A Review of televised pre-Moneymaker Main Events Part 3: 1981
The 12th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event was one to be remembered. The playing field has expanded to 75, with the winner reciving $375,000. For the first time in the tournament’s history, the entire final table would be paid.
Unfortunately, the 1980 Main Event was not televised. But it lives on in 1981 through the defending champion and legend of the game, Stu Ungar. He stood to be the third repeat winner of the event, following Johnny Moss and Doyle Brunson. The episode starts at the final table, and after a few players get knocked out, Bobby Baldwin, who ironically lost with a set of nines to a set of queens held by Perry Green, where when Baldwin held the queens in 1978, he was the winner of the entire championship because of them. In 1981, the set over set crippled him, and he was eliminated soon after in 7th place. Stu Ungar, the defending champion, got a much-needed double-up with pocket fives, eliminated Jay Heimowitz with quads, and sent Bill Smith home with the nut flush.
Most of the run time is spent among the final four players, Ken Smith, Perry Green, Gene Fisher, and Stu Ungar. Green got Ungar to fold early on by going all in in a massive pot and took the chip lead. Then Gene Fisher doubled up at the expense of Ken Smith, who was eliminated in 4th place by another set of quads, but not before Ungar and Green chop a substantial $550,000 pot, both with aces full of threes. Ungar then would get it in good with Pocket Kings, double up, and take back the chip lead. However, in another all-in pot against Fisher, Perry Green caught a lucky spade to eliminate Fisher, leaving him heads up against Stu Ungar.
Both start heads up around even in chips, Green with 400,000 and Ungar with 350,000. However, Ungar is favored because he has much more experience in the world of high-stakes poker. They quickly get into a $554,000 pot where both have flush draws on a board of Jd9c8c. Green had Tc2c for an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw, but Ungar had him dominated with AcJc for a top pair and a superior flush draw. They went all-in after the flop, the board ran out clean, and The Kid took the pot. While Green was able to get back some chips, he never passed Ungar, and on the last hand of the tournament, played T9o, and while he flopped an open-ender and jammed after, it didn’t get there, and he lost to Stu Ungar, who kept his reign as defending champion.
Overall, I liked this Main Event, it wasn’t too fast, nor too slow. Even though I knew Ungar won, it was still exciting to see how he did it. It won’t be the last we see of The Kid though, as he did come back for future Main Events.
