As if things weren't strange enough last year when a record 839 players entered the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold'em championship at the World Series of Poker - the single event that crowns poker's king for a year - this year the head count grew more than 300 percent. In case you've been hibernating on a deserted island with Robinson Crusoe or the cast of Survivor and hadn't heard the news, last year's event marked the coming of the online gaming community into poker's premier event. Chris Moneymaker won it - yes, that's his real name - a 27 year-old accountant from Tennessee who was working two jobs to support his wife and infant daughter who parlayed a $40 entry fee in an online satellite event into a $2.5 million payday for winning the 2003 World Series of Poker.
Even Sammy Farha, the second place finisher in 2003, pocketed a cool million for his efforts. Not bad for a consolation prize.
When all the shouting was over and done I found myself standing next to Horseshoe owner Becky Binion Behnen and asked her how many players she anticipated for the main event in 2004. She smiled and said, "I guess we might have as many as 1,000." I thought she erred on the side of caution and in a column for Card Player Magazine entitled, "That's My Number and I'm Sticking to It," I predicted 1,150 entrants. I thought I was conservative too, but I might have been swayed somewhat by Becky's estimate. After all, she owned the joint. Or did.
For a while it seemed like there might not even be a 2004 World Series of Poker. On Friday, January 9, 2004 U.S. marshals entered Binion's Horseshoe and seized $1.9 million to satisfy debts owed to the Southern Nevada Culinary and Bartenders Pension Trust Fund and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Welfare Fund. That action forced the closure of the 52-year-old property's casino and marked the end of the 5 1/2-year ownership of Becky Binion Behnen, who had been operating the downtown property under a growing mountain of debt. Binion's creditors included the Internal Revenue Service, seven landlords that lease the land under the club to Behnen, and the Fremont Street Experience.
Seizing the Horseshoe sparked all sorts of rumors, and for weeks no one could tell you what the casino's fate would be. And if the casino's fate was up in the air, so was the fate of its biggest asset: the World Series of Poker. But the Horseshoe reopened on April 1, only 3 1/2 months after its closure by U.S. marshals, under the ownership of MTR Gaming Group and management of Harrah's Entertainment.
MTR Gaming Group paid $20 million for the downtown landmark and Harrah's retains the World Series of Poker and rights to the Horseshoe brand name in Nevada. Harrah's will operate the Horseshoe for at least one year, and promised Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman that at least the final days of the 2005 WSOP will take place downtown, as part of the City's centennial celebration. Preliminary events will probably be sited at the Rio, another Harrah's property in Las Vegas. After that, it's anybody's guess. Most insiders believe the WSOP will eventually move to a new mega resort on the Strip.
The new management was interested in quickly remodeling the Horseshoe and getting it spruced up and ready to host poker's primo event. But inspectors found asbestos in the original construction and it would have taken at least a year to remodel the facility and secure all the necessary environmental permits. Instead, a few cosmetic changes were made that did not disturb the asbestos and the old Horseshoe made do once again.
In any event, it's been a long, strange trip for the Horseshoe and the Binion family. Lester "Benny" Binion, who founded the Horseshoe in 1951, was allegedly involved in murder, bootlegging, numbers running, and bookmaking back in Texas, but he fled the state in 1946 after "his" sheriff was voted out of office. He founded Binion's Horseshoe in 1951 and styled the casino like a San Francisco gold-rush era whorehouse, with red-velvet wallpaper and soft lighting that's still in place today. Benny was a hands-on manager who could be found in the casino or coffee shop every day, and he knew most of his customers by name. His customers didn't go to the Horseshoe for the celebrities or the shows; they went there to gamble, and they did so for more than 40 years.
