Johnny Moss – Poker Hall of Fame – 1979
The late Johnny Moss was a charter inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame and will always be remembered as a poker legend, winning nine WSOP bracelets including 3 Main Event titles.
Johnny was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1907. He was born into a working-class family and soon after Johnny was born his family decided to move to Dallas, and during the trip his mother died with a burst appendix. At just eight-years old Johnny wanted to work to help his family, and soon he got himself a job selling newspapers. Every day Johnny would walk three miles to get to work which was in downtown Dallas. While working here Johnny met two friends who would become life-long friends – Benny Binion and Chill Wills.
At only fifteen-years old Johnny was living in his own apartment and working for the Western Union Telegraph Company. At this young age Johnny had a desire to learn how to play poker, so he set out to a card room called the Otters Club, which was owned by the best player in Dallas – Mr. Wade. Eventually Mr. Wade agreed to hire Johnny to work looking out for cheaters in the card room. While working closely with Mr. Wade, Johnny learned from him and was eventually a winning player at the No-Limit Stud games. Johnny then played at the Elks Club card room which offered limit Hold’em. Johnny found the game hard to adjust to however he discussed his play daily with Mr. Wade and eventually was winning the games. After seeing the success of Limit Hold’em, Mr. Wade opened a new game at the Otters Club, – No-Limit Hold’em. The game suited Johnny and he often found himself winning $500 per day.
During his time in Dallas he met a girl called Virgie Ann Mouser and instantly fell in love with her. However, her father was a religious policeman who was strongly against Johnny and hated the thought of his daughter getting involved with people like Johnny. This didn’t stop Johnny though and he quit playing poker and took a regular job so she would marry him on May 1st, 1926. The regular job didn’t compare to poker however and Johnny quit his job. At this time the Otters Club was closed down and Johnny was forced to travel to find good games. While travelling he heard rumours of great games in the east Texas oilfields. Only employees were allowed to play in the games, so Johnny became a Texaco employee, and after a few months he quit with a bankroll of $4,000. He became partners in a bar in Texas where he played poker and pool for money, watching his bankroll grew to over $100,000.
In the early 1930’s Johnny began playing golf and found there were a lot of players prepared to gamble on the golf course. He practiced daily to get his handicap down to eight and found lots of players couldn’t cope with the pressure and crumbled at the final hole. Johnny however was a born gambler and always kept his composure to take down the bet. While in Texas, Johnny was challenged by Titanic Thompson, a well known high stake gambler. He challenged Johnny that he couldn’t shoot bogey golf, playing with only a 4-iron. Knowing that Titanic was so cunning and would have something up his sleeve, Johnny took a 4-iron club to a local blacksmith and got him to shape it into a 2-iron. When the two met on the golf course Johnny was missing almost every putt, then he realised the reason why – Titanic was paying someone to raise the greens to stop Johnny from putting. After realising this Johnny sent his caddy ‘home’, but on the way he stomped down the raised greens so that Johnny could putt, and it helped him win the bet.
In the 1940’s Johnny was drafted into the navy where he continued gambling, winning quite a bit of money playing poker and craps. When he was discharged at 38-years old he began playing the local games, however he was unable to crush like he used to and blew his $75,000 bankroll in only one week. It was at this point he would call on life-long friend Benny Binion who he met on the streets at a very young age. Benny was doing very well for himself and gave Johnny $100,000 to get him out of the hole. Johnny travelled all over Texas in search of good poker games, but the best would be in Las Vegas thanks to his friend Benny. Benny was approached by Nick ‘The Greek’ Dandolas who was also a charter inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame. Nick wanted Benny to set up the biggest poker game in the world, and that is exactly what he did. Johnny entered the game and won, picking up $2 million.
In 1970 Benny created an even bigger poker event – the World Series of Poker. After one week of play, Johnny Moss was voted the first ever WSOP Champion. In 1971 he won it again; in 1973 he finished second, and in 1974 he won it yet again. Overall Johnny won nine WSOP bracelets and he continued playing poker with friend Doyle Brunson until his death on 16th December, 1995. Johnny will always be remembered as one of pokers all time legends.
