If one were to look hard enough, the 1989 World Series of Poker was a harbinger of poker’s future. Johnny Chan, who’d be immortalized in film nine years later, was coming off two consecutive World Championships. Mike Sexton, who would become maybe our greatest ambassador, would win his lone bracelet, just a week before Lyle Berman, majority owner of the WPT would win the first of his three.
In addition to the three of them, this was the year a cocky twenty-four year old from Madison, Wisconsin would come along and shock the world. Phil Hellmuth, it was said, arrived at Binions on a skateboard. He left with the first of what would blossom into many WSOP bracelets, taking the biggest tournament of them all against what should have been the most intimidating opponent in the game’s annals.
The opponent was Chan, coming off what still likely stands as the most remarkable achievement in tournament poker history. A year earlier, he’d become the fourth player to win back-to-back events, and the 151 players he beat in the smaller of the two events was more than twice the number Stu Ungar topped when he became the previous man to accomplish the task.
While Ungar would go out early in 1982, Chan wasn’t done. He reached his third consecutive final table, becoming the last player to do so (the previous one was Jesse Alto in 1984-86) and then went on to his third consecutive final. No one before or since has ever matched that mark. Unfortunately for the Orient Express, that’s where the streak would end.
The shock wasn’t so much that Chan lost as the fact it was to a brash, cocky, talkative, headphone-wearing, acne-faced kid. Hellmuth was a revelation, a shock to the system, but he proved unstoppable. After discovering poker while in university, he dedicated himself to the game. After initial setbacks, he found himself dominating locally. He even went so far as to tell his parents he was going to be the best player in the world. He’s told the rest of us since then.
The beginning of the Hellmuth era came when he outplayed the best poker player in the world on the final hand of the 1989 Championship. Phil started the hand with around 60% of the chips and a raise to $35K on the strength of pocket nines. Chan’s As-7s warranted a re-raise; he tripled the pot with his $165K bet. He was trying to cripple Phil then and there with the overbet, but Hellmuth wasn’t falling for the bait. He quickly re-raised all-in then leaned back in his chair, arms folded in waiting
Chan was left with $450K. He’d almost priced himself in with his attempt, but now looked resigned to getting it all-in despite knowing he was behind. He called with his last $450K only to see his error. The flop came Kc-Th-Kd; Chan needed an ace, two sevens or a ten.
The turn was the queen of spades, putting the nervous Hellmuth on the edge of ecstasy. When the river brought another brick –6s—he let out a yell to go along with an ear-to-ear grin. It’s an image we’re still seeing almost twenty years later.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
