Texas Holdem Moves to Las Vegas

As in poker, it is impossible to pinpoint when the first hand of Texas Holdem was played or its exact origin. One plausible explanation offered by Jim McManus is that a dozen or so ranch hands wanted to play poker, but only had one deck. They must have deduced that if they shared some community board cards, they could deal in 3 times the number of players than a normal 7 card stud game. In May 2007, the Texas state legislature officially recognized Robstown, Texas as the birthplace of Texas Holdem, though they did not place a date on the event. It is speculated that the game was first played in the early 1900's and first seen in Dallas around 1925 under the name Hold Me Darlin. Johnny Moss claims to have played holdem at a couple of different poker clubs in the 1930's. The games name evolved from Hold Me Darlin to Texas Hold Me, and eventually Texas Holdem. Almost forgot to include the biggest irony...it is illegal to play Texas Holdem in Texas.

Throughout the late 50' and early 60's road gamblers such as"Pinky" Rhoden, "Duck" Mallard, Jesse Alto, Jack Strauss, Doyle Brunson, Sailor Roberts, and "Amarillo Slim" Preston spread the game all throughout Texas. Benny Binion was often a host for high stakes poker games. The players respected him because he ran a clean game, didn't take a large cut, and kept the players safe from possible hijackers. Benny was great to have as a friend, but was not a man you wanted to cross. Amarillo Slim described him as “either the baddest nice guy or the nicest bad guy you could ever meet. “ Binion had killed a couple of his rivals. With a bounty on his head and the law on his tail, and friends and rivals getting murdered all around him, Benny left Texas for Las Vegas in 1946. Herbert Noble, who had dozens of attempts on his life saw his wife blown up by a car bomb. He believed Binion was behind it and rigged a small plane with bombs to fly over to Las Vegas and drop them on Binion's house. He was caught by police as he was loading the bombs and was later killed by a bomb under his mailbox.

In 1951, Benny opened his own casino on Freemont Street, Binion's Horseshoe. Later that year, a man by the name of Nick "the Greek" Dandalos was looking to play what he called "the biggest game this world has to offer". The problem was that all of the casinos in Vegas had limits on betting. He was told Benny Binion was the man to see. Dandalos told Binion he would take on any man in a heads-up, no-limit, winner-take-all poker match. Binion went to his good friend Johnny Moss with the challenge and moss accepted. The two men could not have been any more different. Dandalos was well educated from a wealthy family, while Moss didn't make it past the second grade, came from a very poor family, but had grown up playing poker nearly his entire life. Binion had a table set up in the front of his casino for all to see. Benny took note on how many people would come into the casino to watch the two men play and end up wagering alot of money. Dandalos and Moss played each other for days at a time without sleep for nearly five months. In the end, "the Greek" shook Johnny's hand and uttered the famous words, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." Moss had won an estimated 2-3 million dollars.

In 1963, Felton "Corky" McCorkindale introduced Texas Holdem to Las Vegas in the California Club at the Golden Nugget casino. Many Texans were flocking to Vegas because poker was legal there. The likes of Doyle Brunson, Cradell Addington, Jack Strauss, Johnny Moss, Sailor Roberts and "Amarillo Slim" Preston held their own low key game there for a few years. In 1969, Benny Binion and his sons were invited to the Second Annual Texas Gambler's Reunion by Tom Moore and Vic Vickrey at their Holiday Hotel in Reno, Nevada. Among the people that showed up were Moss, Brunson, Addington, Roberts, Strauss, Puggy Pearson, Jimmy Casella, Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, and Rudolph Wanderone, also known as "Minnesota Fats". The idea was to drum up some business for the new hotel. However, Moore and Vickrey became disappointed when the gamblers did not drop as much money as they had hoped during the event. Benny recalled the success he had with the spectators spending money when Moss and Dandalos squared off. Benny bought the rights to the event and the next year the World Series was born. Poker players would agree that the world champion should be determined by No-Limit Texas Holdem, which Doyle Brunson calls "the Cadillac of poker" and the World Series of Poker was its perfect vehicle.