World Series of Poker

In January 1949, Benny Binion owner of Binion’s Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas arranged for Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek to play a heads-up poker tournament, which ended up being five months long. During that time 42-year-old Moss had to take breaks to sleep occasionally, during which the Greek, then 57, went over to the craps table and played. After the final hand, and losing millions of dollars, Nick The Greek uttered one of the most famous poker quotes of all time, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." After years of arranging heads-up matches between high-stakes players, a seed of an idea grew. In 1970 Binion invited six poker high rollers he knew to play in a tournament. They would compete for cash at the table, after which they would vote on a winner. Johnny Moss, then 63, was voted champion by his peers and received a small trophy. The next year, a freeze-out format with a $10,000 buy-in was introduced, and the World Series of Poker was born. Binion's creation of the World Series helped the game of poker spread and become popular worldwide. He actually underestimated how popular it would become: in 1973, he dared to speculate that someday the tournament might have 50 or more entrants; the 2006 main event alone had 8,773 entrants. He died of heart failure at the age of 85 on December 25, 1989 in Las Vegas. His friend and poker great "Amarillo Slim" Preston suggested as an epitaph, "He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen." He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1990.