Famous Poker Players: Johnny Moss

One of the most legendary of all famous poker players is the late, great Johnny Moss (1907-1997). Born in Marshall, Texas, but having grown up in Odessa, this "Grand Old Man" among professional poker players began his career in poker by learning how to cheat at cards and became proficient at bad things like dealing from the bottom of the deck. Yet, Moss never really went in for that sort of thing, and so in his early teens he got himself hired by a saloon to be a game-watcher: he was to make sure that all of the card games were being played fairly and was to report to security if he spied any cheaters. This game-watching also allowed him to study poker for free, and learn all of the right ways to play the game like a master.

Two years after his security job at the saloon, Moss was confident enough in his poker knowledge to become a rounder. That is, he traveled from town to town, looking for saloons and casinos, and making his living and paying his way by being a card shark. Now those were some dangerous, Cowboy-like days down in Texas for men like gamblers, still, so Moss carried a gun on him. Many years later, after he had become the famous poker player we know him as today, a journalist asked Moss if he had ever killed anyone with his gun. Moss thought for a moment and then replied, "Well, I don't know if he died."

That was not the only time Moss was known to use his weapon. Once, playing as a rounder in Oklahoma, he spied a hole in the ceiling above his table and his experience told him a man up there was helping his opponents cheat him by reading his cards and giving them signals. Moss threatened to shoot the man if the hole wasn't closed up, but he got laughed at. So he opened up with a bullet into the hole and wounded the cheat in the butt.

The Grand Old Man surely did like to live life on the edge. There was another time after he was famous when Moss found himself down $250,000 to a businessman in a high-stakes golf game. The organizers of the event let it be known on the sly to Moss that they would rather kill that businessman than pay him; but Moss pulled out the game on the final few holes and won. After the game was over his competitor said to Moss, "You’re the luckiest man alive.” Moss replied, “No, sir, you are.”

But what Moss is really known for is, of course, winning at poker. He won the main event of the first two World Series of Poker events organized by Benny Binion in Las Vegas in 1970 and 1971, then took it again in 1974 (after finishing second in '72 and '73). Altogether he took eight WSOP bracelets and had 15 money finishes--an astounding achievement. He played in Texas Hold'em major events through 1995 and his career earnings are said to be $680,000, although in today's dollars that would make him a multimillionaire.

Speaking of winning millions, the WSOP was inspired by a 1949 poker playing marathon in Las Vegas event between Moss and Jimmy "The Greek" Dandelios. Moss beat The Greek for an estimated $2 million to $4 million, after which point Dandelios uttered the now famous phrase "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go."

Moss said once that to be successful at Hold'em "you’ve got to have ice water in your veins. You cut me right here and now, that’s what you’re gonna get. It isn’t gonna be blood, it’s gonna be ice water.”

Today, this gem among famous professional poker players is immortalized by his most deadly starting hand, the A-10 suited, which has been named "the Johnny Moss".

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