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WSOP 1992: Hamid Dastmalchi Wins $1 Million

WSOP 1992: Hamid Dastmalchi Wins $1 Million

A year has passed since the then-unknown newcomer Brad Daugherty won the record prize in the entire history of tournament poker—$1,000,000. It seemed that the 1992 series promised a continuation of the growing trend, but something went wrong. For the first time in history, the Main Event of the series attracted fewer players, and the records of previous years were not broken. In this article, we attempt to delve into the history of WSOP 1992.

The Overview of WSOP 1992 Tournaments

Riding the wave of success from 1991, the organizers planned to increase the number of tournaments from 18 to 20 and also raised the buy-ins for some events. Naturally, this could have deterred some players, but the mass tournaments remained unchanged.

Due to the increase in the number of events, the series was extended to 24 days, making it the longest at that time.

There are many questions in the history of this series. Later in our article, you will see a comparison of data from different sources. However, we must immediately point out that questions about the data concern the dates of the tournaments and even their order. Hereafter, we use the official WSOP statistics.

A likely reason for the decrease in the number of participants was the aftermath of the economic recession of 1990-1991. Simultaneously, the organizers increased the buy-ins for certain tournaments in the series and made the series record-long. As a result, WSOP 1992 could not boast new records, and in the list of prize winners, we see fewer foreigners and newcomers.

This was a series for regulars who participated in WSOP tournaments year after year.

Start of the Series

The game began on Wednesday, April 22. Event #1: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha attracted 135 players, and Dewey Tomko from Florida played at the final table. By this time, Dewey had won 3 of his 4 bracelets, which is an excellent result by 1992. Moreover, considering that Dewey had made the WSOP Top 9 tournaments 16 times, this made him one of the most successful players at that time.

The tournament was won by Billy Thomas, who took the only bracelet of his career and $81,000 in prize money.

First Success of Todd Brunson and Last Success of Johnny Moss

The next day, Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em attracted a significant field of 254 players. The first place was taken by Lance Straughn, who received $152,400 for his victory.

In this tournament, Dewey Tomko again played at the final table, this time finishing in fifth place. In fourth place was American Freddy Deeb of Lebanese descent. His success at the WSOP 2007 series.

This same tournament marked the debut of Todd Brunson in the WSOP prize history. He finished in 17th place, but in the WSOP series prizes, he would become one of the regulars.

Former series champions Phil Hellmuth (9th place) and the reigning champion Brad Daugherty (13th place) also finished in the prize money.

But the main point to mention about this tournament, and which is hard to write about, is Johnny Moss’s 12th place finish. This tournament became Johnny’s last appearance in the WSOP prize list. He ended with 9 bracelets and never achieved success at WSOP again. However, don’t get depressed—Johnny played for another 3 years and even managed to play heads-up in local tournaments in Las Vegas four times, but he was no longer a tournament winner. At that time, Johnny Moss was 85 years old and was still better than most players, including young professionals.

Dewey Tomko
Dewey Tomko
Amarillo Slim, Johnny Moss and Benny Binion
Amarillo Slim, Johnny Moss and Benny Binion

Continuation of the Series

Event #3: $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo attracted 175 players and brought the first (and only) bracelet to Richard Steiner from Ohio. Interestingly, Marsha Waggoner from California took second place in this tournament. In 2008, she was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and in 2010, into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.

Event #4: $2,500 Limit Hold’em turned out to be an excellent tournament, attracting 168 players. Erik Seidel and Phil Hellmuth vied for the top prize of $168,000. By this time, Phil already had a championship bracelet, and Seidel could boast two second-place finishes. In this clash of future WSOP legends, Erik Seidel won—this tournament earned him his first of ten bracelets.

At the final table was Hamid Dastmalchi, playing under the Iranian flag. By this time, Hamid had a WSOP bracelet from the 1986 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

Mid-Series

In the following days, two consecutive Seven-Card Stud tournaments took place. First, Event #5: $2,500 Limit Seven Card Stud with 106 players was won by Ray Rumler, who defeated Esther Rossi. Then, Event #6: $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud brought the first bracelet to “The Master” Men Nguyen, who managed to defeat former champion Tom McEvoy in the decisive heads-up.

The next day, Tom McEvoy won Event #7: $1,500 Limit Omaha with 132 players. In the decisive heads-up, he was defeated by another former champion and one of the best players of the past decade, Berry Johnston from Oklahoma.

On April 29, Phil Hellmuth won Event #8: $5,000 Limit Hold’em with 88 participants, adding his second WSOP bracelet and $188,000 in prize money to his collection. Later, Phil mentioned that he kept all his bracelets, meaning the 1992 gold bracelet is now somewhere in his personal museum of achievements.

