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Before the advent of the World Poker Tour and its revolutionary hole-cams, the
only tournament in the world that really mattered was the "Big One": the
World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event. Plenty of
now-familiar names have won the event over the years - Doyle Brunson, Johnny
Chan, Phil Hellmuth, and Dan Harrington have all been enshrined in the
Gallery of Champions. Some of them even managed to win the Main Event more
than once, guaranteeing themselves a place in poker history. Still, there
are few players who cast as long a shadow over the most important tournament
on earth as the legendary Johnny Moss.
Known as the "Grand Old Man," Moss was a fixture at Binion's Horseshoe in the
early 1970s as the World Series of Poker began its run. In 1970, the first
year of the vent, the title of World Champion was awarded to Moss by the
vote of his peers. This isn't at all surprising in light of the fact that
another of Moss' nicknames was "The Pro's Pro." When the format of the
Series changed in 1971, Moss wasn't to be denied - he won the $10,000
freezeout and became the first-ever two-time WSOP champion. In 1972 and 1973
he finished 2nd at the Main Event to Amarillo Slim Preston and Walter "Puggy"
Pearson, respectively, but in 1974 he set the bar for all-time greatness
when he captured his third WSOP championship. Only one person since - the
manic Stu Ungar - has managed to win three Main Events, and nobody has made
it to heads-up play in four consecutive years. It boggles the mind to
imagine how long his list of accomplishments might have been had something
like the WSOP existed when Moss was in his prime.
Before he became associated with the WSOP, Moss was already known as one of
the great card players in the world. He began playing at the age of ten in
his hometown of Odessa, Texas, when he picked up the game from a group of
local cheats. They showed him the ins and outs of conning players at the
table - dealing from the bottom of the deck, marking cards, and the like.
Moss used his education in a most impressive way, learning to spot cheats at
the tables rather than cheating himself. As a teenager he turned his
knowledge into a job at a local saloon watching the games to make sure they
were clean. This position afforded him the opportunity to watch poker
players all day for two years straight, and it could be argued that this was
part of what eventually made him one of the greatest players of all-time.
Moss took his act on the road after learning the game, traveling wherever
there was a good game to be had. The times when Moss traveled around winning
more money than any other poker player in the world were a far cry from
today's licensed land-based casinos and online card rooms. He always
traveled armed, and on plenty of occasions had the need to use his weapon.
Cigar Aficionado's gambling columnist Michael Konik once asked Moss if he
had ever killed a man. Moss' reply was, "I don't know if he died." Try to
imagine such words coming from a Chris Moneymaker or Robert Varkonyi and you
might be in danger of laughing yourself to death; imagine them coming from
Moss and you don't doubt them for a second.
Probably the most famous story involving Moss is the tale of his heads-up
match against Nick "The Greek" Dandalos. Dandalos was a famous high-stakes
gambler who rolled into Las Vegas in 1949 after breaking all the best
players on the East Coast. Nobody else in town but Benny Binion would book
any of the Greek's high-rolling action, so when he wanted a $250,000 game of
no-limit poker Binion unsurprisingly obliged him. Binion called up his old
friend Moss and asked him to come play - Moss reportedly left the game he
was playing at the time and made his way to the table at the Horseshoe as
soon as he arrived in Las Vegas. Binion placed the game at the entrance to
the Horseshoe, hoping it would bring his casino lots of business. For five
months the two dueled away, before the Greek finally bowed out of the match
with his now famous words: "Mr. Moss, I must let you go." Moss reportedly
took home over $4 million for his efforts, a sum so monumental for the day
that it dwarfs even today's richest tournament prizes.
The Grand Old Man passed away in 1997, the same year that Stu Ungar tied his
record of three Main Event victories. Though he'll never sit at a poker
table again, there isn't a player alive who doesn't owe a debt of gratitude
to this trailblazing Texas gambler.
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