Since history only remembers the winners, you probably haven't heard this story, but that doesn't detract from its value. It was May 2001, just two years before random newcomer Chris Moneymaker, who had never played a live NLH tournament, beat the best of the best to win the WSOP Main Event. Turning a $39 satellite into a fantastic $2.5 million wrote the story of poker's Rocky Balboa, who suddenly became an unprecedented phenomenon.
An amateur who beat the world's elite. It was pure madness, something unimaginable, as if you had miraculously beaten Tiger Woods, Roger Federer or Michael Jordan. And yet Moneymaker did it. But while everyone is celebrating Chris and the poker boom that came with it, just two years earlier, Stan Schrier, a player you probably haven't heard of but who could have made world poker history in bold letters, was just one step away.
Stan, a Nebraska native, had always loved poker, but there wasn't much poker action in his home state, so he decided to head to Las Vegas. At that time, limit hold'em was almost everywhere and cash games were the main thing around the clubs. That was all Stan knew of the poker world. After selling his grocery store chain at the end of his retirement, a trip to Vegas seemed like a reasonable start to a "retirement retreat".
It wasn't long before Stan found himself at the legendary Binion's Horseshoe Casino, where, between speeches, someone talked him into trying an $80 satellite into the WSOP Main Event. Word got out, Stan played the satellite and somehow, miraculously, won it. And after four grueling 14-hour days, he suddenly found himself at the final table of an all-tournament event, facing Carlos Mortensen, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Phil Gordon, and Dewey Tomko (and it could have been worse if Daniel Negreanu hadn't busted out in 11th place).
Mortensen, Hellmuth and Tomko are members of the elite WSOP Poker Hall of Fame and have millions of dollars and countless poker accomplishments to their credit. Mortensen is a dangerous player known for his aggressive play, Hellmuth is easily at the top of the historic WSOP tables with 17 bracelets, and Tomko is a two-time Main Event runner-up who you simply don't want to face. Gordon has 2 WPT titles and 5 successful poker books to his name, while Matusow was famous for his four WSOP bracelets and brutal table talk, for which he was nicknamed "The Mouth".
Now imagine throwing in a retired man who'd spent his life running grocery stores among these sharks. "It was pure adrenaline," Stan recalls years later. "I was a 63-year-old grandfather at that table who had never played a no-limit tournament before."
His well-being was certainly not helped by the extravagant Hellmuth, who commented shortly before the final table: "I should be the best NLH player in the world, which I can now clearly prove. I'm in the zone and I'm playing flawlessly, you'd have to be crazy not to be scared of me!". Yes, those who were able to make a living at poker at the turn of the millennium were really good, and Stan definitely had something to worry about. "I've been in business all my life and dealt with pressure day in and day out. This isn't pressure for me, it's pleasure! (This is not pressure, this is pleasure!)"
Stan jumped onto the final table as fifth in chips and his strategy was mainly to stay cool. "I've been patient all my life in business and I've done the same in poker. Mortensen had more than half the chips and I just had him on my right. There were a lot of loose players on the table, so I decided to play tight and wait for them to get eliminated nicely one by one."
"I once had the privilege of playing Phil Ivey in Reno, against whom I fired a big bet in one spot. Phil tanked for a few minutes and finally folded, saying "You're the only person on the table I'm going to fold to, Tighty Whitey." Well, that's how my nickname came about." This style of play was also realized by Matusow, who at one point at this final table couldn't stand it anymore , "For God's sake, are you finally going to play something! I hope so, so I can throw my cards away right now!"
To make matters worse, there were several times when Stan forgot that he had cards and that it was his turn, so everyone had to wait for him to speak. Thus, most of the time there was only obliviousness from the long tank, which drove the occupants of that table even more crazy. But it was boiling hot among the players outside of Stan as well, for example Gordon blurted out Hellmuth in one spot and proudly let him feel it: "You're not the only one who can play poker here!".
Even though the players didn't do anything to each other, Stan remembers the table's occupants fondly. "They didn't pay much attention to me, so I was able to steal a few blinds. I just wanted to play the premium hands, but I didn't get many of them. I did some flush play against Steve Riehle, but mostly I was just trying to climb the pay ladder."
After CG amateur Steve Riehle and Germany's Henry Nowakowski busted out, things got even tougher. "There were 5 top players sitting there....and me! It wasn't so much about the money, it was more of an honor to be at a WSOP final table like that. But when I came out of the shock after a while, I started to realize the payjumps and I really wanted to win".
Well, one by one they fell nicely. First Matusow, then Hellmuth, and finally Gordon. "Hellmuth took it the worst. He had his whole family with him in the raily and he couldn't believe what had happened until the last moment." And so it was that Stan emerged on the podium, but he had to end his fairytale run there. In the last hand, he and he spun against Tomko's pair and since the board didn't come to the rescue, this fairy tale story ended a little sooner than the public might have liked.
Tomko appeared in heads-up play for the WSOP championship for the second time, but just like in 1982 when he had to bow out to Jack Straus, his opponent blew his dream triumph away. The flop ended it all , on which the fighters poured into each other with combinations (Mortensen) and (Tomko). Turnova didn't change anything, but Rivera ended the tournament for good and awarded the triumph to Carlos Mortensen.
"Just like all my life in the business, I never lost my head. But, what really hurt me was when reporters interviewed me just after I busted out, and meanwhile, behind my back, they were putting $1.5 million on the final table." It was a record amount for first place that year, not just in poker, but in the world of sports in general. Also, the 613 entries created the largest ever WSOP ME that year with a $5.9 million prizepool. Still, a check for $699,315 was certainly not to be thrown away. "It definitely helps when you have some money in the bank and you're not so scared of payouts. When you're trying to survive every single payjump at all costs, it doesn't bode well," Stan concluded the debate.
Today, 23 years after that amazing story, Stan is still extremely proud of his run. "Only 9 people make the final table of the ME WSOP each year. And I was one of them!". Far from giving up on poker, Stan added a full dozen final table appearances to his account the very next year. To date, the Hendon Mob records 54 cashouts to his name and nearly a million dollars in live tournament winnings.
Interestingly, until 2016, when he was plagued by health problems, Stan played the Main Event every single year and managed to qualify for it every single time! "I never pay the full amount, I believe in satellites!" Well, the satellites are what started it all. Whether in the case of Stan Schrier or, two years later, the legendary Chris Moneymaker.
Source - Wikipedia, WSOP, PokerNews, HendonMob
