Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson, Jack Stross or Amarillo Slim - The 1972 WSOP Main Event is slowly working its way down to the bottom three with Doyle Brunson leading the tournament and Puggy Pearson close behind. Amarillo Slim is the last to three at this stage with just 2,000 in chips.
Slim manages to consolidate his ultrashort when suddenly there is a deal coming to light. Doyle Brunson wasn't exactly getting a lot of media attention at the time, given the general opinion of the people and especially the tax authorities. Puggy Pearson had the same opinion and, given the fact that various reporters and even cameramen and presenters began to converge around the winner, a unique idea came up in the last three.
Amarillo Slim, at the time as the shortstack, was the only one enjoying the publicity coming from poker at that point. So the deal was to split the prize money according to ICM and put the official winner, who was the only one of the three interested in the publicity, in front of the TV. So that's what eventually happened. They both played very light into Amarillo, and he was able to gradually pull himself up and knock out Doyle Brunson, who earned $32,500 from the deal.
Puggy Pearson virtually gave up his stack in the same fashion and like Doyle, he takes home $32,500. Thus, of the $80,000 that was in play in the last three hands, Amarillo Slim took home just $15,000 as WSOP Main Event champion.
Although it may surprise you, the publicity of the casino and the game itself was not harmed due to this move. In fact, as the winner, Amarillo Slim enjoyed the publicity to the fullest and created great publicity for poker as a whole. He was invited to various talk shows and interviews across America, had thousands of copies published about him, and even got the opportunity to star in a movie. This was something only he was willing to undergo, causing a widespread positive opinion of poker itself.
And although, in terms of financial reward, Amarillo took home only a minimal amount, on top of which he didn't even win the iconic Champions bracelet (1972 was the only year the Main Event was braceletless), it was considered one of the breakthrough years that contributed significantly to the widespread opinion of poker.
Sources - YouTube, Wikipedia, Poker.org, PokerNews, PokerListings
