Overview Of The 1972 World Series Of Poker

By Author: Crystal Wiggins
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Many people try to think of a pivotal moment in sports history when a sport changed. For poker, many people believe it was the 1972 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Even though 1972 is a long ways away from the current time when thousands upon thousands of people come from all around the world to play in the WSOP, it was quite the tournament.

Thomas Preston, who was also known as Amarillo Slim, found out about the event from his friend Doyle Brunson. These two men, along with a fellow gambling friend Sailor Roberts, has been looking for poker games they could pick off easy players to fatten their wallets full of cash. Sailor and Doyle had played in the event the previous year, and Amarillo Slim decided it was his turn to participate in the event.

When the smoke ended up clearing at the event, the tournament was down only to Slim and Puggy Pearson. The battle was definitely on at this point as Slim, the ultimate showman, played his part by egging on his opponent by saying things like, it feels better in! while pushing all of his chips in the middle. He showed his cards to the crowd and was hooting and hollering ...
... for a great time. This made Pearson very nervous, and it almost made him second guess every decision he made. By the time it was over, Amarillo Slim came out of the match in victory. Since this victory, may people speculate that Pearson may have thrown the title match to Slim. The main argument is the people say that Pearson was worried about the tax issues that come with winning, whereas Slim as happy to take all the publicity he could. If this theory is true, than it truly is a bad mark on the sport of Poker, but the result may have made it possible for Poker to grow into the popular sport that it is today.

Today, when Poker Players win, they are heralded and put up on a pedestal for the world to see and learn about. Until 1972, when Slim won, it was unheard of to have a Poker player be in the limelight to soak up popularity in fear of tax and government impositions on the winnings. Amarillo Slim was the P.T. Barnum of his day and made the bulk of his money on proposition bets. He would do this to make it look like he would totally lose, and then held a piece of information that his opponent didn't know and would end up winning. He pretty much invented the Poker celebrity and used it to fatten his wallet even more. He went on talk shows with Johnny Carson, and looked the part of a poker champion with his cowboy hat and snake skin boots. He ended up writing a book and went on tour with it and delivered quotes to newspapers and magazines everywhere he went.

Every poker celebrity today, owes Slim for a little bit of their popularity. Without Slim, the Poker Celebrity may not be as big as it is today. The 1972 WSPO finished out like this: Amarillo Slim won the $10,000 Championship Event and won $80,000 dollars. Bill Boyd won the $10,000 Five-Card Stud event and won $20,000 dollars.

About Author:-

Crystal Wiggins writes reviews on various sporting events including the online betting websites. In this piece of write up, the author highlights on various betting odds i.e. online casino, online poker etc.