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World Series of Poker History WSOP Champions
Though the World Series of Poker made its official debut in 1970, the idea of the Horseshoe's annual tournament was actually conceived more than two decades earlier.
In the summer of 1949, as the story goes, inveterate gambler Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos approached Benny Binion with an unusual request - to challenge the best in a high-stakes poker marathon. Binion agreed to set up a match between Dandolos and the legendary Johnny Moss, with the stipulation that the game would be played in public view.
During the course of the marathon, which lasted five months with breaks only for sleep, the two men played every form of poker imaginable. Moss ultimately won "the biggest game in town" and an estimated $2 million. When the Greek lost his last pot, he arose from his chair, bowed slightly, and uttered the now-famous words, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." Dandolos then went upstairs to bed.
Though significant in its own way as a chapter in poker history, the five-month marathon took on added importance to Benny Binion. He noted that the public had gathered outside the casino each day to watch the game with the fervor of dedicated sports fans, and he was amazed at the attention the event had attracted. But it wasn't until 1970 that Binion decided to re-create this excitement and stage a battle of poker giants - dubbed the "World Series Of Poker" - to determine who would be worthy of the title "World Champion." Some of the best players in the country were assembled, and Johnny Moss came out on top. The decision was democratic in that the champion was decided by popular vote.
The following year, the winner was determined by a freezeout competition, with players being systematically eliminated until one player had all the chips. Moss again was declared the World Champion. In 1972, when Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston won the title and went on the talk-show circuit, the WSOP began to gain a wider following.
It was only a year later that Binion participated in the Oral History Project at the University of Nevada-Reno and discussed the World Series with interviewer Mary Ellen Glass. "This poker game here gets us a lot of attention," he told Glass. "We had seven players last year, and this year we had 13. I look to have better than 20 next year. It's even liable to get up to be 50, might get up to be more than that." Binion then paused, and as if gazing into the future, prophesied, "It will eventually."
In the early 1980s, with the introduction of preliminary satellite competitions with lower buy-ins, Binion's prophesy came to fruition and the popularity of the World Series of Poker soared. But even Benny Binion, who passed away on Christmas Day of 1989, would have had difficulty foreseeing the enormous growth the Horseshoe's annual tournament has experienced in the past decade or so.
In 1982, nine years after Mr. Binion participated in UNR's Oral History Project, the tournament drew 52 entrants. Five years later, there were 2,141 participants, and the 2002 event attracted 7,595 entries. The prize money has increased proportionately, from $7,769,000 a decade ago to a staggering $19,599,230 in 2002. Whereas only 12 events, mostly Texas hold'em and seven-card stud, were scheduled as recently as 1988, the 2004 tournament offers 33 competitions that feature a wide variety of games.
Today, the legacy Benny Binion left the poker community ranks as the oldest, largest, most prestigious, and most media-hyped gaming competition in the world, and no doubt it holds the promise of an even brighter future. But equally important, The World Series of Poker has touched thousands of lives over the years, affording talented players the opportunity to follow their dreams, reach for the stars, and perhaps one day achieve greatness in their chosen endeavor.
World Series of Poker Champions TOP
1970 - Johnny Moss
1971 - Johnny Moss
1972 - Amarillo Slim Preston
1973 - Puggy Pearson
1974 - Johnny Moss
1975 - Sailor Roberts
1976 - Doyle Brunson
1977 - Doyle Brunson
1978 - Bobby Baldwin
1979 - Hal Fowler
1980 - Stu Ungar
1981 - Stu Ungar
1982 - Jack Straus
1983 - Tom McEvoy
1984 - Jack Keller
1985 - Bill Smith
1986 - Berry Johnston
1987 - Johnny Chan
1988 - Johnny Chan
1989 - Phil Hellmuth Jr.
1990 - Mansour Matloubi
1991 - Brad Daugherty
1992 - Hamid Datsmalchi
1993 - Jim Bechtel
1994 - Russ Hamilton
1995 - Dan Harrington
1996 - Huck Seed
1997 - Stu Ungar
1998 - Scotty Nguyen
1999 - Noel Furlong
2000 - Chris Ferguson
2001 - Carlos Mortensen - $1,500,000 Winner
2002 - Robert Varkonyi - $2,000,000 Winner
2003 - Chris Moneymaker - $2,500,000 Winner
2004 - Greg Fossilman Raymer - $5,000,000 Winner
2005 - Joe Hachem - $7,500,000 Winner
2006 - Jamie Gold - $12,000,000 Winner
2007 - Jerry Yang - $8,250,000 Winner
2008 - ???????????
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Jerry Yang won the 2007 WSOP Main Event by playing a relentless aggressive style of poker from the call to shuffle up and deal at noon to the last hand of the heads up match with Tuan Lam after 4 am. Now he plans to take the $8.25 million he's won and start aggressively attacking the some of the ills of society.
