When I was a kid, I was once told by an overweight bald man who was sitting next to me on a flight from San Antonio to St. Louis that there are three fail-safe rules to living a life without regret. 1) Don’t count your chips at the table; 2) Don’t call with only a pair showing; and 3) Never, ever play against a guy whose first name is the same as a city. Obviously, I was confused, until I realized that what the man was referring to was poker. I felt like I was in the middle of a Kenny Roger’s song, only the beverage of choice was Ginger Ale, not whiskey, and we were on a TWA flight, not a “train bound for nowhere.” Questioning him further, I asked him how those rules would apply to my life. After a pause, he turned back towards me, did a half-smile and sighed, simply replying “life is just a game of poker.” Indeed, for him, life probably was just a game of poker, much like it is for a lot of other guys in the world.
In about a month, the world’s greatest poker players will once again come together at Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. at the “World Series of Poker” to play for a pot expected to be over $2 million. For one month the world’s heaviest players will converge for what just might be one of the only true world championships.
Their dream is only part of what Benny Binion’s was: To bring the world’s greatest poker players together for “the planet’s best poker tournament.” Benny was a legend on the Vegas strip because, among other things, he never encountered a bet too large to cover and he pushed the limit with high stakes gambling. He loved the fact that in this tournament, a guy didn’t have to have a big reputation or an incredible team behind him to play. He only needed to be 21 with a little bit of luck.
In Vegas there are only two historic statues in the entire city. There’s Rafael Rivera who was said to be the first white man to find the Las Vegas valley, and there’s Benny Binion, the man who is said to be the first to have given gamblers a real shot at winning big. The stakes were always highest at Binions.
Binion’s tournament made famous names like Amarillo Slim (refer to rule number three), Nick “the Greek” Dandalos and Johnny Moss. In fact, it was Dandalos and Moss who first came to Binion and asked to play each other in a no-limit, winner-take all poker match against each other, and that was over 50 years ago. The tournament between the two men lasted five months, with breaks only for sleep and eating. The marathon eventually ended with Moss winning. But the most intriguing part was that a crowd had gathered outside the casino everyday to watch the game in a fervor pitch that is usually reserved for true sporting events. But that match put the thought into Binion’s head and 20 years later, in 1970, he put together the first World Series and invited the best players from all over the country, and again Moss came out on top, as he did in 1971. But in 1972 everything changed. A kid who went by Amarillo walked into the Horseshoe and walked out a the poker champion of the world.
That year the tournament had seven players. By last year, the number had risen to over 7,500, who first played in a variety of satellites and the winners of those tournaments were invited to the big show down in Vegas. The winner took home $2 million.
Benny Binion died on Christmas Day in 1989, but his dream will live on for a long time; surpassing even his own expectations. Binion’s Horseshoe has become the point d’appui for poker players from around the world. They play for money and pride, and for a chance to be known as the greatest. The stakes are high, and so is the reward. And rest assured, you will never catch one of these players counting their chips at the table.