Binion brought poker to Las Vegas in by staging a five-month match between his Texas buddy Johnny Moss and the legendary gambler Nick "the Greek" Dandolos. He set the game up so that passers by could watch it being played in the window of the casino. Moss, the Grand Old Man of Poker, was an old time Texas road gambler, a breed rendered redundant by the proliferation of casinos and legalized poker rooms. Back in 1949, however, only Nevada had legal gaming. That's when the legendary gambler Nick "the Greek" Dandolos came to town. The Greek wanted to play no-limit poker, and he wanted to play against a single opponent. Benny Binion agreed to host the game, and there was no question in his mind about the man for the job. He immediately called his old buddy Johnny Moss, who caught the next plane from Dallas, took a cab to Binion's Horseshoe, and sat down to a friendly game with Nick the Greek.
Binion positioned the table near the casino's entrance, and the crowds - intrigued by the biggest game the town had ever seen - stood five and six deep to watch. The confrontation between Moss and Dandolos lasted five months, punctuated by breaks for sleep every four days. In the end Nick the Greek, who had broken all the gamblers on the East Coast including mobster Arnold Rothstein, stood up from the table, smiled and said: "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." Over that five month period Johnny Moss had beaten Nick Dandolos for more than $2 million.
In 1970 Benny Binion decided to recapture that magic by inviting the top professionals to play in public. Five games were played at the inaugural World Series of Poker. Johnny Moss won them all. He won again in 1971, and when he captured the title a third time in 1974, the legend of Johnny Moss and the World Series of Poker were forever linked.
Since its relatively modest beginnings, the World Series of Poker has grown exponentially. From five events in 1970, it's grown to a tournament comprising more than 30 events. The grand finale, the ten-thousand dollar buy-in, no-limit hold'em tournament attracted 839 participants last year, creating a prize pool of $8,390,000 in the process. This year it attracted 2,576 players and a prize pool of nearly $25 million.
Benny Binion, the former Texas gangster turned beloved Las Vegas icon, was eulogized by all of Las Vegas when he died at the end of 1989. When Benny's widow died in 1994 the estate was willed to the Binion children. His son Jack, who had been an active partner, received 43 percent, while Lonnie "Ted" Binion and daughters, Becky Behnen and Brenda Michael divided the rest. When Jack Binion decided to open up a casino in Tunica, Mississippi in the mid 1990s, his sister Becky sued, charging gross neglect, mismanagement, and purposeful diversion of family money. Jack responded in 1998 by buying out his brother and other sister, then selling it all to Becky for $20 million and a two-year pay off timetable.
After taking charge of the Horseshoe in 1998 Becky closed the baccarat room, fired the poker manager, his chief assistants, and the race and sports book director. Long time customers will tell you the place was never the same. After years of rumored financial problems, it was closed following the cash cage raid in January 2004, only to reopen three months later under new ownership.
By the time the main event was set to open, my estimate of 1,150 players proved far too conservative. So many players ponied up $10,000 for this year's main event that the first day was run in heats, with half the field playing on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. The winnowed down fields were combined on Monday. At the tournament's start no one was even sure how many entered the event. Estimates ranged between 2,550 and 2,600, and the actual number turned out to be 2,576 - a 300 percent increase from last year. If you graphed the growth of the World Series of Poker on you'd see an acceleration curve that looks like a turbine engine ramping up to speed, growing slowly at first, then swinging from its steady horizontal rise to an almost vertical line resembling the vapor trail of rocket launched into outer space. Up, up, and away. Zoom. Swoosh. All those comic book adjectives fit the bill perfectly.
In 1997 three hundred entrants seemed a lot. And everyone was shocked when more than 800 entered last year. But when 2,576 players each spend $10,000 to enter a poker tournament, the growth is off the charts. And it could have been more. The limiting factor was not the number of players, but available space to seat them all. Had they scheduled the first day at the Las Vegas Convention Center we might have seen the total number of players climb to 3,000 or more.
As the number of entrants grew, the folks at the Horseshoe did what they could to constrain the field. Usually there's a feeding frenzy of satellite tournaments right up to the start of the main event, with each player paying $225 to enter a satellite that awards as many $10,000 buy-ins as they can. They also play one-table satellites too, with players paying $1,025 for a chance to win a buy-in for the main event. Once Harrah's management saw that there would be no possible way to accommodate all these other players, last-minute satellites were eliminated.
