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The world championship crown of the World Series of Poker had wondered away from home. In a pattern befitting the name of the variant they played, with the exception of Puggy Pearson in 1973, Texans had won the event every year from its inception in 1970 until 1977. It was Bobby Baldwin’s win in ’78 that shifted the tide, with Hal Fowler, Stu Ungar twice, Tom McEvoy and Jack Keller creating a new, non Texan tradition in the years that followed.
In 1985,Amarillo Slim won his first bracelet in over a decade and Johnny Moss made his last Main Event final table. Following in their footsteps, Bill Smith and T.J. Cloutier two of the last Texan road gamblers, faced off in the final. Good friends and fierce rivals, Smith and Cloutier had played in the same home game in Dallas for years. Smith, a notorious drunk, had done this before with a fifth place finish in 1981. For Cloutier, it was just his second Main Event, and the first of fifty (to date) World Series cashes in a hall of fame career.
Surviving a final table that included 79-year old Johnny Moss, and future world champions Hamid Dastmalchi (5th) and Berry Johnston (3rd), the two began the final with Cloutier holding a T952,000-T448,000 lead, but Smith got his chips in with pocket kings against T.J.’s nines. They held up, giving Smith a 6-1 chip lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
T.J. started the long trek back, moving his stack north of T300,000 when Smith opened with a raise to T40,000. T.J. looked down to find an ace and moved all-in without looking at his other card. Smith called with pocket threes, and when the cards were turned over, T.J. found hell in the form of 3c as his other card. The board didn’t give the former football player the ace he needed, and the title belonged to Smith.
With 140 players, Smith’s take was $660,000, most of which when out to repay loans or got gambled away shortly thereafter. He’d return to the final table the next year, but squander that money also. In remembering him, many players felt that were it not for the booze, Smith might have gone down as one of the true greats.
While Cloutier was at a beginning, Moss was nearing the end. With his seventh place finish, he received a standing ovation as he left the room, but it didn’t much matter to the three-time champion. Moss would continue to participate, but this was his last real shot. He’d win one more bracelet in a $1,500 Ace-to-five draw event in 1988.It was a year after his final main event cash a 26th place finish in 1987 for which he was award $10,000.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com.
