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When Puggy Pearson won the World Series of Poker in 1973, it was the first time the title left Texas. When Hal Fowler won in 1979, the high stakes professionals lost their grip for the first time. In 1990, another barrier was broken when the title left the United States for the first time.
It was a year that saw Amarillo Slim win what, to date, was his final bracelet, but new names dominated the Main Event. Mansour Matloubi, an Iranian-descent Welshman living in England, took home the World Championship. In order to get there, he had to get through one of the most popular players in tournament, poker, Hans “Tuna” Lund. It was a defeat from which Lund would never fully recover.
Surviving a final table that included former champions Stu Ungar and Berry Johnston as well as three-time final table-finisher Al Krux, the two players squared off in one of the most memorable finals in poker annals. The most famous hand came when Matloubi got all-in with pocket tens against Lund’s A-9 with a nine-high board. The turn came an ace, leaving big Tuna two outs from the championship: Matloubi hit the ten on the river to take a massive lead.
The World Series video from that year shows Matloubi winning with pocket sixes holding up against pocket fours to take the tournament on the next hand. What few seem to remember is that there was four hours of heads-up play in between. The timely ten had reduced Lund to just T300,000 of the T1,940,000 in play, but Tuna fought his way back, playing small ball to draw even. Still, he eventually hit setbacks, leaving him with just that initial T300,000.
Tuna moved it all in with those fours, and Matloubi called with the sixes. The flop came Qc-8c-2h, helping neither, and the turn and river were Kd and 2c. For Lund, it was heartbreaking. The World Series had been his life goal and he’d gotten close enough to taste it. For Matloubi, it was the realization of those same goals; for the poker world, it was more.
Matloubi’s win signaled the international flavor the World Series of Poker and the game itself were taking. Since, Noel Furlong in 1999, Carlos Mortensen in 2001 and Joe Hachem in 2005 have all taken the title outside US borders. For more nationalistic Americans, that may be frustrating, but even they have to admit its good for the game.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