On the day prior to the main event, the last satellite they did run had the longest line I've ever seen for an event at the Horseshoe. It snaked from the tournament area into the hall, beyond the gift shop and buffet, down the escalator to the first floor, and then out onto the street. No one wanted to be shut out of the main event, but many were. There is only so much room at the Horseshoe - even with many of the ground floor slots temporarily removed so that poker tables could be put in their place - and it wasn't enough to accommodate 2004's seemingly inexhaustible supply of poker players.
Be that as it may, five players in this year's event would earn at least one million dollars. One event, five millionaires. Not bad. Even the 181st through 225th place players each win $10,000, thus getting their money back. Approximately ten percent of the field walked away with something.
And you can watch it all as part of ESPN's expanded coverage, which begins July 9 at 9 p.m. ET when two new one-hour episodes will be aired. ESPN plans to air two new one-hour episodes back-to-back on Tuesday throughout the summer for a total of 22 hours of coverage. They plan to triple their WSOP coverage compared to a year ago, with the first 13 episodes dedicated to covering tournaments other than the main event. Viewers will see Seven-card stud, Pot-limit Omaha, Pot -limit hold'em, and Razz.
The last nine episodes will focus on the tournament's main event, and will give ESPN a product that rivals the World Poker Tour in breadth and depth of coverage. ESPN has also amped up their production techniques, enabling viewers to experience the event from above, around and inside the table. A specially constructed final table will incorporate nine cameras in the table's rail to show viewers the players' cards, and a "rabbit cam" under the table next to the dealer will show viewers the card that would have been dealt next should a player fold. Two robo-cams hovering over the table will provide a wide lens view.
They won't show much of last year's champ because Chris Moneymaker was knocked out early on a series of improbable beats. He's not the only name player eliminated on the first day either. T.J. Cloutier, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Paul Philips, and Men Nguyen are some of the other notables who were knocked out early. But you don't win the World Series of Poker by backing up to the pay table. Risks are part of the game, and anytime you take a risk there's a chance of losing, even if you're a big name player and your opponent is just some guy named Joe.
The second day cut the field down further, and by the middle of Day Three the field numbered fewer than 225, and all the players were in the money, even if that included many of them merely getting back their original $10,000 investment. That's better than it sounds, because the majority of players won their way into this event via a satellite, and ten grand is probably a profit of sorts when compared to their out-of-pocket investment.
Once everyone was in the money a flurry of players were quickly eliminated. Since 225 through 181 each received an identical $10,000 payout, players who were short on chips were willing to take any risk to propel themselves up to the next rung on the pay ladder. And why not? If you're short stacked you can't hunker down and coast up to the next rung on the pay ladder. You've got to gamble to get there.
At this juncture Dave Scharf, publisher of Canadian Poker Player Magazine was among the chip leaders, although the lead is always a moving target and with three days to go in the event anything can happen and probably would. One thing that wouldn't happen, however, was a woman winning the tournament. By the middle of Day Three the only remaining woman was Rose Richie, who won her way into this event by capturing a $22 buy-in satellite tournament on Royal Vegas Poker, a leading Internet poker site. Although Rose didn't go on to win this event, she can take comfort in the fact that she outlasted a number of top professionals who were eliminated on that fickle day, including multiple World Poker Tour event winners Howard Lederer and Gus Hansen. Rose does most of her playing online because she suffers from Lupus and the disease, along with the medications she takes to control, it can leave her fatigued. Online play allows her to rest when she tires, and with her energy levels taxed after the stress of 12-hour days at the poker tables, performing as well as she did was really an accomplishment.
Multiple World Poker Tour event winner Gus Hansen's undoing was probably the hand of the tournament. Frank Brabec held K-T in the big blind, with Hansen holding 8-5 of spades. Sweden's Mats Andersson also held two spades, but he held an ace and a queen and his hand was a lot more powerful than Hansen's. Gus raised, making it $9,500 to go. A raise with 8-5 is clearly an attempt to steal the pot, but Hansen is an aggressive player and that's not out of character for him. This time, however, he was called by Andersson, and by Frank Brabec too.
