The Story of the 1996 WSOP Main Event

One of the most unique world champions in the World Series of Poker’s 54-year history won the Main Event in 1996. Huckleberry Seed, known as ‘Huck’, took home a cool million dollars, leading to one of the tallest tales ever to be told. The 27th WSOP was packed with other legendary winners, as one of the longest waits for a second bracelet in poker history ended with a big fish catching gold.

The Missing Main Event

In the annals of poker history, we are fortunate to look back on many iconic moments that were caught on camera. From Stu Ungar’s legendary back-to-back wins in the early 1980s to Johnny Chan’s incredible domination of that decade’s conclusion, the shock emergence of The Poker Brat, a.k.a. Phil Hellmuth, and television entering the world of poker undoubtedly growing the WSOP brand and the sport.

While the early years of poker of history are mostly a mystery – orated stories being passed down over the years, since the start of the more modern age, relatively meticulous notes have been taken. That is why it is shocking to learn that the 1996 Main Event footage has seemingly been lost forever. According to players who were there, the 1996 edition of the Main Event was one of the best, and it gave birth to arguably the best myth to ever come from the WSOP. More on that later from the 1996 world champion’s own mouth. For now, we start with a look at the size and scope of the action, as the mid-1990s saw a pre-Moneymaker mini-explosion of poker.

Just as in 1995, there were a total of 24 events, with the female player Barbara Enright—the first and last lady ever to reach the Main Event final table at the time this article goes to press—becoming the second woman to win an open bracelet event. She beat 179 opponents to the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold ‘Em (Event #19) title for $180,000, confirming her as the first female player to hold three bracelets. This would be the last bracelet she won at the WSOP; however, the three bracelets she owns has her tied for most bracelets by a female player.

An important chapter in poker came later in the decade when the humble ‘lipstick’ or hole card camera made it into televised poker on the British show Late Night Poker. It’s inventor, Henry Orenstein, won his only WSOP bracelet in 1996, taking home $130,000 in Event #20: $5,000 Seven-Card Stud.

Big Names Rise and Fall

In other preliminary events, known legends of the game won, including Hans ‘Tuna’ Lund (Event #14: $1,500 Limit A-5 Draw Lowball), Men ‘The Master Nguyen’ (Event #13: $2,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo), and David Chiu, who won $396,000 in 528 player field Event #2: $2,000 Limit Hold’em event, which was a new record attendance and a prize pool of over a million dollars.

John Morgan became the first-ever English bracelet winner, taking down Event #8: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event for $227,815, while Freddy Deeb won Lebanon’s first WSOP title when he claimed $146,250 in Event #12: $5,000 No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw event.

The other events were won by Gregory Grivas (Event #1: $1,500 Chinese Poker), Gary Benson (Event #3: $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud), Dody Roach (Event #4: $1,500 Limit Omaha), John ‘Miami’ Cernuto (Event #5: $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo), Randy Holland (Event #6: $1,500 Limit Razz), Adeeb Harb (Event #7: $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo), Jim Huntley (Event #9: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy), Al Krux (Event #10: $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em), Frank Thompson (Event #11: $2,500 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo), Jim Feldhouse (Event #15: $5,000 Chinese Poker), Donny Kerr (Event #16: $3,000 Limit Hold’em), Marti Sigel (Event #17: $2,500 Limit Seven Card Stud), Sammy Farha (Event #18: $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha), Mel Wiener (Event #21: No Limit Hold’em), Tony Ma (Event #22: $5,000 Limit Hold’em), and Susie Isaacs (Event #23: $1,000 Ladies Limit Seven Card Stud)

The WSOP Main Event set a new attendance record with 295 entrants, each paying the $10,000 entry fee. Less than 10% of the field made the money with just 27 earning a minimum cash. Donnacha O’Dea (25th), Pete Vilandos (21st), and John Esposito (19th) all taking home $19,500. Others, including the reigning champion Dan Harrington (17th for $23,400), the 1986 champion Berry Johnston (16th for $23,400) and David Chiu (10th for $31,200) missed out on the final nine, with five Americans eventually making the final six.

The sixth member of the final showdown was Canadian player Andre Boyer. He would slide out in sixth place for $97,500 but another young hotshot was set to rise up to win the whole thing – Montanan player Huckleberry Seed.

Asked to explain his tactics, Seed’s explanation of the stages of the WSOP Main Event serve as seminal advice for young players to this day.

“The main thing was trying not to get too anxious,” he said. “In past years” – it was Seed’s seventh attempt at winning the Holy Grail of poker – “I would get up to 50,000 or 100,000 in chips, then get knocked out. I was determined not to play too aggressively. If I managed to get a lot of chips, I planned to try to hold on to them.”