Event #9: $1,500 Limit Razz was won by Lamar Hampton, who defeated Men Nguyen. Prize money went to Barbara Gold (5th place), Mickey Appleman (7th place), Billy Baxter (14th place), and Milton Freedman (15th place). We do not know whether the prize winner of this tournament is the namesake of the great economist or if the founder of the Chicago School himself participated in the series, but if you have any information on this, please share it with us in the comments.

Men 'The Master' Nguyen
Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen
Tom McEvoy
Tom McEvoy

Special Women’s Tournament

On Friday, May 1, 1992, the traditional women’s tournament took place—Event #10 $1,000 Ladies Limit Seven Card Stud. This year, the organizers doubled the buy-in from $500 to $1,000. In all previous cases, increasing the buy-in led to a decrease in the number of players in this tournament.

And in the statistics of this tournament for 1992, we see a problem. According to the official statistics, the tournament attracted 155 participants, forming a prize pool of $155,000.

The tournament was won by Shari Flanzer, who received $98,000 in prize money. This is the largest prize for this tournament in its history. Shari was just short of reaching the $100,000 prize mark at WSOP, which, by that time, had been surpassed by only Mim Penney.

However, not everything is so straightforward. Other sources indicate a prize of $38,000. Doing simple calculations, we conclude that for such a prize, the tournament should have had 95 players, and the total prize pool should have been $95,000.

We then use the official information provided by the WSOP series but point out possible errors in the data of this tournament.

Final Part

Event #11: $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em took place on Saturday, May 2, and unexpectedly attracted few participants—only 134. The winner was Ken Duggan from California, and Hans ‘Tuna’ Lund, whom you might remember from the heads-up of the 1990 Main Event, took third place. We note this fact, highlighting that Hans was in good form and made it to the TOP3 in the Pot-Limit format.

Phil Hellmuth also finished in the prize money, conducting an excellent series. In this tournament, Phil placed 8th. Throughout the 1992 series, Phil would finish in the TOP10 five times, which can be considered a significant success. However, in 1993, Phil would demonstrate what “significant success” truly means.

Event #12: $1,500 Limit A-5 Draw Lowball on Sunday attracted 150 players, fewer than the similar tournament the previous year, which had 178 players. The winner was Dal Derovin, his only prize in the entire history of WSOP.

Now, let’s highlight the American player of Vietnamese descent—An Tran. In the 1992 series, he made the prize money seven times, which is an excellent result even now, considering that in 1992 there were only 20 tournaments—a remarkable achievement. Of these seven prizes, he reached the final table six times and only placed 14th once. In Event #12, he finished fourth. An Tran continues to play and made the prize money in the WSOP 2024 Colossus tournament, which occurred 32 years after the events described here.

In the next tournament, Event #13: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, we can once again see An Tran in 6th place. Alongside him were former champion Berry Johnston (8th place), Surindar Sunar from the United Kingdom in 5th place, Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton in 4th place, and the winner Hoyt Corkins.

After this victory, Hoyt Corkins returned to his native Alabama and took up cattle breeding. He returned to poker only 11 years later and won the 2003 WPT World Poker Finals.

Event #14: $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud was won by Paul Clark from Louisiana.

Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em attracted 193 players, and the main prize of $115,800 was taken by Louis Bonnecaze. In third place was Poker Hall of Fame member Huck Seed, fifth Hans Lund, and sixth Johnny Chan.

Event #16: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em can be considered a warm-up before the Main Event of the series. This tournament, with an average buy-in, entered history due to an interesting heads-up where successful businessman Lyle Berman, the future head of WPT, defeated Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica. Brenes would later join the club of players who have made the WSOP prize money over 100 times.

Event #17: $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo was won by Eli Balas from Nevada. The tournament attracted 204 players, and the main prize was $122,400. Many well-known players, who were preparing for the expensive Saturday tournament, skipped this event.

Lyle Berman
Lyle Berman
Todd Brunson, the son of Doyle Brunson, made his first WSOP cash at the 1992 series.

Todd Brunson, the son of Doyle Brunson, made his first WSOP cash at the 1992 series.

Event #18: $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, one of the more expensive tournaments in the series, attracted 53 participants. The winner was Mickey Appleman from New Jersey. For Mickey, this was his second WSOP bracelet, with his first won back in 1980. Over the past 12 years, Mickey has played at the final tables nine times, often securing third place. In his subsequent career, Mickey would win two more bracelets. By 2025, Mickey had slowed down and could only boast a 57th place finish in the 2022 tournament.