Although Gus must have suspected he was in trouble when two opponents called, he was heartened when he saw Ks-Ts-5h on the flop. He flopped a pair along with a flush draw. But how could he have suspected that Brabec flopped two pair and Mats had flopped a bigger flush draw? With two pair in hand, and hoping to shut out any flush draws, Brabec bet $50,000. Gus Hansen then raised another $76,000, putting himself all-in in the process. Most big pots like these are contested heads-up, but not this one. Mats Andersson called what was now a $126,000 bet and when it was Frank Brabec's turn to act he raised all-in for an additional $100,000. Andersson immediately called, creating a $200,000 side pot that Hansen was not eligible to win.
The main pot - which all three contestants vied for - contained $406,500; the side pot that Brabec and Andersson were fighting over held another $200,000. A benign heart that helped nobody fell on the turn. At this point Brabec's two pair was still leading Hansen's pair of fives with a flush draw and Anderson's bigger flush draw. Hansen needed a five to win the pot, and any spade would cinch it for Mats Andersson. Any card other than a five or a spade would clinch it for Brabec. But the final card, the "river" as it's called, was the three of spades, and Andersson's flush knocked Gus Hansen out of the tournament, and so severely dented Brabec's arsenal that he would be eliminated some 20 minutes later.
By the end of the third day this massive event had been boiled down to a manageable lot of 89 remaining players. Now that's a number you can deal with. You probably get 89 players for tournaments at your local casino. At the close of the day, which was actually about 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, the leader was John Murphy with $765,000 and his closest competitor was Josh Arieh with $754,000. Only four former World Series of Poker winners were still playing among the masses of new names sent here by virtue of internet satellite tournaments, but it was a formidable quartet nevertheless, and included Russ Hamilton who, in addition to his prize money was also awarded his weight in silver when he won the championship in 1994. And that wasn't chump change, either. Hamilton, before he slimmed down in recent years, weighed in at 325 pounds. The other former winners included Dan Harrington, who won the event in 1995, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson who won in 2000, and living legend Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, poker's lion in winter. Brunson, the last of the old-time Texas road gamblers who is now in his 70s, still plays poker almost every day and for stakes high enough that the average pot would pay the mortgage on your house. He's a multiple winner of this event and one of the sentimental choices to win it again. But Day Five brought Brunson's elimination late in the day. Doyle was dealt a pocket pair of tens and went all-in, only to attract a caller who was holding A-8, which is a very marginal hand under the circumstances. Brunson survived the flop, but an ace jumped out of the deck on the turn and Texas Dolly was eliminated. But after a good night's sleep, I knew I'd find him across the street at the Golden Nugget playing for really big stakes.
By Wednesday evening at 8:15 only 43 players remained, and the cost of the game had increased dramatically. The blinds were $6,000 and $12,000 and a $2,000 ante was been added. Now it cost $36,000 to play one full round of poker at a nine-handed table. For players who had not accumulated large stacks of chips, there was no time to sit wait for a big hand to come their way. The cost to play was so high that the short stacks were forced to gamble. Almost any hand containing an ace was reason enough to go all-in, particularly if no one has called the blinds.
They played down to 36 today and to nine on Thursday, with those nine set to duke it out on Friday for as long as it takes, until a champion is determined. The closer it gets, the more interesting it becomes. After all, winning $40,000 or so on Day Five is nice, but winning $5 million is something else again.
The play-down from 36 to nine on Day Six was grueling. A difference of one place on the pay ladder can mean a difference of $40,000 in winnings. Day Six saw the elimination of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, who attempted a bluff with a pair of fours, only to run into an opponent holding a pair of kings. When Ferguson lost he found himself down to $4,000 in chips, which was just enough to pay his ante. He won that hand and five or six more in quick succession and climbed back up to more than $200,000 in chips. At that point in the tournament each player had to ante $3,000, blinds were $10,000 and $20,000, and it cost $57,000 to play one round of poker. Ferguson was short-stacked, forced to gamble, and was unceremoniously eliminated a few hands later. His departure left "Action Dan" Harrington as the sole surviving former champion still in the hunt.
