WSOP 1975 – The Biggest Prize of Its Time

The Overview of WSOP 1975 Tournaments

The first tournament of the WSOP 1975 series took place on May 6th. It was a Limit Seven Card Stud with a $1,000 buy-in. 44 players participated in the tournament, and the entire prize went to one winner. That winner was the reigning WSOP champion, the most titled player of the series at that time, and a living poker legend — Johnny Moss.

The reigning champion showed excellent form. It’s easy to imagine the disappointment of those players who came to Vegas to compete in the Main Event. Since all WSOP tournament wins were equated to bracelets, this was Johnny Moss’s fifth bracelet. His record would last for 18 years.

The next day, on May 7, players gathered to participate in the Limit Razz tournament with a $1,000 buy-in. 17 players registered for this tournament, and the $17,000 prize was taken by Sam Angel. It was his second bracelet; the first he won in a similar tournament in 1973. Sam Angel would appear at WSOP final tables a few more times, but this bracelet was his last.

Speaking of him, it’s worth noting his previous story, as he got into poker thanks to being the driver for one of the biggest players in poker history — Nick “The Greek” Dandalos. To build a bankroll for poker, Sam sold jewelry. He became a specialist in Razz, succeeded in cash games, and won 2 WSOP bracelets.

The third tournament took place on May 8. It was a No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball tournament with a $5,000 buy-in, in which only 7 players registered. The prize was $35,000, and the entire amount went to Billy Baxter. Although Billy will appear many more times in the WSOP history, we will share a few facts about his biography.

Baxter entered the gambling industry at the age of 14. He started playing pool, where he earned the money to start playing poker in two years. At 16, he began playing poker, and by 18, he became a regular in local taverns. He became the youngest WSOP tournament winner by 1975, at the age of 34. At the WSOP, he will win 7 bracelets, 6 of which will be in Lowball. It is also worth noting that Billy Baxter won a court case against the IRS (Baxter v. United States), resulting in American players paying less tax.

Traditionally, before the start of the Main Event, there was a low-cost No-Limit Hold’em tournament with a $1,000 buy-in. 32 players registered for the tournament, and the prize was $32,000. The winner was retired military man Jay Heimowitz, who started playing poker in the army. He finished his service after winning over $10,000 in a private game against his fellow soldiers. After that, he decided to continue playing professionally. Did he succeed?

In the following years, Jay will win 6 WSOP bracelets, over $1,500,000 in prize money, and enter WSOP history as one of three players to win bracelets in four decades. This list includes only Jay Heimowitz, Billy Baxter (who won the previous tournament), and Phil Hellmuth. By the way, Phil is the only player to have won bracelets in five decades — will anyone be able to break his record?

WSOP 1975 Main Event

And now we come to the Main Event of the series. It was a 6-day tournament with a $10,000 buy-in for No-Limit Hold’em.

It should be noted that the WSOP series has been holding the Main Event with a $10,000 buy-in for 50 years, but if we look at the consumer price index data, we will see that $10,000 in 1975 is approximately equivalent to $55,600 in 2024.

21 players registered for the main event, but essentially it was a high-stakes tournament that was impossible to enter through a satellite due to the lack of such. The variance is increased by the prize distribution — the winner takes all. Of the 21 players, there were 19 professionals and 2 amateurs.

In this tournament, for the first time in WSOP history, a rule limiting the duration of play to no more than 8 hours per day was applied.

The final table included 6 players. The first to be eliminated was Jesse Alto. He is known for playing at 7 WSOP final tables and not winning a single bracelet, but his main success will come literally in the next 1976 year. We do not know the player who finished in fifth place, and the fourth place went to Aubrey Day, who was already mentioned in our WSOP 1973 article for his victory in the 2-7 Lowball tournament.

The tournament ended in third place for Crandell Addington — a regular at WSOP main event final tables, one of the founders of the series, and a successful businessman.

The decisive heads-up match was between Bob Hooks and Bryan ‘Sailor’ Roberts, who was the chip leader in this duel.

In the final hand, the players went all-in on the flop 7 6 2 , where Bob Hooks had a flush draw with J 9 , and Bryan Roberts had a pair of pocket jacks J J . According to our Poker Odds Calculator, Sailor Roberts had a 61.82% chance of winning on the flop. The turn 9 increased his chances to 75%. The river 10 made him the new WSOP champion!

Hooks congratulated his opponent on the victory and said, “A nicer guy couldn’t have won.”

Bryan ‘Sailor’ Roberts took home $210,000 in prize money — the largest prize in the six-year history of the WSOP series.

The Winner – Bryan ‘Sailor’ Roberts

Bryan was a professional player who traveled in search of a game with Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim. Besides poker, he played bridge. Roberts was a participant in the very first WSOP game in 1970, where players voted Johnny Moss as the champion.

He got the nickname ‘Sailor’ because of his service in the United States Navy during the Korean War.

Before winning the Main Event in 1975, Roberts had already won a bracelet in 1974, when he took down the $5,000 2-7 Draw tournament for $35,850.

Unfortunately, Bryan’s successful run at the WSOP ended there. Throughout the subsequent history, he managed to cash in only once more, in the 1982 tournament. In 1995, Bryan died of cirrhosis of the liver due to hepatitis. He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2012.