It took 16 hours of poker but the tenacious Jerry Yang would not be denied. Yang came into the day as one of the short stacks and proceeded to rampage his way through the competition. By the end Yang had left countless players in his dust and proved he could be a champion.
PokerListings.com caught up with Jerry just moments after he won the biggest poker tournament on the planet to discuss charity, his future plans and, oh by the way, a little poker.
Congratulations Jerry! How does it feel to win the 2007 WSOP Main Event?
I am very exited. I can't describe the feelings, but I had a huge adrenaline rush. It was just tremendous. I am very very happy. There are no words to describe it.
How does a guy like you make it to a place like this?
I won the seat through Pechanga for $225.
When I made the money I was very excited already. When I came to the final table I was like wow - It was really a dream come true. Today I am just very, very happy.
Now that you are a World Champion, do you plan on being an ambassador for the game?
Absolutely! I think poker is a great opportunity for many people and we all should support poker. Obviously some of us do this for a living and whatever we can do to benefit the community, benefit our families we should do that. Some of us have a regular job, some of us play poker and whatever we do we should support that, support poker and promote poker as much as possible.
So will we see you playing at poker tournaments around the world in the near future?
I would like to. I will do my best. I have some other goals that I would like to accomplish and some charity work. Maybe do some missionary work also. So I will be overseas a lot and back and forth. I will still play poker. I will support poker and I would like to be a good ambassador for poker - that's my goal.
Let's talk a little poker. You came in today eighth in chips, but you were very aggressive right out of the gate. Was that a plan or just something the cards dictated?
Last night, when I sat down to meditate, I knew I was coming in as a short stack and I knew that I had to be aggressive in order to be successful and in order to pick up some pots. Thank God I was able to do that and I was able to pick up some big hands at the same time.
There were a few times that I bluffed or made some calls or reraised and my opponents folded their hands. So I was able to pick up a few pots from there. I'm very happy with the way I played today.
I did have some cards at the beginning which helped me a lot. But there were a few hands where I raised when I had the button with very little.
I believe there was one where I reraised with four-deuce and picked up a pot. At that point I knew that my opponents were playing a little tight and I could take advantage of that.
What is your experience with the game?
I have been playing poker for a couple of years - very part time. I have read a couple of poker books and I watch a lot on TV.
What do you do for a living and will tommorow be your last day on the job?
I am a psychologist and a social worker. I work with foster kids providing therapy and making sure they are being placed in a good home.
My plan when I go back home is to sit down with my boss, the owner of the company, and my gut feeling at this point is I think there are better purposes for me out there and I want to use the money to do some good. But I will be professional and I will give my two weeks notice. But my wife (a blackjack dealer) no more work for her.
We've heard your plan is to donate some of the money to charity right away. Any truth to this philanthropic rumor?
I will be donating ten per cent to the three following charities: The Make A Wish Foundation, Feed The Children and The Ronald MacDonald House.
I want to donate some of this money to help families ease some of their pain while they are going through the recovery process. Children mean a lot to me. I have six children of my own. When I was a child I was in a refugee camp and so I understand what it is to suffer physically, nutritionally. I used to have a big old stomach from lack of nutrition at the refugee camp in Thailand. I think children are our future and we should do whatever we can to help them.
An ambassador for poker? Ten per cent to charity? Jerry Yang is a dream come true 2007 WSOP Main Event champ and a class act all the way. It's hard to say what the poker future will bring for the newly crowned World Champion, but the rest is certainly looking pretty rosy - for Jerry, his family and all the people he plans to help with the money and newfound freedom it brings him. Jerry thanked God a lot after the big win, but we should all be thanking God for Jerry!
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Jamie Gold - defeated 8772 players to win the main event at the 2006 World Series of Poker. His victory earned him a record breaking $12 million dollars and also cast him forever into the poker limelight. For one year, he will travel the world and be the ambassador to poker.
2006 wsop final event has been characterized by a truly action-packed final table with Jamie Gold personally knocking out seven of the other eight players. Gold certainly had some help from the cards in this match but showed that he was able to mix it up with some well-timed bluffs and key plays as well. After eliminating Paul Wasicka a short time into heads-up play, Jamie was able to put on the bracelet he had worked so hard to earn and finally bask in the knowledge that he had done the seemingly impossible and become 2006's World Champion of Poker. In a short Q&A session after the match, Gold talked a bit about his experience at the WSOP.
With the chip lead you had coming into this final table this event was really yours to lose, how did you deal with that here tonight?
Absolutely, I didn't focus on it. A few of my friends said "C'mon, there's no way you can lose this." I just didn't want to listen to that, I didn't think about it. All I thought about were the players I was playing with at each table, I never thought about the tournament, everyday I would think about my table and I crushed every table I played at except for one that I was on with Danny Negreanu. I could not beat him. He was amazing - I could not beat him.
