WSOP 1983: Tom McEvoy Becomes the First Champion to Win Through a Satellite

Start of the Series

The official history begins on May 3 with Event #1: $2,500 No-Limit A-5 Lowball Draw with Joker. When was the last time you saw a joker at the WSOP? Thirty-seven players registered for the first event, and the winner was David Angel from La Porte, Texas. His prize was $46,250. Forty years later, David Angel would still be playing at the WSOP, but the 1983 bracelet remains his only one.

And now we return to where we started this article. The gaming hall is filled with people, and the casino staff are nervous. Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em gathered 194 participants and was close to breaking the 14-year series record, and the game had only just begun. In the $1,500 tournament, the first prize was $145,500, and it was taken by David Baxter. At the final table, it’s worth noting Barbara Freer from Nevada. Although in 1982 a woman had already won an open WSOP tournament, the appearance of a woman at the final table was still a rarity. In 1983, Barbara took 9th place.

Event #3: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo attracted 104 players, and the first place was taken by Artie Cobb from New York. Interestingly, in heads-up he was opposed by another New Yorker, David Singer, who at that time was an amateur in poker and in 1996 began playing professionally. Later, both Artie Cobb and David Singer moved to Las Vegas to play poker.

The pair tournament Event #4: $800 Mixed Doubles Limit Seven Card Stud took place on May 6. The winners were the pair Donna Doman and Jim Doman; they received $10,000 each.

On May 7, an inexpensive tournament, Event #5: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Stud, was held, which gathered 124 players. The final table of the tournament made an impression. In third place was Dewey Tomko, who was still working as a kindergarten teacher in Pennsylvania at that time. A year earlier, Tomko took second place in the WSOP Main Event, but he had only one championship bracelet in his archive. The second place went to a man who did not know defeat in WSOP Main Event heads-up matches—Stu Ungar. One of the most talented players of his time, Ungar took second place and received $24,800. The winner of the tournament was Ken ‘Skyhawk’ Flaton. Also noteworthy is Hugh Todd from Cape Town, South Africa, who finished in fourth place.

In the special women’s tournament (Event #6: $500 Ladies Limit Seven Card Stud), which took place on May 8, there were 64 players, and the victory went to Carolyn Gardner from San Diego, California. This was Carolyn’s first appearance in the prize zone of WSOP tournaments, and the bracelet remained her only one; however, she would reach the money 11 more times and would play WSOP tournaments until 2014.

A New Record

Event #7: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em was held on May 9 and gathered 248 players. The winner of the tournament was Buster Jackson from North Carolina. A year earlier, Buster took 7th place in the WSOP Main Event and received $20,800, and for his victory in 1983, he received $124,000.

The Appearance of Johnny Chan

On May 10, when the casino staff were catching their breath, a small tournament, Event #8: $2,500 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em with 32 players, was held. A heads-up format tournament had not appeared before, but the list of participants in the prize zone may interest lovers of poker history. This was the first WSOP tournament in which Johnny Chan was noted—one of the most successful players in WSOP history. In 1983, Chan finished in fourth place, losing his semifinal. And do you know who else lost a semifinal heads-up? Dewey Tomko! Throughout WSOP history, he was fantastically unlucky in heads-up matches. The winner of the tournament was Berry ‘Numbers’ Johnston from Bethany, Oklahoma.

Berry Johnston had appeared only once in our historical articles. That was his appearance in the 1982 WSOP Main Event, where he took third place, receiving $104,000. And now, in 1983, he gets his first bracelet along with $40,000. But beware of spoilers—Johnston would become one of the best players of his decade, a force in the WSOP Main Event.

Johnny Chan would enter the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002, and Berry Johnston in 2004.

Middle of the Series

The series continued on May 11 with Event #9: $1,000 Limit Razz, which gathered 86 players. The first prize of $43,000, along with the championship bracelet, went to John Lukas from Nevada. At the final table of the tournament, Gary Berland (6th place) and Buster Jackson (4th place) were noted.

