1988 World Series of Poker

The 1988 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe between 5 May 1988, and 21 May 1988. ^[1]

1988 World Series of Poker
Location	Binion's Horseshoe, Las Vegas, Nevada
Dates	5 – 16 May
Champion
Johnny Chan
← 1987 1989 →

Events

There were 11 preliminary events at the 1988 World Series of Poker.^[2] Johnny Moss became the first player to win nine career bracelets. No other player would reach nine career bracelets until the 2003 WSOP.

#	Date	Event	Entries	Winner	Prize	Runner-up	Results
1	May 5, 1988	$1,500 Limit Hold'em	400	Val Carpenter (1/1)	$223,800	Jack Keller (0/2)	Results
2	May 6, 1988	$1,500 No Limit Hold'em	330	Russell Gibe (1/1)	$181,800	Hans Lund (0/1)	Results
3	May 7, 1988	$2,500 Pot Limit Omaha	111	Gilbert Gross (1/1)	$181,000	Hugh Todd	Results
4	May 8, 1988	$5,000 Seven Card Stud	79	Thor Hansen (1/1)	$158,000	David Heyden	Results
5	May 9, 1988	$1,000 Limit Omaha	228	David Helms (1/1)	$91,200	Don Williams (0/2)	Results
6	May 10, 1988	$1,500 Seven Card Stud Split	206	Lance Hilt (1/1)	$123,600	Joe Petro	Results
7	May 11, 1988	$500 Ladies' Seven Card Stud	85	Loretta Huber (1/1)	$17,000	Ester Rossi	Results
8	May 12, 1988	$1,500 Seven Card Stud	217	Merrill Hunt (1/1)	$130,200	Johnny Moss (0/8)	Results
9	May 13, 1988	$5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw	38	Seymour Leibowitz (1/1)	$157,500	Chip Reese (0/2)	Results
10	May 14, 1988	$1,500 Ace to Five Draw	194	Johnny Moss (1/9)	$116,400	Richard Chase	Results
11	May 15, 1988	$1,000 Seven Card Razz	192	Don Williams (1/3)	$76,800	Art Youngblood	Results
12	May 16, 1988	$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event	167	Johnny Chan (1/3)	$700,000	Erik Seidel	Results

Main Event

There were 167 entrants to the main event on 16 May 1988. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament, with the top 36 players finishing in the money. The 1988 Main Event was the second consecutive World Championship for Johnny Chan.^[3] The final hand that featured Chan against Erik Seidel would be featured in the 1998 movie Rounders.^[4][5] Jim Bechtel made the final table and finished in sixth place. He would later win the 1993 World Series of Poker Main Event.^[6]

Final table

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Johnny Chan	$700,000
2nd	Erik Seidel	$280,000
3rd	Ron Graham	$140,000
4th	Humberto Brenes	$77,000
5th	T. J. Cloutier	$63,000
6th	Jim Bechtel	$49,000

In The Money Finishes

NB: This list is restricted to In The Money finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.

Place	Name	Prize
9th	Jesse Alto	$21,000
15th	Jay Heimowitz	$12,500
18th	Roger Moore	$12,500
20th	Mike Hart	$10,000
23rd	Ken Flaton	$10,000
26th	Don Williams	$10,000
27th	David Sklansky	$8,750
28th	John Spadavecchia	$8,750
31st	Jack Keller	$7,500
32nd	Chip Reese	$7,500
33rd	Phil Hellmuth	$7,500