Daniel actually gave you a lot of compliments tonight; he said he couldn't figure your game out.
Well, I think he's incredible. I tried to bluff him and he caught me with the one hand we were in together. I can't play as well as he plays, but I played pretty well in this tournament.
You're your own agent, how are you going to market yourself now?
I'm actually not. I have amazing agents. I'm not going to market myself at all, but these guys are amazing and I'm really lucky to be with them.
You're very successful in Hollywood, so how are you going to bridge the gap, because you're going to be amazing for poker with your communication skills.
I'm going to do both. I have incredible partners who have allowed me to take two weeks off while I'm supposed to be in charge of a production that's happening right now, but they believed in me and understood that this was something that was so important to me. I told them I wanted to give it one shot. I've never played in the World Series before, but I believed I could do it. I've won a lot of small tournaments but I wanted to see if I could compete with the best.
Johnny Chan told me I could, all my friends told me that I could, I thought that I could and my partners were kind enough to let me do it.
Whenever I'm not working, all I do is play poker, and I really love it, and I'm going to continue doing it. I'm going to play as many tournaments as I can, and my partners will understand but I'm not going to leave them. Next week I'm going back to work.
Your style of play has been described as "controlled chaos," do you agree with that and if so what does it mean?
Absolutely, I don't have a style of play. I change my style based on the players I'm playing against. I happen to get great reads on most of the players I play against, except Daniel Negreanu. Thank god he wasn't at the final table.
Are you going to be here next year to defend your title?
Oh yeah. Unless I'm in a hospital somewhere, I'm going to be here. I can't wait to play again.
Thanks a lot Jamie and congratulations.
Jamie Gold has enjoyed success in Hollywood, and now he can add Las Vegas to his list of conquests. His win here tonight has earned him access to one of the most exclusive clubs around, the few who own a World Championship bracelet of their own. TOP
 Joseph Hachem defeated 5618 players to win the main event at the 2005 World Series of Poker. His victory earned him a record breaking $7.5 million dollars.
Hachem is a native of Lebanon, but in 1972, he and his family moved to Melbourne, Australia. He is married with four children. A chiropractor by trade, he gave that up a few years ago after a developing a rare blood disorder in his hands. While taking time off to consider his future, he began to play poker. He said, "I started in casinos, but in the past two years, I've been playing online a lot." When he isn't playing online or at the Crown Casino, he runs a small brokerage business in Pascoe Vale.
Joe's game has improved since he learned how to control his temper. He stated, "I used to be a lot more excitable. I'm of Lebanese origin so my blood is at boiling temperature at rest. I'm very emotional."
His improved demeanor at the table probably helped him have the patience to know when to strike at the final table. He was one of the short stacks at the table when there were five players left and then finally took a stand against Aaron Kanter who had been re-raising him non-stop. Hachem held Q7 against Kanter's pocket nines and the flop was Q82. The turn brought no help to Kanter and Hachem never looked back after that hand. In one of his post-tournament interviews, he said that once he had chips, he knew that he wasn't going to give any of them back and that the title was going to be his. He earned the title holding 73 on the final hand. Hachem flopped a straight with a board of 654 and Dannenmann held A3 giving him an open end straight draw. Dannenmann needed a seven to chop the pot, but it did not appear.
After winning, Joseph's supporters and fellow countrymen chanted their final "Aussie, Aussie, Oi!, Oi!, Oi!", as they had been doing throughout the final table. Joe wrapped himself in an Australian flag and shouted, "Thank you, America." The Australians observing the final table were not the only people going crazy. Hachem said, "From what I've been told by my friends, Australia has gone mad." Non-Americans have won the World Series of Poker Main Event before, but Hachem is the first Australian.
After winning the main event, I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Hachem. The Bicycle Casino threw a party for the new champion at the same time as they were opening up their new high limit section. Before the party began, Joe did the honors of cutting the grand opening ribbon. He told us a story about a trip he took to The Bike. He said that before he went to the WSOP, he stopped in at the Bicycle to play in one of their No Limit games. One of the players said something about Joe making the stop before he was crowned the new Australian Champion. I know he got pleasure from the thought of it, but I would imagine he didn't know it was actually going to come true. He was a nice guy, with a great smile and I am happy that he is the new WSOP champ.
While Hachem was unknown to most of the poker world prior to his WSOP victory, he did have a track record in Australian tournaments, as well as a tenth place finish in the $1000/with rebuys No Limit Hold'em event two weeks earlier during the World Series of Poker.
Like Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, Hachem acts as a spokesperson for the PokerStars online poker room where he plays often. However, unlike the other two, Joe did not qualify on the Internet, but instead paid the full $10,000 buy-in. He definitely got a good return on his investment. "A million dollars changes my life, let alone $7.5 million," he said. "It changes everything. I can look after my family, my mum, my kids."
Congratulations Joe Hachem, 2005 World Series of Poker Champion. TOP
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