Event #10: $1,000 Limit Hold’em could have boasted a record field of 234 players if a few days earlier Event #7 had not set a record of 248. In the tenth tournament of the series, for the first time in WSOP history, a player not from the USA reached heads-up. It was Donnacha O’Dea from Dublin, Ireland. Ahead of him were several WSOP Main Event final tables, as well as an interesting record. Donnacha, along with his son Eoghan, became the first father and son to reach the final table of the WSOP Main Event. Donnacha did it first in 1983, and his son in 2011.

The winner of the tournament was Tom McEvoy. It was the first bracelet for the player from Michigan, but not the last.

David Sklansky’s Third Bracelet

Event #11: $1,000 Limit Omaha brought the famous author David Sklansky his third WSOP bracelet. David received his first two bracelets in 1982, when he conquered Event #11 in Limit Omaha and Event #12 in Limit Draw High. Second place in the tournament went to Perry Green from Anchorage, Alaska, known to us thanks to his second place in the 1981 WSOP Main Event, where he lost to Stu Ungar. In this tournament, Dennis Zervos from Greece was noted in fourth place.

Final Part

Event #12: $1,000 Limit A-5 Lowball Draw held on May 14 was won by Don Todd from Florida.

The tournament Event #13: $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud could please any reader of our historical articles. The final table and $220,000 in prize money were contested by Stu Ungar (two-time WSOP Main Event champion), Dewey Tomko (two-time WSOP Main Event runner-up), David Sklansky (one of the most popular authors in poker), as well as John Fanesha and Deacon Smith.

Emerging victorious from this tough competition was Stu Ungar, who received $110,000 in prize money and his fourth WSOP bracelet. Ungar was not only considered a genius but also had a phenomenal memory. Playing against him in Seven Card Stud was extremely difficult because he easily remembered the cards that were out of play, which meant that without a poker calculator, he could calculate the chances of winning in each hand.

Additional Tournaments

And we return again to where we started this article. According to some sources, additional tournaments opened the WSOP series, but officially they are listed as having taken place after the Main Event. There were two such tournaments.

Event #15: $1,000 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em is recorded on May 21, and among 10 participants, the winner was Ted Binion. Ted was the son of casino owner Benny Binion and worked in his father’s casino. Ted owned a collection of coins and silver bars that were kept in the casino and were known as the Binion Hoard. Ahead lay a difficult history of battling drugs, the mafia, and a tragic death, but in 1983 he celebrated victory in the first special tournament for casino employees. The coin collection, valued between $10 and $15 million, would be stolen after Ted’s death.

Event #16: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball—the very tournament we talked about earlier. A total of 21 players and five prize places, but consider the composition of the final table:

• 1st place – Dick Carson
• 2nd place – Jack Straus, WSOP Main Event 1982 champion
• 3rd place – Gabe Kaplan, star of the sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter“
• 4th place – Doyle Brunson, two-time WSOP Main Event winner
• 5th place – Bobby Baldwin, WSOP Main Event 1978 champion

And as you may have noticed, despite the toughest competition at the final table, the winner was Dick Carson from Mansfield, Massachusetts.

But even here, everything is ambiguous. Initially, there was no official information about this tournament, and it became known to the public thanks to the “Poker Player Newspaper” issue of May 15, 1983. Considering the publication date, we can conclude that the tournament actually took place before the Main Event, and the official WSOP information contains an error. Also, the winner’s name differs. The article mentions all the final table participants correctly, but the victory in the article is attributed to Richard Clayton.

WSOP 1983 Results

* — There may be a mistake in the date, the tournaments could have taken place earlier. The table shows the official information.

** — Sources indicate different names of the winner. The table shows the official information.

Check WSOP 1983 video:

Final Table

For the first time in the series’ history, a foreigner was noted at the final table—Donnacha O’Dea, for whom this final table was the first but not the last.

After the formation of the final table, in just 20 minutes of play, the tournament was left by George Huber (9th place), R.R. Pennington (8th place), Austin Squatty (7th place), Donnacha O’Dea (6th place), Robbie Geers (5th place), and Carl McKelvey (4th place).

Three players remained at the table: Doyle Brunson, WSOP Main Event 1976 and 1977 champion; and two players who had qualified through satellites—Rod Peate and Tom McEvoy.

