Wednesday, 08 October 2008


1993 World Series of Poker

A summary of 1993 world series of poker.



1993 was an extremely significant year for the World Series of Poker in the sense that it was the year when it officially launched its entry into broadcast media through the ESPN network. Previously, the games at the WSOP and their accompanying results could only be accessed through some of the major newspapers that covered the tournament. Live coverage then was not possible, or at least, was not a profitable venture, as far as poker games were concerned.

Yet, the popularity of the WSOP had reached such a level that not being able to air the games as they unfold live would mean depriving millions of poker enthusiasts the chance to see players come up with several excellent poker strategies. This was the prevailing sentiment in 1993 among many poker wannabes and ESPN was one of the few broadcasting companies which successfully capitalized on it.  

Thus was born the live coverage of the poker games at the WSOP, a major achievement for the tournament as it simply meant more publicity and a bigger opportunity to reach out to more players all over the world.

For its initial broadcast in 1993, not much was changed in the WSOP set up. The venue was still in Las Vegas at Binion's Horseshoe. There were still the preliminary tables and the championship round where the buy-in was still set at $10,000. However, what proved to be a big difference during that year was the record number of participants in the final event wherein the total number of entrants was placed at 220, a clear increase from the 201 record of the preceding year.

The preliminary event of the 1993 WSOP proved to be a good mix of old and new faces, with the edge given to the veterans. Two players, however, stood out from the rest as they both snagged three different bracelets from three separate events in the preliminary table. Specifically, Ted Forrest secured first place finishes in the $1,500 Seven-Card Razz, in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or better, and in the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud, winning $77,400, $120,000, and $114,000 respectively. Meanwhile, Phil Helmuth, Jr. won in the following events: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em ($161,400); $2,500 No Limit Hold'em ($173,000); and $5,000 Limit Hold'em ($138,000).

Of course, the most anticipated event was the championship round where both the old and new faces were likewise seen, including former grand prize winners Mansour Matloubi (1990), who finished fourth, and Brad Daugherty (1991), who was ranked ninth. All of them, however, had to take the back seats as 1993 was reserved for Jim Bechtel, the former cotton farmer from Arizona whose heads-up play proved too much for Glenn Cozen that he had no choice but to settle for second place. Bechtel thus walked away with the $1M cash prize and a WSOP bracelet, but Cozen did not go home empty-handed as his persistence and fair play earned him $420,000.

Rounding off the final event composition were John Bonetti at third place with a $210,000 cash reward; Mansour Matloubi at fourth spot who got to take home $120,000; Thomas Chung who landed at fifth and earned $72,000; and Mike Cowley whose sixth place finish entitled him to a $36,000 cash award.