While the 1991 World Series of Poker hadn’t been the most exciting in the annals, at least it wasn’t a step back. The following year would be the only time in the event’s history (thus far) that the number of registrants would shrink, with attendance shrinking from 215 the year before to 201. Not wanting to lose the luster of the million dollar first prize, there was a huge disparity between first and second place; the runner-up would receive just $353,500.
The preliminary events that year would see two first-time bracelet winners of note, Men “The Master” Nguyen and Hoyt Corkins (to date, this is Hoyt’s only bracelet victory) join some familiar faces. Phil Hellmuth and Erik Seidel both won for the second year in a row, Lyle Berman and Mickey Appelman took their second bracelet wins and Tom McEvoy earned his fourth (and thus far final) bracelet.
The Main Event champion in 1993 was Iranian-born Hamid Dastmalchi. A professional player living in San Diego, Dastmalchi earned every dollar. He had the big stack with seven players left, then maintained it by folding pocket kings pre-flop to eventual fourth place-finisher Mike Alsaadi. Alsaadi confirmed the brilliance of the play by showing the crowd his pocket aces.
Dastmalchi watched as amateur Tom Jacobs took out fan favorite Hans “Tuna” Lund, the second time Lund had made the final three in three series. Holding the big stack and playing the best poker of his life, Dastmalchi was the prohibitive favorite to take the title. It didn’t take long for that prognostication to become reality.
Jacobs raised to T20,000 with Jd-7s and Dastmalchi made the call. The flop came Jh-7d-5d, giving Jacob two pair and hopes of taking down a big pot. He bet out small; just T30,000. Dastmalchi pondered the play then made the call.
The turn came 6h and Hamid checked. Jacobs was ready to lower the boom now and moved all-in for T531,000, not realizing that his small bet on the flop had given Dastmalchi a cheap shot at a gutshot straight. Dastmalchi correctly guessed the needed six would more than fulfill the needed payoff to make the call. His 8h-4c gave him the straight and the championship.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
