Poker has long been one of the most popular card games worldwide, and this popularity extends beyond playing it: people enjoy watching the game unfold as well.
It is one of the very few card games that can be considered a spectator sport, thanks to fans of the game having an unusual fascination with multiple aspects of it.
Down through history, from the high-stakes cash-only games, to those which take place on the live tournament circuit, to the online games that betting sites in Australia in and the rest of the world make available, many of us enjoy watching the best players do their thing.
The most famous players have a unique combination of skill and personality that keeps us interested, and this article lists some of the best-known of all time.
Johnny Moss Usually Took the Jackpot
Johnny Moss, a player from the United States of America, was one of the very first inductees into Poker’s Hall of Fame, and not without good reason.
Moss was born back in 1907, and stands as one of the finest poker players from that era. He was the winner of the first World Series of Poker, or WSOP, event, which took place in 1970, and it was still a cash game at that point. The next year, when it was undertaken as a freezeout, he went on to win it once more.
Moss kept playing the WSOP every year until he passed away, in 1995. He won the Main Event for the series again in 1974, taking a total of nine WSOP bracelets by the end of his life.
He also took place in a number of other tournaments, and gained fame for participating in high stakes cash games on a regular basis. He was nicknamed The Grand Old Man of Poker as a nod to his stature.
Amarillo Slim Upping the Ante
Amarillo Slim is without question one of the legends of the poker world. The American player, whose real name was Thomas Austin Preston Junior, died in 2012, at the age of 83, after enjoying a very colourful life.
Slim was famous for not only his poker playing skills, but a number of other gambling activities as well.
He won one of the very first WSOP Main Events, in 1872, and is credited with bringing a wider audience to poker as a result of that win.
Slim’s engaging personality and multiple appearances on TV and radio talk shows drew many people to poker, and he also enjoys a place in the Hall of Fame.
Checking and Raising with Chip Reese
David ‘Chip’ Reese was a player from the United States of America that is held by a number of people to be the finest poker player in the history of the game.
He got inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991, and, at 40-years old, stands as the youngest player to ever have received that honour.
In addition to his skills at cash games he was also a very skilled tournament player, and bears WSOP bracelet. He died in 2007, at the young age of 56-years old.