I would like to tell you about the first time I played in the
World Series of Poker championship event. But first, here's a little background. I took up playing no-limit hold'em back in August of 1978, at the age of 37. I had played an enormous amount of limit poker before playing my first hand of no-limit. I knew that I would like the game, and it turned into a love affair very quickly. I broke even my first three sessions, then ran off a streak of winning 20 sessions in a row. This streak transformed me from a guy who made about half his income from playing poker to a full-fledged pro. Two years later, I moved from Detroit to Dallas, so that I could play no-limit hold'em poker every day.
Back in the '70s and the start of the '80s, there was only one way to play in the world championship; you pulled out 10 grand and bought in. The first satellite event for the
WSOP was a $100 buy-in tournament at the Bingo Palace (now named Palace Station), organized by Cardroom Manager Tom Bowling in the spring of 1982. More than 100 players entered this event, and I was the lucky winner. My dream had come true.
What is it like to play in your first world championship? For me, just to get in it was a huge thrill. Back then, it was a much different type of event than it is now. There were only a little more than a hundred players, and they were the toughest crew you could tangle with. Well over half of them were professional players, and there were some stellar amateurs, like Crandall Addington, Jay Heimowitz, and Perry Green, who were every bit as good as the top pros. I knew all but about 20 of the players who entered. I actually felt comfortable rather than intimidated, because I had already done a lot of combat with most of these guys in money games. Still, they had my respect.
Here is a list of a few of the people who were active no-limit players at that time (though I am not sure if they all played in that 1982 championship): Doyle Brunson, Bobby Baldwin, Jack Straus, Jack Keller, Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Mickey Appleman, Dewey Tomko, Bobby Hoff, Pat Callahan, Betty Carey, Ken Smith, Bill Smith, Sam Moon, Sarge Ferris, Puggy Pearson, J.C. Pearson, Johnny Moss, Dickey Carson, Sailor Roberts, Bill Bond, Amarillo Slim, Chip Reese, Stuey Ungar, and Gabe Kaplan.
I can still remember a few hands from that event. I was doing pretty well on day two, having more than $40,000 in chips, when this hand came up. I was in the big blind with a black ace and the Q
. The structure was $100-$200 blinds with a $25 ante. Johnny Moss opened with a raise to $700 and Sam Moon called. I put $500 more in on my A-Q offsuit, a play I would not make today. The flop came with an offsuit queen and a couple of low hearts. I led out for about $1,800, Johnny called, and Sam folded. Off came another low heart, putting a three-flush on the board. I bet around 3 grand, suspecting I was behind but hoping the flush threat would get Moss to fold. He thought a courteous amount of time and called. The last card was a blank. I believed that I knew for certain what he had - either pocket aces with the A
or pocket kings with the K
. The big question was whether he was going to lay it down if I fired 8 grand into him. I made a quick decision that it was not good poker to try to run Johnny Moss off pocket bullets, and checked. Moss turned up two red kings and took the money. Later, at dinner, I asked Johnny if he would have called a big bet on the end. He first said, "I don't know." Then he said, "Probably, but I wouldn't a liked it." I believed him.
I did not do well after that hand against Moss, and went into day three with only about 24 grand in front of me. The chip leader was Jack Straus, who was sitting on my right. Jack had about a quarter of a million in chips. It actually looked like a lot more, because Jack had asked the tournament director (TD) not to change any of his chips up, and the TD had obliged. (Poker was a lot less formal back then.) Jack was sitting behind a mound of chips that looked like a fortress of some kind. We started the day playing about $600-$1,200 blinds with a $200 ante. On the first hand, I was in the big blind and picked up an A-8 offsuit. Everyone folded around to Straus, who of course opened with a raise, for $4,000. As far as I was concerned, this was what Jack was going to do whether he had looked at his cards or not, so I moved in my $24,000. Jack thought a bit, then flashed his cards, the K
9
, saying, "I had a real hand," then folded. Then Jack asked the dealer to turn off a couple of cards to see what would have come. It turned out that he would have beaten me. I cannot picture any of today's gunners throwing away such a good hand as K-9 suited in that type of situation when they had a bunch of chips, but Jack had played a lot against me, and correctly surmised that he held the worst hand.
I do not remember how I got knocked out of that first tournament, but I sure enjoyed playing in it. To the best of my recollection, I finished 24th out of a starting field of 104 players. This was respectable, but far from the money. The event might well have paid only three places that year. Yet, my appetite for world-championship play was surely
whetted. Since then, I have played in eight more world championships, and cashed twice. I got $125,000 for third place in 1987, and just over $24,000 for 276th in 2005. I will certainly say that for me, the world championship is in a class by itself as far as poker tournaments go, and I enjoy it every time I get the opportunity to play in it.
Of course, the
WSOP main event has changed a lot over the years. When I played in 2006, I looked at about 10 of the starting tables near mine, and knew only one person. The money is far, far greater, but the sense of belonging to an elite group of players is not there anymore.
Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail
[email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.
