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World Series of Poker History
There isn’t a poker player alive who isn’t glued to his or her seat when the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is on. In fact, there seems to be very few alive who don’t go to Las Vegas to enter in the main event. Almost 9,000 poker players entered the main event, making this more of a donkey-fest than an actual testament to one’s skill-set.
But nevertheless, professional players such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and many more pros will test their grit and determination against a field of over 8,000 players who seemingly stay in hands just to catch a river card. Not taking anything away from an amateur player, but percentages can be extremely cruel. The last time a “pro” won the WSOP was in 2001 when Carlos Mortensen took down the prize.
The game of poker wasn’t played above the table with yelling and flailing limbs in the beginning of WSOP history. In fact, one of the great players at time, such as Johnny Moss, would have quickly put a stop to any insurrection or untimely outbursts. Poker has been played for centuries now, and has ended in injury or death for many cheaters, big-talkers, and owners of outlandish personalities. Texas Hold ‘Em hasn’t been around quite as long. But once upon a time, it was a highly respected game.
The first World Series of Poker began as a small gathering between some great poker players who also happened to be friends. It was organized by Jack Binion, who owned the Horseshoe in Las Vegas at the time. It was 1970, and Hold ‘Em wasn’t a very popular video poker online casino. There weren’t even 10 players in the tournament, but the men who played are forever a part of poker lure.
Among the greats in the game were Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim, and Johnny Moss. Moss was ultimately voted as the best player and won the inaugural WSOP. In 1971, Moss won the winner-take-all event, beating the entire field. The mid-70s is when the WSOP started to pick up steam. Doyle Brunson won his back-to-back titles in 1976-77, holding the now famous 10 2.
More side events were put in during the 1980s, including limit HE, Stud, and H.O.R.S.E NBC began their coverage of the event in 1981 as Stu Ungar was making his mark on the poker world. He took back-to-back titles in 1980-81. The WSOP continued to flourish throughout the 80s, and was at an all-time high in popularity when Johnny Chan took back-to-back titles in 1987-88. He also made it to a final table for a third consecutive year, only to lose to a 24-year-old Phil Hellmuth and finish 2nd overall.
By 1991, the exposure had increased along with the prize pool. The first-place finisher was taking home over a million dollars. In 1997, Stu Ungar appeared from a long hiatus to take the title down, making him the only player in history to earn 3 WSOP Main Event titles. In 2000, Chris Ferguson took the title away from T.J. Cloutier, and Mortensen won it a year later. Since then, the field has been completely dominated by amateurs. The WSOP is now more of a lottery than a poker tournament. For $10,000, you can buy your ticket.
A casino which refuses to pay a jackpot
What would you do with a million dollars? It’s a question we’ve all pondered at one time or another. For Aurea Privee, she could smell the sweetness of the bills being fanned in front of her face. She was so close to a million dollars that she could literally taste it. But close only counts in horseshoes, unfortunately, and Privee’s million-dollar dream quickly turned into a poor man’s nightmare.
Aurea Privee walked into the Fiesta Casino in Henderson and started playing the penny video poker machines. The retired Privee had an ongoing relationship with the Fiesta casino; mostly of the give-give variety. Privee played the machines, but rarely won. Privee claims she spent twenty minutes between her regular bingo games dropping her pennies into a video poker machine. After a string of mediocre hands, Privee finally caught the hand of a lifetime.
The buzzers sounded, the coins dropped, and hearts raced as Privee had suddenly hit the one-million dollar and eight-two cent jackpot. Excited to be Nevada’s newest millionaire, Privee was attempting to retrieve her money when an agent from the Nevada Gaming Control Board showed up unexpectedly. Upon “careful” examination, the agent found that the machine’s maximum jackpot was supposedly set at $20,000, $980,000 shy of Privees prize. So, why would a machine set at $20,000 spit out $1,000,000? It’s a question Privee wanted answered.
After the casino’s insistence that the machine malfunctioned and that the $1,000,000 prize was a fabrication of Privee’s vision, her husband quickly showed the photos he had taken of the million-dollar jackpot in two places. The gaming control agent claimed that the real prize was only $800. Rather than take a lesser prize, Privee put her trust in attorney Nikolas Mastrangelo.
The attorney asks the question we all want to know. If the machine supposedly malfunctioned, what exactly was the malfunction? The fact that the casino cannot answer this question only lends credibility to multiple conspiracy theories which imply that casinos never intend for you to win a progressive jackpot. The fact that it happened wasn’t covered up at all. The casino stated that it was in fact a “malfunction.” Now, it’s up to the casino to correctly define the word malfunction to the rest of its casino goers – which doesn’t seem likely.
Finally, the casino blamed the malfunction on their lack of software upgrades, which makes it a human error (for not manually upgrading) and not a mechanical error, which means Privee is entitled to the prize; a taste of the casino’s own technicality medicine. But that’s not the case at all. The case seems clear-cut to many observes, and the line between malfunction and negligence is quite broad, yet too transparent to hide behind.
To date, Aurea Privee is still waiting for her case to be heard by the Gaming Board. Hypothetically, she stands a chance, but in actuality, she has the same chance of getting her money as she does of hitting another million-dollar progressive jackpot. If irony paid off, Privee would be set for life.
