Today’s $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Re-Buys event started in a fashion hardly befitting its “World Championship” status. When the first hand of the day was dealt, there were only about ten players in the room. This made for some interesting confrontations, or rather non-confrontations, as some players found themselves raising empty chairs.
And then they arrived. One by one, the best poker players in the world straggled in as well as a few legends whose names don’t get mentioned quite as often this century as they did the last: O’Neil Longson, Billy Baxter, Bob Stupak. These are but a few of the players who sat atop the poker world in the 1970s and 80s but fly well below the radar today. But they happily step back into the limelight when the game is 2-7 draw, a fairly straightforward poker game that’s made quite a bit more dramatic when played no-limit and with re-buys.
One player who took advantage of both of these elements of the game early on today was Doyle Brunson. Staring at a large raise, Doyle went ahead and shoved the last of his money into the pot. He got called and his opponent showed him a 9-high low while Doyle could only show a 10-high. “I knew that hand wasn’t any good,” he mumbled before shouting, “Rebuy!” Taking a break from the game, Doyle visited a table that featured Barry Greenstein, Freddy Deeb, and Scotty Nguyen. “They just sit there,” Doyle said, commenting about the tight play at his table. “They’ve got no gamble in them.”
It was a particularly appropriate comment when you consider the history of this game at the World Series. Debuting in 1973, the first tournament was won by Jack Straus, one of the biggest gamblers of all-time. In 1974 the buy-in jumped to what it is today, $5,000, and the game was also played no-limit. “Sailor” Roberts, a man with almost as much gamble in him as Straus, took the title. In 1976 Doyle Brunson would win the bracelet in that event. The following year the buy-in jumped to $10,000 for the first time and Bobby Baldwin won $80,000 for coming in first. The buy-in stayed at $10,000 until 1983 when the event suddenly disappeared from the schedule. It returned the following year, but in 1986 the buy-in was reduced to $5,000. In the 1990s the event would be dominated by Billy Baxter, who has won the event five times, and John Bonetti, who has won it twice. Then in 1999 it suddenly vanished once again. Back on the schedule in 2000, Jen Harman took the title. It’s been going strong ever since, an old-school game that has managed to survive the rise and seemingly endless appeal of no-limit hold’em.
