1987 World Series of Poker

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The first tournament of the second stage of the WSOP. 1970-1986 were the early years. 1987-2002 were the formative years and since then is the explosion. 152 players entered but the coverage starts with only 6 left. Former Mets announcer Ted Robinson is the host. Of those 6 left, 3 are very well known players today, Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer and Johnnie Chan.
This is also the first televised tournament that really shows the hole cards on almost every hand.
Harrington gets knocked out in 6th place when his A-Q falls to A-6.
There's a lot of talk about Howard Lederer being the young gun in this tournament. He is only 23 and still a student at Columbia. Even he says he's surprised he's doing so well, his first time in the Main Event. The discussion is quite ironic in light of him being on the other side of the same topic now.
Lederer was probably about 300 pounds during this tournament, earning him the nickname "Bubba." To this day Phil Helmuth and Annie Duke still call him "Bub."
I'm not sure if it's the quality of the recording, or the years, but the voices of Lederer and Doyle Brunson sound much different than they do today.
Bub busts out with A-6 vs. 9-9.
At the beginning of the tournament Jack Binion introduced each player to the crowd by name. Imagine how long that would take if they tried to do that now.
Telly Savalas joins Gabe Kaplan as actors in the field. Lederer once explained that hand that knocked Telly out of this tournament. Flop is Jd-10d-blank. Someone goes all in with A-10 and Telly calls with Kd-Qd. The tens held up.
Puggy Pearson just talked about the young computer players. Damn, I wish he would have said internet.
Not only is Johnnie Chan the best player he has luck on his side too. He moves all in after the flop with top pair, top kicker. Bob Ciaffone is getting short stacked and calls with bottom pair. The turn give Ciaffone two pair and the lead, but Chan gets an ace on the river for a higher two pair and we're down to heads up, Chan vs Henderson.
Chan played really tight through the heads up match, folding a lot of hands, but he had such a big chip lead he was just trying to catch one big hand. He called an all-in with A-9 vs. pocket 4s. He caught a 9 on the river to win the tournament.

1983 World Series of Poker

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108 players entered this year, twice as many as in 1979. The winner still took home exactly half the prize pool, in this case $540,000.
Gabe Kaplan is back again and he busts out defending champ Jack Strauss. Strauss won in 1982 when he was down to his final chip, and coined the expression "a chip and a chair." They showed the last hand from last year, when Strauss had A-10 vs. Dewey Tomko's A-4. A four came on the flop, but Strauss won on the river with a 10 to take the title.
They talked about female players and how one of them brings a fan because she doesn't like the cigarette smoke. Then Curt Gowdy and Bobby Baldwin discussed the possibility that someday smoking will be banned at WSOP events, which of course now it is.
Doyle Brunson makes the top 3. He is much heavier here than he is now, his fingers don't look like shriveled little sausages. Doyle gets eliminated in third place going all in with his flush draw against three nines.
When it got down to heads up between Tom McEvoy and Rod Peate, the players' wives/girlfriends were actually seated at the table, right next to them.
This heads up match lasted 7 hours, the longest in history until the 2006 HORSE matchup between Andy Bloch and Chip Reese.
McEvoy won with pockets Queens vs King-Jack suited. After he won he stood on his chair and screamed, "all right, all right."

1981 World Series of Poker

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75 players enter this year, Curt Gowdy doing the announcing with the help of Bobby Baldwin in a Members Only jacket.
They skip early round action and go right to the final table, where they are making good use of the precursor to the hole cam, the on tape cam, I guess you could call it, but at least you know what the players have as the hand develops.
Bobby Baldwin takes another brutal beat. He makes top set (9s) on the flop and Perry Green goes all in with pocket queens and makes a set on the river.
They've been showing a lot of the final table once it got down to 4 but most of the action involved Perry Green. Finally Stu Ungar got involved as he went all in with pocket kings and Green called with A-Q. An ace came on the flop, but Ungar caught a third king on the turn to double up. Ungar at this point is 27 years old, but looks 18, and he won the 1980 Main Event, so he is here defending his title.
By the last hand Ungar had built a huge chip advantage, and got A-Q of hearts, versus 10-9 for Perry Green. The flop gave Green an up and down straight draw and four hearts for Ungar. Ungar put him all in and Ungar paired his queen on the river for his second straight WSOP Main Event title.
It was great to see Stu Ungar play, he made all the right moves, slow playing, being aggressive to come back from a short stack to win his second straight title.

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.

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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.

1978 World Series of Poker

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Aired on CBS, Brent Musburger joins Jimmy The Greek. 42 entrants this year. Some guy in a top hat went all in with A-Q against pocket jacks. When a Queen came on the flop he lifted his hat off his head. He’s sort of dressed like the monopoly man. Thirty years ago and you still heard interviews about the young aggressive players coming up and chasing out the old guys. Johnny Moss announced his retirement after losing three straight hands with the ace-high flush, a wheel straight and pocket kings. Jimmy The Greek just mentioned a bet he made with Crandall Addington, from the 1973 World Series. They still show player’s wives on the rail. I think Shirley Baldwin might be hot, but the footage is grainy. The head’s up part, just the head’s up match between Bobby Baldwin and Crandall Addington lasted about four hours. Even with a straight Baldwin wouldn’t push all in. He would have won too because the river card that gave him the straight gave Addington trip 3s. Baldwin won with queens over 9s.

1973 World Series of Poker

I think we've all seen the World Series of Poker from 2003 - 2006 a million times. Thanks to youtube a lot of old Main Events are also available. I'm going to watch most of them (I've seen the mid-90s ones on ESPN Classic) and I encourage you do to do the same. I'll embed the clips then post my analysis at the end.

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Hosted by Jimmy “The Greek.” Still $10,000 buy-in, but only 13 players. Largest field ever. Jimmy The Greek refers to it as an “extra-large” field. Amarillo Slim and Puggy Pearson are both smoking at the table. The Greek said it was three hours before the first meaningful encounter (Slim caught Jack Strauss on a bluff). The first knockout took about five hours. It was an amateur, the only one in the field. They actually made book on the event and he was listed as a 50 to 1 underdog. Defending champ Amarillo Slim got knocked out by runner-runner flush cards. Some things never change. Doyle went out 10th. He used to be a high school principal and has a master’s degree in education. The young prospect in the field was 33 years old, ancient by today’s standards. This had to have been the first feature ever done on chip tricks. The whole thing was shot more as a documentary than a card tournament. We know they didn’t have pocket cams but they didn’t even have a good overhead cam to show the board. Puggy Pearson beat Johnny Moss when his ace held up against Moss’ up and down straight draw.