Thursday, 28 August 2008


1972 World Series of Poker

A summary of 1972 world series of poker.



If the 1971 World Series of Poker was able to prove anything, it was the fact that poker games have never waned in popularity ever since it was first played. Additionally, it is one card game that continuously welcomes changes, and this is one aspect of poker that the WSOP has obviously not ignored. That is why in 1972, it introduced a then little-known poker variant, the Five-Card Stud, which was made the preliminary game, with Five-Card Stud master Billy Boyd walking away as the big winner of the event where he got to take home $20,000 in cash prize.  

The 1971 main WSOP event still required the entrance fee of $5,000, and it attracted eight poker participants, two more than the previous year's. Additionally, Benny Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe, where the competition was held, offered to put an additional $5,000 into the cash award pool for each player who is able to gain entry to the event. The goal, ostensibly, was to enable the tournament to gain wider publicity, and in effect, attract bigger crowds, not only at the WSOP, but more so, at Binion's Horseshoe.

Thomas Austin Amarillo 'Slim'  Preston, Jr., was proclaimed the winner that year, but his winning came with a few controversies. This is because Doyle Brunson, then fast emerging as an excellent poker player, decided to cash out his poker chips amounting to $20,000 at a time when the competition had become a three-cornered fight among Preston, Brunson, and Walter 'Puggy'  Pearson. Preston then went on to beat Pearson, after initially trailing 2-1. Not long thereafter, poker player Barry Greenstein was interviewed on the Internet radio show, 'The Circuit' , where he said that the entire event was scripted -- wherein Pearson and Brunson both agreed to throw the match, and Preston will end up the winner and consequently pay the appropriate taxes while Doyle and Puggy will split the prize. In the end, the two got to bag the money while Slim will bask in the glory.

Of course, the claim was not proven, and officially, Preston was entered in WSOP books as the 1972 champion, with Pearson as the second placer. Doyle Brunson bagged the third place, Jack Strauss was fourth, and Johnny Moss, the 1971 grand champion, settled for the fifth spot.

The 1972 Amarillo Slim victory was significant for the WSOP because immediately after his victory, Preston went on to appear in several television talk shows, thereby giving the WSOP the needed publicity and ultimately, attract an even bigger following.

However, the victory was more significant for Preston. The exposure on TV  made him a celebrated personality, not only within the world of poker, but more so, out of it. To date, he has made eleven appearances on 'The Tonight Show', as well as on several other programs like '60 Minutes', 'Good Morning America', 'Panorama', 'A.M. Los Angeles', 'The Tomorrow Show', and 'Georgia Today'. He was even given a cameo role in the film, 'California Split' that was directed by Robert Altman.

After his initial WSOP victory, Preston was able to secure three more WSOP bracelets, bringing his total number of WSOP wins to four, aside from taking home more than $500,000 in cash prizes. In 1992, Preston achieved another milestone in his illustrious poker career by becoming a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.