1979 World Series of Poker

It's been a while since I've watched an Old World Series of Poker on youtube, but let's get back into it with the 1979 WSOP.

Part I:


Part II:


Part III:


Part IV:



The show starts with a montage of driving to the Horseshoe while Kenny Rogers's "The Gambler" plays.
54 players in the field this year. Gabe Kaplan was among them, looking much more like Mr. Kotter than he does now.
The first big hand came when "Chicago" Sam Petrillo went all in preflop with Kings after a huge reraise by Jim Bechtel (1993 champ) with aces. Petrillo doubled up with a King in the window.
Gabe Kaplan said "last year I was the fourth one out, this year I was the sixth one out, in another 50 years I'm going to win." Kaplan doesn't play in the Main Event anymore, says it's too many players and too many hours.
Awesome hand by a guy named Lakewood Louie. The board is Ad-Kh-Qd-Jd-10h. So there's a straight on the board and three diamonds, a guy with a huge thick dark moustache puts Louie all in for his last 9,900, Louie calls and turns over Kd-10d. First royal flush in WSOP history.
Bobby Baldwin, the 1978 champ, got busted out when he made top set (8s) on the flop and went all in against Sam Moon's aces, but an ace came on the turn.
The players with large stacks kept their chips in racks, not stacks.
Another difference I noticed, players milk a short stack a lot longer then they would now, they don't go all-in every hand once they get below 10 times the big blind.
So the heads up play comes down to the amateur Hal Fowler versus the pro Bobby Hoff.
They just interviewed Kenny Rogers!
Hal Fowler doubles up to 398,000 (out of 540,000) when he makes the nut flush on the river. Bobby Hoff had the king high flush. Yikes!
And the last hand was even worse. Hoff had about 120,000 left and he got pocket aces. If he doubles up, he's almost even, he makes a small bet on the flop (3-4-J), then goes all in when a 5 comes on the turn, but Fowler wins with 7-6.
This was a really awesome tournament with some really exciting hands.