How the World Series of Poker Came to Be

You're either reading this at Binion's Horseshoe during the World Series of Poker or wishing you were at Binion's Horseshoe for the World Series of Poker. Either way, you might be wondering how it all got started.

In 1969, Tom Moore, from San Antonio, bought the Holiday Hotel in Reno and held what he called "The Texas Gamblers Reunion," even though it wasn't limited to Texans. As a courtesy to him, most of the gambling bosses, including Benny and Jack Binion, and several of the rounders agreed to support the opening. Looking back, it was a who's who of gamblers: Amarillo Slim Preston, Doyle Brunson, Treetop Straus, Johnny Moss, "Corky" McCorquodale, Aubrey Day, Puggy Pearson, Jimmy Casella, Bill Boyd, Syd Wyman, Long Diddie, Jimmy the Greek, and even Minnesota Fats, who was in town giving a pool exhibition, showed up. They didn't declare a winner for the poker "tournament" that was held there, but it got Benny, that master public-relations man, thinking about turning this gathering of greats into something more.

"That was a good thing up there in Reno," Benny said to Amarillo Slim. "It sure brought a lot of people, and I'm sure there will be even more next year. The more I think about it, that might be a good thing to have here."

Slim agreed, but when Benny talked about the idea with his family, all of the other Binions told him he was crazy to put in a poker room. Their reason was the same then as it is now: A poker room's earnings compared to an area of slots that big is about 10-to-1 in favor of the slots. Floor space was too valuable to waste on a game in which the money passed between the players with the casino collecting only a small fee for running the game.

But all that didn't matter to Benny. After that trip to Reno in 1969, all Benny could think about was bringing the best poker players in the world to his casino. So, just like that, in May of 1970, Benny opened up a poker room at his casino and sent out word through the gambling grapevine, and before you knew it, all of the top players were there. Benny even invited Minnesota Fats and Titanic Thompson, just so the greatest collection of gamblers this country had ever known could be assembled in one place at one time. It's pretty remarkable when you think about it; it was a legendary moment for Las Vegas, and what Benny did forever changed the history of poker in America.

Even though these guys just did what they always did - play poker - Benny called it the World Series of Poker. It got a little bit of publicity, but unlike what Benny had hoped for, it didn't capture the public's attention. Sure, gamblers knew about it, and everyone who stopped by got a kick out of who was there and what was going on, but Benny's plan for attracting the average Joe to poker and putting his casino on the map was a flop.

And here's why: There wasn't any structure to the tournament. All they did was play for a while, and at the end, the players voted Johnny Moss the champion. But as most things were with Benny, his idea of creating a World Series of Poker wasn't going to fail, and he got just the break he needed.

Ted Thackrey Jr., a feature writer for the Los Angeles Times, was there to check out the event. After Johnny Moss was voted the winner, Ted introduced himself to Amarillo Slim and said, "You know, Slim, if you all had some way to make this gathering a lot more competitive, it would be an interesting event."

"Competitive!" Slim said. "How could you be any more competitive than to play for tens of thousands of dollars?"

"You got to have a winner, a real winner," Thackrey said. "You need to find some way to make it a contest. If you want to get the press involved and turn the World Series into a real sporting event, you need to give it some structure, create some drama, and make it like a real tournament."

Slim suggested a freezeout, and Thackrey thought it was the perfect idea. Slim said, "How many people would watch the Kentucky Derby if a bunch of horses ran around the track and then all the jockeys voted on the winner? Or, at the baseball World Series, who would give a damn if they just played a bunch of games without any structure and then crowned the world champion based on a ballot? All the times that poker had been played with a big crowd - like when Johnny Moss played Nick the Greek - it had been a freezeout. There wasn't any drama in seeing the chips pass back and forth; what got people excited was seeing a person get eliminated."

So, in 1971, the first real World Series of Poker was played when six players ponied up $5,000 with a chance to take home all $30,000. You can't really say that Johnny Moss "defended" his title, because he hadn't really won it the previous year. But when he eliminated the other five players, there was no denying that he was the world champion.

Benny Binion, who died on Christmas Day in 1989, would be thrilled to know that 31 years after six players competed for $30,000, 631 players, in 2002, from all over the world played for more than $6 million in prize money in the final event alone. ESPN televised the tournament, and just about every major newspaper and television station in the world was there to cover it.

In 2003, the World Series will feature 35 tournaments with an estimated $20 million in prize money. One thing hasn't changed: To win, you need to be there.

Greg Dinkin, along with Amarillo Slim Preston, is the co-author of Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived (HarperCollins) (www.thepokermba.com/amarilloslim). See the ad in this issue to purchase the book.