The Vegas Virgin

The States, Binion’s, and remembering my first World Series of Poker!

My first real strong memory of the World Series of Poker was back in 1989. I was in a pub in Carrigaline, Cork (in Ireland) with a couple of friends and they happened to be showing a re-run of that year’s main event on the TV. It was the year Phil Hellmuth won it.

I remember Phil being a real tall skinny lad who was obviously very passionate about the game — granted, a million dollars will do that for you I suppose! Anyway, it really was amazing to watch. By this stage I had already been playing poker a lot, though mostly draw poker, however hold’em was really starting to get very popular amongst the local players.

After watching this, I said to the lads who were with me, “I’ll be in Vegas one day and I’ll win one of those Bracelets.” Sure they almost fell off their chairs with the height of laughing of course! Their laughter was contagious and I began to laugh as well — after all, it’s not easy to go to Binion’s and win a bracelet!

Little did I know what would happen eighteen years later!

I went to the States in 1997. I had traveled over with a good friend of mine and we were planning to spend the summer in Boston and then travel the country for a month before going home. We were staying in the north station area which was a mighty spot. It had a lot of Irish and Italian-Americans hanging around there. I remember this one night, a card game had started up in one of the pubs with a few lads that had just got off work. Anyway, they must have thought I was easy pickings as they had no problem in letting me into the game. But after a couple of hours and one very big pot (set over set) their opinions had changed as I was now ahead over two thousand bucks.

Realising that I had taken most of their wages and wanting to get out of there alive, I thought it might be wise for me to throw a nickel ($500) in behind the bar for the lads so they could at least eat and drink on me for the night. Well, as it turned out it was a good idea — I went from being the villain to the hero in a matter of seconds! I remember they said to me as I left the bar — you’re welcome to come back here anytime, but there’s no way we’re letting ya back into the game. “No bother!” says I, and off I went.

It wasn’t long after I was en route for the west coast — California to be exact! I definitely wanted to see some of the country along the way, so I thought, what better way to do it than by train. It took about four and a half long days to make it from Boston to California. I couldn’t help but think of so many of our great, but poverty stricken ancestors, who had made the treacherous but beautiful journey — many of them laying the tracks which one day would carry a young lad from Cork without a care in the world!

The train ride ended in Oakland, California and I got a bus over to San Francisco. I’ll never forget it as long as I live, coming over the Bay Bridge — lads, what a view! It was truly an amazing sight with these massive spans that went on forever, that almost seemed to defy gravity itself. With San Francisco staring me in the face and with Alcatraz off to my right, it was like I was in a movie. They were great days indeed!

1997 was not only the year that I arrived in the US but it was also the year that the late great Stu Unger won the main event. Binion’s decided that year to hold the final table outside — out on Fremont Street.

Not long after settling im San Francisco, I made my first trip to the Devil’s playground — Vegas, and friends, hear me now, for what I say is true — it was absolutely incredible! Even though the Series was well over at that stage, I still wanted to get down and check out the famous Horseshoe Casino.

I remember getting a bus down the strip (which is basically the main street in Vegas) feeling like a kid. The place that I had only seen in the movies was now right here in front of my eyes and I could hardly sit still! “Which is the stop for Binion’s?” I said. “The next stop is Fremont,” said the bus driver. “It’s down there.”

I eventually make it to Binion’s and it’s brilliant. It’s a place that is so steeped in history that if only the ancient chandeliers could talk — what jaw-dropping stories they would almost certainly tell. Tales of gangsters and gamblers, of millionaires and entertainers, and told in such a way that would leave you gasping for more. Yes sir, there was no better place in the world to be if you’re a poker player than Binion’s Horseshoe!

Now on this particular day and considering it was around noon the Casino was reasonably quiet and anyone who I happened to make eye contact with was only too happy to accommodate me with a “Can I get you anything Sir?’ or “Anything we can do for you, Sir?” Lads, I felt like I was Lord Muck! “I’m only just looking for where they play the poker,” says I, and I was met with a grin. “If its poker you’re after, just head down towards the back,” says he.

So here I am walking over with my head on a swivel, and then I spot it; it was the wall that had all the pictures of all the past champions. What a sight it was! Right there in front of me, Johnny Chan and Jack Strauss, Sailor Roberts and Dan Harrington, Doyle Brunson, and of course the 1989 champ, Phil Hellmuth. Sure, it gives me goose bumps even today as I recall it. I was in poker heaven!

I stood there and realised that more money had passed through the doors of Binion’s than most major banks. It was forty years ago when the World Series of Poker was only an idea in Benny Binion’s head, and who could have ever imagined that he, along with some of the game’s greats, could somehow turn poker into the second most played game in the world — second probably only to football in case you’re wondering. “Thank you indeed Mr. Benny Binion — we are forever in your debt!”

Be sure to check out next week when I’ll be giving you the scoop on what it was like to play at my first WSOP in 1998, and also what it was like to win my bracelet.

Ciaran Big ‘C’ O’Leary