The last penultimate tournament, Event #19: $1,500 Limit Hold’em, took place on Sunday, May 10, with an affordable buy-in. It was in this tournament that the organizers planned to set a new record, but they failed. The tournament attracted 378 players, making it the best event of the 1992 series but unable to break the 1989 record of 449 players.

Why do we think this tournament was intended to set a new record:

  • A one-day tournament was scheduled on weekend days for the convenience of participants, many of whom were not professional players.
  • An affordable buy-in of $1,500.
  • The most popular type of poker at that time.
  • The tournament preceded the start of the Main Event, when most players who had missed the extended series gathered in Las Vegas.

Bob Abell from Nevada took the bracelet in this tournament, and typically for such large tournaments, this was his only success in the series. Thus, this tournament could have attracted more newcomers, who competed with the series regulars.

WSOP 1992 Results

DateEventEntriesWinnerPrizeRunner-Up
April 22Event #1: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha135Billy Thomas$81,000Joe Lazar
April 23Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em254Lance Straughn$152,400Greg Angel
April 24Event #3: $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo175Richard Steiner$105,000Marsha Waggoner
April 25Event #4: $2,500 Limit Hold’em168Erik Seidel$168,000Phil Hellmuth
April 26Event #5: $2,500 Limit Seven Card Stud106Ray Rumler$106,000Esther Rossi
April 27Event #6: $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud201Men Nguyen$120,600Tom McEvoy
April 28Event #7: $1,500 Limit Omaha132Tom McEvoy$79,200Berry Johnston
April 29Event #8: $5,000 Limit Hold’em88Phil Hellmuth$188,000Steve Kopp
April 30Event #9: $1,500 Limit Razz134Lamar Hampton$80,400Men Nguyen
May 01Event #10 $1,000 Ladies Limit Seven Card Stud155Shari Flanzer$98,000Kim Alford
May 02Event #11: $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em134Ken Duggan$134,000Noli Francisco
May 03Event #12: $1,500 Limit A-5 Draw Lowball150Dal Derovin$90,000Vince Burgio
May 04Event #13: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha48Hoyt Corkins$96,000O’Neil Longson
May 05Event #14: $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud61Paul Clark$122,000Ray Rumler
May 06Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em193Louis Bonnecaze$115,800James Athanas
May 07Event #16: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em192Lyle Berman$192,000Humberto Brenes
May 08Event #17: $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo204Eli Balas$61,200Marlon Santos
May 09Event #18: $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw53Mickey Appleman$119,250Huck Seed
May 10Event #19: $1,500 Limit Hold’em378Bob Abell$226,800Rocky Romano

* We use the official WSOP data on tournament dates, their order, and the number of players.

WSOP 1992 Main Event

According to official information, the 1992 Main Event started on Monday, May 11, and lasted until Saturday, May 16. The tournament registered 201 players, marking the first time in history that the Main Event attracted fewer participants than the previous year.

The organizers maintained a $1,000,000 prize for the tournament winner, and other participants in the prize zone received smaller payouts.

Before the tournament began, the reigning champion Brad Daugherty was asked which players he considered the most dangerous opponents, who had high chances of winning the tournament. Daugherty pointed to Johnny Chan without much hesitation. Irish player Donnacha O’Dea, who had twice played at the final table of the WSOP Main Event, agreed with him:

“Johnny Chan’s record in the event is outstanding. When he won it twice and then was second [that was more impressive] than previous double champions.”

Another contender was Phil Hellmuth, who was having a good series and had already won a bracelet this year.

Phil Hellmuth responded:

“It was my dream to win the WSOP. I did it and I won it as the youngest ever to do it.”

Despite his fighting spirit, Phil did not reach the series prize zone again, which included 36 places, and Johnny Chan became one of the best players in this tournament.

In the Money

Famous players in the tournament’s prize zone included Dewey Tomko (34th place), Chris Bjorin from Sweden (25th place), Mel Judah from the United Kingdom (24th place), Mike Sexton (23rd place), Barry Greenstein (22nd place), Surindar Sunar from the United Kingdom (20th place), Berry Johnston (17th place), Bobby Baldwin (15th place), Todd Brunson (13th place), former champion Jack Keller (8th place), and former champion Johnny Chan (7th place).

The official final table consisted of 6 places and was formed after Johnny Chan was eliminated. He became the most successful of the former champions, meaning that in 1992, the poker world recognized a new name.

Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan eliminated on 7th place
Hans 'Tuna' Lund playing second WSOP Main Event final table with Dave Crunkleton
Hans ‘Tuna’ Lund playing second WSOP Main Event final table with Dave Crunkleton
dave crunkleton poker chip
Dave Crunkleton collectible poker chip from 1996

Final Table

At the final table played:

  • Clyde Coleman: A poker enthusiast from Oklahoma, first making his mark at WSOP in 1992. He took 10th place in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, and his next success was reaching the Main Event final table. Later, he continued to play poker occasionally until 2007 and reached the final tables of WSOP tournaments twice but did not win his bracelet. Collectors can find a chip with his photo and the inscription “Co-Best All Around’ 94”—this chip was released in a limited run of 1,200 pieces by the Queens Poker Classic series in January 1996.
  • Dave Crunkleton: A player from North Carolina who later moved to Las Vegas to earn a living through poker. You may remember Dave from the 1990 tournament where he took third place. At that final table, Dave played alongside Hans Lund, who was also present at the 1992 final table. Crunkleton was a successful player and regularly made final tables in the series but never won a bracelet. Collectors can find a chip with his photo and signature.
  • Mike Alsaadi: A player from Las Vegas, first making his mark at WSOP in 1990 and immediately in the Main Event prizes, where he took 16th place. In 1991, he took 6th place in the WSOP No-Limit Hold’em tournament for $2,500, and here he was at the final table.
  • Hans ‘Tuna’ Lund: An American professional who had already played at the Main Event final table and lost to Iranian player Mansour Matloubi. This year, Lund again reached the final table and played against the Iranian chip leader. Lund was an excellent player and regularly won final tables in his career, earning $2,915,543, and played poker until his untimely death in 2009.
  • Thomas Jacobs: A player from Las Vegas, first making his mark at WSOP back in 1985. He regularly played in the Main Event, including taking 9th place in 1986 and 24th place in 1987. His greatest success at that time was second place in the PLO tournament for $1,000. It is worth noting that Thomas continues to play poker; he won a bracelet in 2003 and made the WSOP prize money in 2023.
  • Hamid Dastmalchi: An Iranian player living in San Diego, California. Hamid successfully played at the 1985 WSOP and had already won a bracelet in 1986. In the Main Events, he was in the prize money three times and even played at the final table in 1985, where he took fifth place.

Hamid Dastmalchi was the chip leader at the table and managed to maintain his lead throughout the game.

Clyde Coleman, with a short stack, went all-in, lost to Dave Crunkleton, and was eliminated in sixth place with a prize of $30,300.

Dave Crunkleton was eliminated in fifth place when his pre-flop all-in with pocket eights lost to a coin flip against A-Q Hans Lund when the dealer dealt a queen on the flop.

Mike Alsaadi took fourth place, losing with a dominant hand A-J against K-J Thomas Jacobs, who strengthened his hand by receiving a king on the flop.

Third place went to Hans ‘Tuna’ Lund, who had a small stack remaining. He was forced to go all-in with offsuit 8-7 and was called by Thomas Jacobs with K 8 . The flop came 5-3-2, giving Thomas a flush draw. His draw did not complete, but he won the hand. A disappointed Lund, once again losing at the final table of the Main Event, asked Jacobs to let the Iranian opponent win.

After Lund’s elimination, in an interview with Chris Marlowe, he stated:

“I did make a mistake on the hand before, but I made the play I had to make.”

Meanwhile, the game moved into the heads-up stage for the one million dollar prize.

Heads-Up

Before the heads-up began, Hamid went into a corner of the room and stood on his head. When asked why he was doing this, the Iranian player responded:

“It makes you think better.”

Perhaps this helped Hamid maintain his concentration. He played confidently at the final table and, having a leading stack, easily took the heads-up to the final point.

In the decisive hand of the heads-up, Hamid Dastmalchi had a weak starting hand 8 4 against J 7 Tom Jacobs. The large stack allowed the Iranian player to make a loose call of the opponent’s bet, after which the dealer revealed J 5 7 on the table.

Opening the Poker Odds Calculator and comparing the players’ hands at that moment:

Thomas Jacobs had two pairs and an 83% chance to win. Hamid Dastmalchi had a gutshot and 4 outs.

Final hand of WSOP ME 1992
Final hand of WSOP ME 1992

Jacobs decided to carefully play his two pairs and made a small bet on the flop, allowing his opponent to cheaply call and better catch up on the turn.

Unfortunately for him, the turn revealed 6 , which completely changed the situation. Now Dastmalchi had a 90% chance to win, and Jacobs had 4 outs for a full house.

Hamid checked, to which Thomas went all-in. Hamid made a light call with 8 on the river, and Hamid Dastmalchi became the WSOP 1992 champion!

