WSOP 1995
It is a regrettable but nonetheless undeniable fact of life in contemporary America that an entire year can be defined by a single celebrity scandal. When did this first happen? Obviously, it was in 1995. While Hollywood and the professional sporting world had produced scandals that gripped the nation in years past, that was all just a warm up to the granddaddy of them all: the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
Hard as it may be to believe for those of us who found ourselves (against our better judgments) glued to the legal proceedings of this case, it was actually 11 years ago that the Juice found himself standing before the jury and famously trying to squeeze his hand into the glove that was just "too small." Whatever your personal feelings regarding the case and its ultimate outcome may happen to be, there is no denying that we as a nation had to face certain undesirable realities about ourselves as a result of it.
Personally, I've always found a tremendous round of solace and refuge from the vagaries of modern existence in the greatest of all poker tournaments: the World Series of Poker. And, in 1995, I felt myself drawn to the WSOP as a way of maintaining my sanity and getting names like Judge Ito, Barry Sheck and Kato Kaelin out of my head. I wanted those names to be replaced with the handles of my favorite professional poker players. And I was really counting on it to be an exciting tournament.
Fortunately, all of my hopes were more than met, because 1995 was an absolutely stellar year for the World Series of Poker. The field that entered the main event was absolutely massive - 273 in all - and comprised of a uniquely talented group of poker players. And, as had been the case in recent years, the buy-in fee of was $10,000 but this was a small amount to pay in order to be able to compete in such an awesome event.
To say that there was a lot of action at the 1995 World Series of Poker would be a bit of an understatement. Especially when you consider the fact that it was none other than "Action" Dan Harrington himself who pulled together the necessary amounts of skill, tenacity, determination and heart to win the championship and take home a tidy sum of $1,000,000 as a fitting reward for his great performance. They were few complaints about the outcome and few observers who felt that the championship had gone to the wrong player that year. Harrington was an absolute force of nature at the tables and it was a genuine thrill to watch him work his aggressive style of magic.
by Arthur Crowson
