WSOP: History -- 1992 Recap

The United States economy was in a recession in 1992, and because of that the main event field shrunk for the first time in its history (the second time came in 2007). There were 14 less players in the world championship field in 1992 than there had been in 1991, taking the total number down to 201. There were still a healthy number of preliminary events that year with 19 bracelets awarded. A large chunk of those went to professional players as Men “The Master” Nguyen ($1,500 seven-card stud), Tom McEvoy ($1,500 Omaha), Mickey Appleman ($5,000 deuce-to-seven lowball), Erik Seidel ($2,500), Hoyt Corkins ($5,000 pot-limit Omaha), Paul “Eskimo” Clark ($5,000 seven-card stud), Lyle Berman ($2,500 no-limit hold’em), and Phil Hellmuth ($5,000 limit hold’em). It might have been thanks to the smaller amounts of dead money, but the professional players dominated the preliminary events in 1992.

In the main event Chris Goulding, Jack Keller, and Johnny Chan were the unfortunate three odd players out who didn’t make the final television table of six after making the physical final table, while Clyde Coleman, Dave Crunkleton, Mike Alsaadi, Hans “Tuna” Lund, Tom Jacobs, and Hamid Dastmalchi advanced. Coleman was busted in sixth place, and then Lund drew blood at the final table by sending Crunkleton to the rail in fifth place. This stirred up the crowd’s support of Lund that was also present for his 1990 final-table appearance. Alsaadi exited in fourth place, and then action was down to three players – Lund, Jacobs, and Dastmalchi.

Lund was once again dealt a series of bad luck at the final table. First, Lund lost a 280,000 pot with pocket kings when Dastmalchi hit one of two outs on the river against him. Second, when Lund moved all in for his final 175,000 with 8 7, and ran directly into the K 8 of Jacobs. The board was dealt 5 3 2 7 to give Jacobs the pot with a king-high flush. Lund was eliminated in third place.

Dastmalchi made quick work of Jacobs in heads-up play, just a few minutes into the match all of the chips got into the middle. Jacobs raised to 20,000 preflop and Dastmalchi made the call. The flop was dealt J 5 7 and Jacobs bet 30,000. Dastmalchi called once again and the turn fell 6. Jacobs moved all in for 531,000 and Dastmalchi immediately called. He turned over 8 4 for a straight and Jacobs flipped up J 7. The river brought the 8 and sealed the win for Dastmalchi, who was awarded a million in cash as the champion.

1992 WSOP Results

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