Johnny Moss: The Greatest Poker Player Of His Generation

Johnny Moss was The Greatest Of his time Was The Inaugural Winner Of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Johnny Moss was born on May 14, 1907, and lived until December 16, 1995.

Moss was born on May 14 of 1907, in the city of Marshall in Texas. He grew up in Dallas, Texas. It was in Dallas where he learned to play poker as a young boy.

He was the first person ever to win the Main Event World Series of Poker. This was back when the tournament had a different format.

Later he won consecutively twice in 1971 and 1974 in the current tournament format. He was the charter inductee in 1979 into the Poker Hall of Fame.

As a young boy, he was hired by a local club to supervise the games to make sure they were fairly played. While he was keeping the action safe from frauds, he was cementing the strategies of poker. A couple of years later, he traveled the country hunting for game action and he became a rounder.

An interesting event: Heads-up marathon with Nick The Greek

Moss played against Nick Dandolous a.k.a Nick the Greek in a “heads up” five-month-long poker marathon in 1949. The action was put in place by the alpha of the mob, Benny Binion. This won moss something between $2 and $4 million.