Undoubtedly, the experienced Brunson was the favorite of this final table, but he unsuccessfully went all-in with pocket J 9 , having a nine on the flop that gave him top pair along with a flush draw. At the same time, Rod Peate had a set with pocket nines, which held up and left Brunson out of the heads-up.

Comment by Tom McEvoy given after the final:

“Rod is one hell of a tough player and I had to do it my way, a slow, long grind. I’m glad that it was me or Rod, not Doyle Brunson or any of the other Texans. I’ve nothing against Texans, but for years they’ve thought they’re the best in the world. Well, I’m from Michigan, Rod’s from Washington—and the Texans have got some competition.”

Heads-Up

In the decisive heads-up, two players who had qualified through satellites organized by Eric Drache faced off. One of them was to go down in history as the first champion to win through a satellite. Rod Peate began the heads-up as the chip leader, having a third more chips than Tom McEvoy.

With an advantage in chips, Peate could be aggressive, and it paid off at the start of the game. At his peak, his stack was four times the size of McEvoy’s.

Early in the game, Peate went all-in, having a straight flush draw and top pair, and McEvoy could have called with two lower pairs but folded, not wanting to risk it.

Tom was not going to give up. He tightened his starting hand range and aggressively went all-in when he got a good hand. Because of this, the heads-up dragged on for seven and a half hours.

McEvoy regained the lead hand by hand until, by 2 a.m., he found himself holding pocket queens Q Q . Tom opened the hand with a bet of 20,000 chips, to which Peate responded with a raise, holding K J . McEvoy went all-in and received a call.

Flop: 6 6 3 . We open the Poker Odds Calculator and calculate the chances of winning—83% in favor of Tom McEvoy.

Turn: J . Now it’s an 88% chance of McEvoy winning.

River: 3 . It’s all over. Tom McEvoy exclaims, “I did it! I did it!” and becomes the new WSOP champion!

The Winner – Thomas K. McEvoy

Tom McEvoy was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was an accountant before he lost his job in 1978 and decided to take up poker. He began playing poker at the age of five and periodically got into trouble because of his passion for the game during his school years. After losing his job, Tom went to Las Vegas and won $1,000 playing Seven Card Stud at Caesars Palace.

His first success at the WSOP came in 1982 when he was 38 years old. He took sixth place in a $1,000 Razz tournament. The following year, 1983, he won his first bracelet in a $1,000 Limit Hold’em tournament and then became the WSOP champion.

Becoming a champion, Tom McEvoy gained the right to introduce something new to the world of poker. He chose to campaign against smoking. He actively opposed smoking, and at that time, casino halls were filled with smoke. McEvoy made a proposal to casino owner Becky Binion Behnen in 2002 and taught her son Benny Behnen to play poker for free in exchange for creating a non-smoking WSOP tournament.

During his career, Tom played the WSOP Main Event 36 times.

He co-authored 14 books and represented the PokerStars Team Pro.

In 2009, the WSOP held a closed tournament for past champions, where the prize was a 1970 Corvette and the Binion Cup, which was presented to the winner by Jack Binion. The winner of this tournament was Tom McEvoy, defeating Robert Varkonyi in the decisive heads-up.

During his poker career, he won $3,100,472. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2013.

Tom has three children and currently lives in Las Vegas.

In 2017, the bracelet of the 1983 WSOP Main Event World Champion was put up for auction on eBay with a starting price of $13,500. The seller was not Tom himself, but “ronniescollegefund”. The lot was sold for $15,000.

Contents of the lot:

• Official 1983 WSOP Main Event Winning Champions Bracelet

• 12 diamonds adorned in gold rope classic champions bracelet design
• 3 of Tom’s books, autographed and personalized upon request (How To Win At Poker Tournaments, The Championship Table At The World Series Of Poker, and Championship Satellite Strategy)
• PokerStars Team Pro patches (2)
• World Series of Poker collectible baseball on brass stand
• PokerStars WSOP Team 2006 commemorative baseball in clear box
• 1-hour private poker lesson in a designated Las Vegas poker room after completion of purchase

WSOP 1983 Main Event Results