After ending Day 1 double his starting stack, Seed lost a chunk of it with ace-king being shot down by Boyer’s set of sevens. Seed regained some momentum to end Day 2 with 248,000 chips and by the end of Day 3 had over double that amount, holding 632,000. As the final table began, only John John Bonetti (784,000) had more than the eventual winner, with An Tran (596,000), Dr. Bruce Van Horn (524,000), Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen (252,000), and Andre Boyer (153,000) battling for supremacy. Boyer, of course, busted first, leaving an all-American race to victory.

Seed Attacks His Way to Victory

Seed began the final table as he would end it – on the attack. Taking out Boyer, he followed up on this by taking out Tran (5th for $128,700) and Men ‘the Master’, who busted in fourth place for $195,000 after coming into the final six with just 8.5% of the chips in play. Three-handed, Seed flopped two pair, sevens and threes, and John Bonetti bet out with pocket eights. Seed raised and Bonetti called off his stack with his tournament life on the line. Seed had played it perfectly… until an eight landed on the river.

Bonetti had momentum after that fortuitous fifth street set of snowmen revitalized his chances. But another two pair sevens and threes paid off for Seed and when he made a full house on the river to beat Bonetti’s two-pair, Seed has his most dangerous opponent on the rack, eventually finishing him off with ace-jack beating Bonetti’s ace-three.

As Bonetti went to collect his third-place prize of $341,250 – the second time in four years he’d finished in that position – Huck Seed found himself heads-up for the title of world champion. The only problem was the enigmatic Dr. Bruce Van Horn, who began the duel with a 2-to-1 chip lead. A big win with pocket queens against Van Horn’s ace-jack flipped the script and suddenly Seed was playing for the title holding the outright lead.

On a flop of 9-8-4, Seed got it all in good again, this time with nine-eight against Van Horn’s king-eight of clubs. Another club on the turn – the ace – gave the good doctor a flush draw to go with his pair of kings but Seed faded the river to become world champ, an innocuous three of spades handing young Seed the championship at the age of just 27, the third-youngest winner in WSOP history.

“I know I can play really well,” Seed said after clinching the win. “I was pretty confident. I stayed on top of things, and I had a strong feeling I was going to win. But it’s not too often you win something like this no matter how good you are. Ever watch the Super Bowl? It’s like that; Look at the guys who win. They go crazy, they’re so happy. I think of poker as a sport. Sometimes it’s hard work, and sometimes it’s not so much fun. But when you win something like this, everything is worth it. It’s the same as winning the biggest event in any other sport. You can’t accomplish much more than that.”

The Myth of Huckleberry Seed

In his post-match interview, Seed said that he had a ‘strong feeling’ that he was going to win. Over the years that followed, Seed’s strong feeling developed into a myth that swept Las Vegas and beyond, namely that the unfancied youngster had enjoyed a premonition the night before he won the world title that he would win a million dollars. That, of course, was the top prize he won in 1996 when he became the world champion.

Years later, a new myth was told about Huck Seed. Again centering around him having a premonition that he would win a million dollars, this time he was deep in the Main Event but had not yet made the million-dollar paces, which by now went down all the way to the ninth-place. Busting for just over $30,000, a crestfallen Seed was said to be distraught at the vision failing him. So, Seed took his money and having busted in 14th place, put all $30,000 of it on the roulette wheel, choosing the number of his exit position, 14.

Around and around the little silver ball went, and after bouncing in and out of 14, landed in the 13 bed. Seed, disconsolate it was said, walked out of the casino. Waking the next morning to a call from the tournament director, who apologized as they got his place wrong. He had finished 13th instead of 14th.

Seed, of course, realized right away what it meant – the vision hadn’t failed. If he’d known that he had finished 13th instead of 14th, he would have put the $30,000 on the correct number and won just over – you guessed it – a million dollars.

It’s a great story but years later, this reporter caught up with Seed and he debunked possibly the greatest myth Vegas ever told.

“I’ve never had any vision like that,” he told me. “I’ve never taken poker tournament winnings straight to the roulette table. [I] mainly played only when a girl wanted to play, and I played along betting small.”

Huckleberry Seed remains one of the greatest-ever winners of the WSOP Main Event all these years on, million-dollar myth or not.

One year later, in 1997, an old hero was to return to Las Vegas in possibly the greatest story the Main Event ever told. The only tragic thing about it? That it was true.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Huck Seed	United States	$1,000,000
2nd	Bruce Van Horn	United States	$585,000
3rd	John Bonetti	United States	$341,250
4th	Men Nguyen	United States	$195,000
5th	An Tran	United States	$128,700
6th	Andre Boyer	Canada	$97,500

1995 WSOP Main Event 1997 WSOP Main Event

About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.