No event has grown at a rate like the World Series Of Poker since its inception in 1970, we ask where the future of the Series is heading
In 1970, Vegas legend Benny Binion invited a host of poker high- rollers to his Horseshoe casino for an unscheduled line-up of cash games. For ten days, players like Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson and Jack Straus traded blows in every variant the game had to offer. That year, the ‘World Champion’ was decided by a player vote and the unanimous choice was the ‘Grand Old Man’ of poker, Johnny Moss.
The following year, the ballot was replaced by a $5,000 no-limit hold’em tournament – played in a freezeout format for added drama and frisson. From that point on the World Series of Poker has never looked back. Year on year, it has attracted poker players from around the globe – first in their tens, then in their hundreds, and in the last few years their thousands – all joining the rush for bracelets and the chance to be crowned World Champion.
Since its conception, the WSOP has been in a state of flux, and with the poker world changing every year, it only looks set to continue. We tracked down an elite group of players including former world champ Tom McEvoy, Vegas veteran Mickey Wernick and top pro Howard Lederer to find out what’s in store for poker’s biggest event.
MONEY V STATUS
The WSOP main event commands the biggest field of any tournament in the world – and of course, the most lucrative prizepool. But is the money the only factor driving people to play, or is there a greater prize at stake?
In 1971, when six Texas road gamblers played for a single prize of $30,000 in the first official World Series of Poker, it’s doubtful any of those big-time bettors would have been willing to wager that just 35 years later, the field would be over 1,200 times larger and that the first prize would have increased 39,900% to $12 million.
Even the most active of imaginations would have found it hard to fathom the incredible growth that poker would go on to take. The game has gone from a backroom indulgence to a fully-fledged profession with a diverse range of career paths – from online cash game grinders to tournament circuit pros. But, one thing remains a single ambition among all players: to win the World Series of Poker main event.
On the surface, it’s obvious. For a stake of $10,000, players know they have the chance – however slim – to parlay it up to a life-changing amount. As 1983 main event winner, Tom McEvoy, acknowledges: ‘If you win it now, you’re basically set for life.’ McEvoy doesn’t just mean the instant cash bonanza either; nowadays, all the main event final tablists will be approached by a bevy of sponsors vying for their signatures.
Signing a long-term contract might tie you into wearing a logo for a while, but it also means tournament buy- ins and expenses will be taken care of – an essential necessity if you want to tackle the major tournament circuit.
But for two-time bracelet winner, Howard Lederer, the World Series main event transcends money and sponsorship. ‘Anyone can get over the money,’ he says. ‘At some point, you’re there at the final table, you’ve already locked up $3 million and you’re thinking how it will be life-changing. You can never trivialise or rationalise the fact that it’s just the World Championship.’ Having played in every single main event since 1987, Lederer admits he has never been more ‘desperate to win’.
MAKING YOUR MARK
British old-timer Mickey Wernick is even less fussed about the money. ‘What’s the difference between $4m and $12m?’ he quips. ‘Not much really. If you can get $1m, you’re set for life. I mean, $12m is good because you can look after your family and friends.’
For Wernick, the World Series epitomises what poker is all about: pitting your wits against players of all different standards on the biggest stage in the world. What’s more, you have the chance to be etched permanently into the record books – and no amount of money can buy that.
The World Series may have changed since the Horseshoe days, but Wernick’s ultimate aspiration is unaltered: ‘It’s every poker player’s dream to be World Champion – as it is in every sport in fact. It’s the accolade isn’t it? It’s still the hardest event to win, now more than ever.
‘It’s a far-off dream now,’ Wernick adds with a sombre tone. ‘But I’ll be going there till I die. I might die in the poker chair at the World Series – that would be a good way to go!’
YOUNG V OLD
The idea that poker is becoming a young man’s sport is bandied around a lot these days. But is that really the case – and are the old guard being left behind?
When Johnny Moss won the first official World Series of Poker main event in 1971, his nickname ‘The Grand Old Man’ wasn’t supposed to be ironic; at 63, he really was worthy of that moniker. Five years later, Doyle Brunson may have become the youngest World Champion to date, but based on his age – 43 – and that of the old-school Texas road gamblers around him, it seemed that World Series success was reserved for poker players who had been around the block at least once.
