1981 SBOP: Doubling Up

1981 SBOP: Doubling Up

By 1980, poker’s landscape was starting to change. Texas had been home to the game’s elite, the center of the road gambler’s world in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, then the home of poker’s world champion in 1970-’72, 1974-’77. Additionally, poker was a game of experience; no player below the age of forty won the World championship for 1978.

Oklahoman Bobby Baldwin changed all that with his 1978 victory. Baldwin’s victory was followed by 34-year old, Indiana-born George Huber’s victory at the 1979 Super Bowl of Poker. Then, amateur Hal Fowler of Vermont won the Series in 1979, thirty-five year old New Yorker Gabe Kaplan won the Super Bowl in 1980 and 27-year old Stu Ungar shocked the world with his World Series victory that same year.

That set the stage for the 1981 edition of Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker. Held in Reno’s Sierra Hotel/Casino for the second straight year, the Super Bowl attracted just 26 entrants as compared to the World Series’ tally of 73 nine moths earlier. Despite the draw Slim should have provided, this was an affair limited almost exclusively to pros and hard-core amateurs.

Despite blind structures similar to the World Series and the low number of entrants, the tournament started with a bang. With the players spread over three tables, it only took four hands for someone to be eliminated. That unlucky man was Gene Fisher, who’d go on to finish third at the World Series three months later.

Fisher tangled with Charles Dunwoody. At a table including Chip Reese and defending champion Kaplan, the flop came 7s-10h-Js. Dunwoody bet out on the strength of his pocket tens and Fisher raised, prompting Dunwoody to move all-in. Fisher called and revealed 9c-8c, good for a straight and the lead. It didn’t last.

The turn was Jd, pairing the board and giving Dunwoody the full house. 8h on the river made it official. Fisher was out and Dunwoody had almost twice as many chips as everyone else in the tournament. He’d maintain the lead through the first day of play.

Gary Wise

gary@wisehandpoker.com

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