Flushed Out of the 1979 World Series
In the first part of this series on hands of destiny, I told you how a key hand at the 1978 WSOP turned the tide in favor of the eventual champion, Bobby Baldwin. Few people remember that a year later, Baldwin had a good shot at becoming a two-time champion. Here’s what happened in Baldwin’s Waterloo hand 30 years ago, followed by another hand of destiny that came down later at the ’79 final table.
When the action was still eight-handed, Sam Moon raised with two aces before the flop. Three other players called the raise, making it a four-way pot. Bobby Baldwin, the defending world champion, saw the flop with pocket eights. The flop came with something like 8-6-3. Baldwin had flopped top set against Moon’s aces. Moon bet $30,000 on the flop. Baldwin had $45,000 in front of him and moved in with the rest of his chips. The other two players folded, but Moon called the raise.
There were 54 players in the tournament that year and a total of $540,000 in chips were in play. There was well over $100,000 in the pot, meaning that whoever won this pot would become the chip leader. On fourth street, Moon spiked an ace and it was bye-bye Bobby. What a comedown: Instead of taking the lead by winning this hand when he flopped a set, Baldwin finished out of the money, since only five places were paid in 1979. Is it tough for a champion to repeat? You make the call.
This particular championship event led to one of the most spectacular conclusions in WSOP history, which I'll discuss in Part 3 of this series. When this next hand came up, the action was heads up between the distinguished pro Bobby Hoff and the rank amateur Hal Fowler.
Going into this key hand, Hoff had about a 3-to-2 chip lead on Fowler with a little over $300,00 to Fowler’s $200,000 of the $540,000 chips in play. Hoff had the K-6 of diamonds on the button and Fowler held the A-8 of diamonds. Hoff raised before the flop and Fowler called. The flop came 9-J-7 with one diamond. The flop gave Hoff nothing except an overcard while it gave Fowler an inside-straight draw. Fowler checked the flop, Hoff led with a $25,000 bet, and Fowler called drawing to his inside straight and a three-flush with an ace overcard.
We called Fowler “Mr. Inside Straight” at this World Series because he consistently drew to inside straights—especially at the final table—and made an amazing number of them. When the deuce of diamonds came on fourth street, it gave both Fowler and Hoff a backdoor flush draw. Fowler checked and Hoff bet $30,000, not a huge bet. Without hesitating, Fowler called with his middle-buster straight draw, an overcard, and the nut flush draw. That was a big draw with one card to come.
The river card was the diamond queen! Both men had made the flush. This time Fowler did not check—he moved in with his remaining $144,000. Hoff studied the situation, hesitating for a while, although his hesitation was more for the audience than anything else. At this point there was $298,000 in the pot of the $540,000 in play. Hoff had backdoored the second nuts. Naturally, he thought that he had the winner, so naturally he called the bet.
Fowler’s play was somewhat surprising. Why did he check the hand twice and then lead with it for all his chips? Once he had made the nuts, you would’ve thought that, if he believed that Hoff would bet, he would have checked to him. Hoff had the chip lead and was being the aggressor. But he had gotten out on a limb—he had started by trying to steal the pot and wound up making the hand, only to get it cracked. This hand actually turned the 1979 WSOP championship event around by putting Fowler in the lead, which he kept for the rest of the tournament.
There were 54 players in this tournament. If they were giving odds on the favorite and the favorite was even money, Fowler would have been 54-to-1 against to win it—the longest shot in the whole tournament. And now he had the chip lead at the final table heads-up.
On the videotape, Hal said that he had been playing poker for 42 years and had played hold’em for eight years. Although he was an amateur tournament player, at least he understood the basics of the game—and got lucky. Just goes to show you that anybody can do it!
Note: My writing partners Tom McEvoy, Dana Smith and I originally wrote this material for our book, Championship Tournament Hold’em Hands, published by Cardoza Publishing. I’ve adapted these lessons for you with Avery Cardoza’s permission.