We now know, of course, that notable 20-somethings like Stu Ungar and Phil Hellmuth were able to buck this trend, and Brunson’s famous remark some 30-odd years ago now sounds like a relic of a bygone era: ‘These young fellows, they’re all fierce limit players. But most of them haven’t had the experience at no-limit to be good at it yet.’
EXPERIENCE COUNTS
With the tide of young internet players coming into the game in the last five years, it’s natural to think that the bracelets would be bound for younger wrists, but the statistics tell a different story.
The average age of the last decade of WSOP main event winners is 42; and in the WSOP’s 36-year history, only six players under 30 have been crowned World Champion. Not only this, but arguably the most skilled poker discipline is required for the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event – won last year by the then 55-year old Chip Reese. The fact that Reese overcame the longest heads-up battle in World Series history against Andy Bloch – a man some 18 years his junior – would tend to back up the statistics in favour of the ‘elder statesmen’.
Lederer, who has come as close as fifth in the big one (in 1987), says: ‘The thing I disagree with is the idea that a 22-year old player has a big edge over a 40-year old. That is a complete myth. I guarantee that the 40-year old has the edge. He has experience and emotional stability that you can’t have at 22.’ Lederer admits that stamina may be a factor if you’re ‘60 and out of shape’, but that if players are in reasonable health – whether they are in their forties or not – then it shouldn’t make a difference.
Wernick takes a similar line. At 62, he says he’s mellowed his gambling habits somewhat, but if push ever came to shove he could still do the marathon sessions that defined him back in the late 80s. ‘I hear it’s a young man’s game all the while,’ says the BlueSquare pro in his unmistakable brummy drawl. ‘But I don’t believe that. A good player’s always a good player.’
As well as throwing his weight behind the old-school’s playing ability, Wernick also remains full of praise for the scene at the Horseshoe that surrounded them back at the time of the Series’ inception, saying: ‘You could cut the air with a knife when you walked in. You can’t buy that sort of atmosphere today. I think if you made a film of the World Series, you’d rather make it in old days when you had all those characters.’
H.O.R.S.E. V HOLD’EM
The $10,000 main event attracts the biggest field and boasts the biggest prizes, while the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event is easily the most technical of the Series and ensures its winner the utmost respect. But which would you rather win?
To most people, the $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event has always been the king of poker tourneys. But after the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. was introduced in 2006, it became clear that the main event’s dominance as the ‘World Championship’ may finally be challenged.
Daniel Negreanu believes it’s already happened. ‘The World Champion of Poker is Chip Reese,’ he states unflinchingly. ‘I’m just hoping that in the media’s eyes, the [H.O.R.S.E.] becomes the true World Championship.’
According to Lederer, we’re in a transitionary period: ‘Right now, it’s still the main event, but the H.O.R.S.E. is going to take over really quickly. It’s the one people see as the best player in the world winning the biggest buy-in event.’
It’s easy to see why being good at H.O.R.S.E. immediately confers a player with the utmost respect. Players have to be a master of five completely different disciplines: hold’em, Omaha hi-lo, razz, seven-card stud and stud eight-or-better.
‘There’s no way you’re going to win the H.O.R.S.E. tournament on luck alone,’ says cash-game veteran Wernick. ‘It takes that much luck out of it: it’s 70% skill and 30% luck. It’s a man’s game.’
Little surprise then, that the final nine in the 2006 H.O.R.S.E. included the likes of Brunson, Phil Ivey, TJ Cloutier and Patrik Antonius. World Series Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack summed it up when he said: ‘The H.O.R.S.E. is the best determinant of who the best all-round player is.’
SIZE MATTERS
Yet despite all this, the main event still has a special allure that the H.O.R.S.E. can’t match, and when faced with a ‘one or the other’ scenario, the pros can’t help but opt for the big one. Says McEvoy of his now famous win: ‘I’ve never taken drugs, but I was on a euphoric high for five days where I literally didn’t sleep. It was an indescribable feeling.’ Even the usually sedate Greg Raymer reveals that he was on ‘cloud nine for days’ following his win in 2004.
Lederer, meanwhile, feels that the attraction of the main event lies in its rich tradition: for 36 years, its place in the schedule has always been assured. ‘When people get a taste of the main event, they want to do it again,’ he says. ‘The event has all this history now and it’s more important than ever.’
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