And Dan was among the leaders most of the day, although Greg "The Fossilman" Raymer, a patent attorney from eastern Connecticut, who can best be described as a solid, very selective player, yet one who is capable of extremely aggressive play when the situation warrants it, held the lead much of the day. Greg was making no mistakes, and he was the first player to reach a chip count of $5 million, which put him in possession of nearly 20 percent of the chips in play.
With Marcel Luske eliminated in tenth place on Thursday night, the final table was set and the original field of 2,576 players was narrowed to nine. There was $16,120,400 in prize money remaining to be awarded, with the winner set to walk away with $5 million and the coveted World Series of Poker world championship bracelet.
Occupying Seat One at the final table on Friday was Mattias Andersson, a 24-year-old Swede who previously worked as a salesman in a toy store. Andersson developed his poker game on the Internet and has supported himself for the past year by playing online poker tournaments. "Poker Matts" chip count stood at $740,000 entering the final day.
Josh Arieh, from Atlanta, occupied Seat Two. A 29-year-old professional poker player, Arieh won a gold bracelet at the World Series of Poker in 1999 - in the $3,000 buy-in Limit Hold'em event. Married with two children, Arieh began playing poker several years ago and this marks the fifth year he has played in the World Series of Poker. Going into today's play, his chip count stood at $3,205,000.
Al Krux, a 53-year-old professional poker player who lives near Syracuse, NY, was in Seat Three. Originally from North Carolina, Krux won a World Series of Poker gold bracelet in 1996 in the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em event. He also made the final table in the main event in 1990, when he finished sixth. Heading into today's action, his chip count stood at $1,305,000.
Occupying Seat Four is Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, the 39-year-old chip leader heading into the final day. With $8,215,000 in chips, Raymer was in excellent position at the final table. The corporate patent attorney from Stonington, CT is originally from North Dakota and this was his first final table at the World Series of Poker. Raymer acquired his nickname because he collects antique fossils, which he often proudly displays on the poker table.
In Seat Five, with a chip count of $4,920,000, was aspiring math teacher Matt Dean. The 25-year-old resident of Woodlands, Texas, learned to play poker online and at his local fraternity house on the campus of Southwestern University.
Former World Series of Poker champion Dan Harrington occupied Seat Six. Harrington, who headed into today's play with a chip count of $2,245,000, was the 1995 world poker champion. He also finished third in last year's world championship event. Harrington, referred to as "Action Dan," a teasing reference to his rock-solid playing reputation, has made three final tables at the World Series of Poker in the past 10 years.
Glenn Hughes occupied Seat Seven with a chip count of $2,275,000. Hughes has finished in the money several times at the World Series of Poker and other tournaments, but this marked his first trip to the final table at the world championship.
The youngest player at the final table - David Anthony Williams - was in Seat Eight. With his 24th birthday two weeks away, Williams headed into Friday's play with $1,575,000 in chips. Williams resides in Dallas and is currently a student at S.M.U., where he's majoring in math and economics.
Mike McClain, a 39-year-old professional poker player from Lemoore, California occupied Seat Nine. He entered today's play with a chip count of $885,000. McClain earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and worked in the computer industry before turning pro in the East Bay area.
In addition to the $5 million pay out to the winner, the tournament will pay $3.5 million to the second place finisher; $2.5 million to third; $1.5 million to fourth and $1.1 million to fifth place. The remaining finalists will each win between $800,000 and $470,400, depending on their order of finish.
Eight hours after play started on the final day of the 35th annual World Series of Poker, Greg Raymer, a corporate patent attorney from Stonington, Connecticut, scooped the final pot of the night - a staggering $25 million in chips - and walked away with $5 million in cash, the largest prize in poker tournament history. Throughout the last day's play Raymer was magnificent, knocking out seven of the nine players who were eliminated at the final table.
