode.

1985: As TJ Cloutier says about the 85′ WSOP champ Bill Smith, “He plays bad when he is sober, and bad when he is exceedingly drunk; but when he is in between those two he is a great player!” And TJ would know, since he finished runner-up to Smith in 1985.

1986: Another unsung poker player from the 80’s (apparently poker was off the map during the Miami Vice decade) is Berry Johnston. The 86′ champ has a total of 5 bracelets and is high on just about every WSOP all-time list.

1987: Johnny Chan. Enough said! A little known fact about Chan is that he was the first foreign-born WSOP champion.

1988: Perhaps the most infamous hand in poker history besides Aces-and-Eights, was when Johnny Chan trapped Erik Seidel to capture the 1988 WSOP Championship. Immortalized in the movie Rounders, Chan has been a legend ever since.

1989: Chan’s quest to do the unthinkable -and win 3 straight WSOP Main Event championships–came up just short in 1989 when he finished 2^nd to a young kid who would go on to rival Chan, Moss, Ungar and Brunson as a WSOP legend; Phil Hellmuth.

Whle the 80’s may have been a period where poker received little exposure, it produced some of the most fantastic WSOP champions of any decade: Starting with Stu Ungar and ending with Phil Hellmuth, and mixed in between is Johnny Chan: Not too shabby!