The Winner – Hamid Dastmalchi

Hamid Dastmalchi
Hamid Dastmalchi
Hamid Dastmalchi poker chip
Hamid Dastmalchi poker chip

Hamid Reza Dastmalchi was born and raised in Iran before moving to the USA. He was introduced to card games at the age of 12 and regularly played with friends and family.

Hamid recounted the legend that he is a real estate investor in San Diego and, since his business was going well, he could relax and play poker at high limits. In reality, Hamid had been a high-level professional player for many years. He consciously maintained the image of a businessman to confuse opponents.

Throughout his poker career, he won 3 WSOP bracelets, reached the final tables 7 times out of 10 WSOP prize money appearances. He won $1,825,295 and did not appear in poker tournament prize money since 2002.

Once, Hamid Dastmalchi played at The Mirage casino for four days nonstop against Ted Forrest. As a result of this duel, the Iranian was taken out of the casino on a stretcher, and his health was undermined by lack of sleep, nervous tension, and fifty packs of cigarettes smoked. Ted recounted that during the game, Dastmalchi complained about the Binion family, who ran the Horseshoe casino and the WSOP series. In his opinion, the championship bracelet was cheap:

“They say it’s worth $5,000, but I’d take $1,500 for it.”

Forrest handed Dastmalchi three chips valued at $500 each and later received a package from Hamid containing the bracelet. Now, the 1992 championship bracelet is with Ted Forrest.

In 1999, Hamid became involved in a legal dispute with the series organizers. He held a winning chip stack of $750,000, but Becky Binion replaced Jack Binion as the casino’s manager and did not allow the chips to be exchanged. Casino representatives called the chips “chocolate chip cookies.” The Nevada Gaming Board got involved, forcing the casino to cash out the chips and give the winnings to Dastmalchi.

Hamid Dastmalchi participated in high-stakes cash games, including being part of “The Corporation” in the legendary 2004 match against businessman Andy Beal. This was a game with limits ranging from $10,000/$20,000 to $100,000/$200,000 held at the Bellagio casino. In this match, the wealthy businessman Andy Beal played against the best professionals and won $11.7 million on May 13. This was the most expensive poker game in history up to that point. Subsequently, “The Corporation” struck back and won $16 million, after which Andy Beal refused to continue the game. Despite this, he returned to high-stakes play in 2006. You can learn about this story from the book “The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time” by Michael Craig.

After the conflict with the Binion family, the WSOP boycott, and the lost marathon, Hamid lost interest in poker. Rumors say he found another interest and left the USA more than ten years ago.

WSOP 1992 Main Event Results

PlacePlayerPrize
1stHamid Dastmalchi$1,000,000
2ndThomas Jacobs$353,500
3rdHans ‘Tuna’ Lund$176,750
4thMike Alsaadi$101,000
5thDave Crunkleton$60,600
6thClyde Coleman$30,300
7thJohnny Chan$25,250
8thJack Keller$20,200
9thChristopher Goulding$15,150
10thBill Rothstein$10,100
11thHarry Thomas Jr.$10,100
12thJohn Bonetti$10,100
13thTodd Brunson$10,100
14thPat Rao$10,100
15thBobby Baldwin$10,100
16thJohn Heaney$10,100
17thBerry Johnston$10,100
18thJeffrey Rothstein$10,100
19thJose Rosenkrantz$8,080
20thSurindar Sunar$8,080
21stTelly Savalas$8,080
22ndBarry Greenstein$8,080
23rdMike Sexton$8,080
24thMel Judah$8,080
25thChris Bjorin$8,080
26thGreg Meyer$8,080
27thJosef Monro$8,080
28thDavid Rubin$7,070
29thRon Stanley$7,070
30thTom Hufnagle$7,070
31stBrent Carter$7,070
32ndDanny Yu$7,070
33rdHoward Andrew$7,070
34thDewey Tomko$7,070
35thJack Green$7,070
36thRobert Turner$7,070

Interesting Facts

  • The series consisted of 20 tournaments, 2 more than in 1991.
  • The series lasted 24 days, making it the longest in history.
  • For the first time, the Main Event had a decreased number of participants (201).
  • According to official data, the women’s tournament set a record for the number of players (155) despite doubling the buy-in. However, other sources indicate 95 players, which is less than the previous record (141).
  • First bracelets for Erik Seidel and Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen.
  • Phil Hellmuth won his second bracelet.
  • Hamid Dastmalchi became the second foreigner in WSOP history to win the Main Event. Both winners were from Iran (the first was Mansour Matloubi in 1990), and both Iranians played at the final table against Hans Lund and Dave Crunkleton.
  • Hamid Dastmalchi sold his championship bracelet to Ted Forrest for $1,500.

WSOP History

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