Josh Arieh finished third and won $2.5 million - the same amount Chris Moneymaker won for capturing the title last year. Dan Harrington won $1.5 million for finishing in fourth place. Harrington finished third last year and won the event a decade ago, an amazing record considering the sheer number of entrants. Harrington's fourth place finish paid more than his win did, and more than he earned last year when he finished one notch higher. The final millionaire was Glen Hughes, who won $1.1 million for his fifth place finish. Al Krux won $800,000 when he finished sixth, Matt Dean took home $675,000 for seventh place, Mattias Andersson won $575,000 with his eighth place finish and ninth place finisher Mike McClain won $470,400.
The climatic moment in the No-Limit Texas Hold'em event came at 8:40 p.m., only a few minutes after head-to-head play began. Raymer's deuces full of eights topped the smaller full house, deuces full of fours, held by David Anthony Williams, the second player at the table. Money went in to the pot on every betting round and each player was convinced he held the winner. Raymer's pocket pair of eights is a big hand in a heads-up match and Williams was involved because any hand containing an ace is considered a very strong hand in head-to-head play.
Raymer was confident about the cards he held. "I didn't see any reason why I didn't have the best hand," he said. The flop was 4-2-5, and gave Williams a pair of fours, but the Fossilman's pair of eights was still in the lead. The turn card was another deuce, which looked good to Williams. After all, he knew Raymer wasn't involved in the pot with a deuce in his hand. Williams, of course, assumed his two pair was in the lead. When a final deuce appeared on the turn, the college student figured his deuces full of fours was the winning hand. But it wasn't, and he lost to Greg Raymer's deuces full of eights.
The Fossilman started the day with more than $8 million in chips and was the chip leader among the nine players who sat at the final table. "It was wonderful," he said. "I played the best poker of my life and I got as lucky as I've ever gotten in my life for such a sustained period of time. I was able to advance past a lot of great, great players. It's a dream come true."
Williams, who finished second, won $3.5 million for his efforts. For the 24-year-old math and economics major at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, he can take solace in the fact that his payday was the second largest in the history of tournament poker, topped only by the Fossilman's huge purse.
The total prize pool at the 2004 World Series of Poker reached $49 million, a new poker tournament world record. Last year's World Series of Poker tournament prize money, by comparison, was just under $22 million, and 2003 World Champion Chris Moneymaker won a top prize of $2.5 million.
Players from all over the globe plunked down the $10,000 it takes to compete in the World Championship event. Hundreds more won a place in the event through a variety of qualifying satellite tournaments. And what are we to make of it all? The biggest poker tournament in history just took place in a year when no one was certain whether it would even take place at all. Last year ESPN only focused on the tournament's main event and covered it in a few shows. This year they're devoting significantly more time to the entire tournament. They saw what television did for the World Poker Tour and now they have their own series to compete with it.
If the first few days of next year's event are moved to another Harrah's property, such as the Rio, you can expect attendance for the final event to dwarf what you saw here. After all, the Horseshoe ran headlong into space restrictions, but the Rio has a convention center and the opening day, or days, as the case may be, could easily accommodate many more players. Perhaps the player base, lured by TV coverage and a bigger facility, will double. Maybe it will even triple. Can you imagine a poker tournament with 5,000 entrants? How about 8,000? It's all quite possible.
Poker's riding the crest of a tidal wave right now and this is just the beginning. Most of the game's growth has been fueled by TV and the increasing popularity of internet poker, along with the compelling story of a Tennessee accountant who showed the world that an investment of $40, lots of skill, stamina, and an internet connection was all it took to compete with the big boys. In achieving his dream, he democratized poker and showed its accessibility to everyone who sat up and took notice.
More TV coverage will probably bring more players to the table, and if they can't get to the tables in person they can train to become next year's champion in their skivvies and bathrobes by playing online. That's the way everyone does it nowadays, or so it seems.
