1971 World Series of Poker


The 1971 World Series of Poker was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe during May 1-15, 1971. This was only the 2nd installment of the World Series of Poker, but unlike at the 1970 event, freezeout tournaments were played to decide the winner of the main title. The freezeout structure replaced the cash games, and it was kept in use ever since. 5 freezeouts were played in total—4 preliminary events and the Main Event—each featuring a different poker variant. The preliminary events required player to put up a buy-in of $1K, while the Main Event buy-in was $5K.

Preliminary events

EventWinnerPrizeRunner-up
$1K Limit 7-Card StudPuggy Pearson$10KUnknown
$1K Limit RazzJimmy Casella$10KUnknown
$1K Limit 5-Card StudBill Boyd$10KUnknown
$1K Limit A-to-5 DrawJohnny Moss$10KUnknown

Main Event

There were 6 entrants to the main event, each paying $5,000 to enter the tournament. The game played was no limit Texas hold 'em. Johnny Moss won the tournament and took the whole prize pool. Moss's victory that year was the 1st time a player had been awarded the Main Event Championship 2 years in a row, a feat that would later be also accomplished by Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, and Johnny Chan.

Final table

PlaceNamePrize
1stJohnny Moss$30K
2ndWalter "Puggy" Pearson-
3rdUnknown-
4thUnknown-
5thUnknown-
6thUnknown-