The WSOP Main Event Winners of the 1970s

The WSOP Main Event is the biggest and most popular poker tournament in the world. Running since 1970, the World Series of Poker event costs an eye-watering $10,000 to enter and the buy-in hasn’t changed since 1972.

The most revered title in poker, becoming the WSOP Main Event champion is virtually every poker player’s dream, from recreational hopefuls to hardened cash game pros. Everyone wants to win the ‘big one’, but who actually has?

In the first of a five-part series, we look back at half a century of WSOP Main Event champions and the way each man became a poker legend.

The Formative Years of the WSOP Main Event

It was hard enough to organize a poker event back in the early days of the World Series of Poker. Looking back at the creation of a worldwide tournament to decide the best player in the world, what the founders of the felt did has huge value to the game today.

With just seven players a part of the inaugural World Series of Poker Main Event, no poker was actually played. Instead, players voted on who they thought was the best player of their number. Of course, the first vote saw every man vote for himself, but with that option vetoed in the second round of voting, it was Johnny Moss, the so-called ‘Grand Old Man of Poker’ who was voted as the first world champion.

Moss would validate that vote a year later in 1971 when in a six-handed one-table shootout, he won the first genuine WSOP Main Event. The first prize of $30,000 was the entire prizepool, with each man putting up $5,000. A year later, the buy-in for players was $5,000, but Jack Binion, the host of the World Series of Poker at his casino, Binion’s Horseshoe, would add in another $5,000 per man.

Despite this offer, only eight players took part in the 1972 WSOP Main Event and the tournament was mired in controversy. The three remaining players of Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, and Amarillo Slim concocted a deal whereby Brunson would walk away with a payoff equal to the value of his chips, allowing the two more media-savvy players to compete for the win.

Meant to grow the appeal of the game, Binion was initially livid at this idea but eventually relented. Brunson’s gut-wrenching exit – put down to a stomachache – prompted a win for Amarillo Slim heads-up.

The Main Event Grows to Three Tables

From 1973 onwards, the entry for the WSOP Main Event was a cool $10,000, the same amount it remains today nearly half a century on. 48 years ago, however, just 13 players put down the entry money, and in a winner-takes-all format, it was Walter ‘Puggy’ Pearson who triumphed.

The final six featured players such as Brian ‘Sailor’ Roberts and Jack ‘Treetop’ Straus, but the heads-up specialist Straus was busted in third place, leaving Puggy Pearson to take down Johnny Moss, Grand Old Man of Poker, heads up.

In 1974, the record number of entries grew again, this time to 16 players, where Johnny Moss got his revenge and won his record-equaling third WSOP Main Event title in five years. Again, only the winner took any prize, with Moss scooping the $160,000 pot by getting the better of Crandall Addington heads-up. There were six different ‘preliminary’ events, featuring formats such as Razz, Stud and 2-7 Draw.

In 1975, Brian ‘Sailor’ Roberts won his first and only WSOP Main Event after reaching his third final table in three years. Finally sealing his victory for a score of $210,000 (there were 21 entries), Bob Hooks was the player to miss out, with the previous year’s runner-up Addington finishing third for consecutive podium finishes without reward.

Texas Dolly and the Ten-Deuce Legacy

In 1976, the WSOP Main Event awarded the winning player a gold bracelet, starting a tradition which has lasted 45 years now. The first winner of this WSOP Main Event bracelet was Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson, now considered the Godfather of poker games.

Brunson won the title by beating Jesse Alto heads-up, claiming the $220,000 top prize after a final table again featuring Crandall Addington (fourth) saw Brunson scoop the top prize with ten-deuce.

Remarkably, ten-deuce would become known as the ‘Texas Dolly’ after Brunson won with the same hand — albeit unsuited in 1977 — a year after he’d done so to win his maiden Main Event.

A year on from his previous triumph, Brunson topped a field of 34, a considerable rise on the 22 players of 1976, beating Gary Berland heads-up to win the biggest top prize of the 1970s, $340,000.

Prizes Added and the First Amateur Victory

In 1978, Brunson would get nowhere, failing to reach the final table, which was notable for awarding prizes to players other than the winner for the first time. After Ken Smith bubbled the money in sixth place, Jess Alto (5^th for $21,000), Buck Buchanan (4^th for $42,000), Louis Hunsucker (3^rd for $63,000), and the ever-unfortunate Crandall Addington (2^nd for $84,000) all missing out on the top prize of $210,000. That was won by Bobby Baldwin, who still plays today and whose most recent cash at the time of going to press is the 5^th-place finish for $8,044 in the Choctaw Pocola Summer Classic in July 2021.

In the final WSOP Main Event of the decade, it was the turn of the first amateur player to win the title and a massive first prize of $270,000. Hal Fowler, whose entry fee was rumored to have been made via a loan from Jack Binion himself, was an advertising executive and took down a final table featuring some stars of the game.

At one stage, Fowler had just 2,000 of the 500,000 chips in play at the final table that featured Johnny Moss and David ‘Chip’ Reese. Fowler came back in stunning style to beat Bobby Hoff heads up for the title, winning with a gutshot straight draw making good against pocket aces.

In our next article in the series, we’ll feature wins for a Poker Brat, The Orient Express’ and possibly the most gifted poker player of all time when we tell you all about the WSOP Main Event Winners of the 1980s.

WSOP Main Event Winners 1970-1979