Earlier this year on an ordinary Monday afternoon, a bespectacled man walked into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Blvd. Tucked under his arm was an uninteresting box that only he knew contained something rather interesting – a pair of gold watches dating back more than 40 years.
These were not your run-of-the-mill wristwear, but rather evidence of a unique and often overlooked time of poker history, a year when the World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet, now the game’s highest accolade, was replaced in favor of watches.
1982 WSOP watches
The man holding the box was David Sklansky, who in 1978 forever changed poker by advocating a mathematical approach to the game in his groundbreaking book The Theory of Poker. Nicknamed “The Mathematician,” he proved his prowess just four years later when he won two WSOP tournaments in five days.
First, he won the 1982 WSOP Event #7: $800 Mixed Doubles Limit Seven Card Stud, a tournament that paired one man with one woman, alongside Dani Kelly, and followed that up by taking down Event #12: $1,000 Limit 5-Card Draw High. A year later, the Binions reverted back to the beloved bracelets players know today, and Sklansky captured his third piece of WSOP hardware by winning Event #11: $1,000 Limit Omaha.
It was a remarkable accomplishment, and for more than four decades he’s kept safe the evidence of his victories, both of which still worked. So, why was Sklansky carrying his 1982 WSOP gold watches, two of only 15 ever awarded, into a pawn shop? Well, he was looking to sell them of course, but not to just any of the dozens of pawn shops spread across Las Vegas. Oh no, he was walking into arguably the most famous pawn shop in the world, the home to the wildly popular television show Pawn Stars, and he was there to do it with cameras rolling.
Jonathan Pastore raised to 3,400 from the small blind and Kiwamu Watabe called from the big blind.
On the 9♥5♥9♦ flop, Pastore checked, Watabe bet 2,600, and Pastore called.
A 10♣ fell on the turn and Pastore went into check-call mode again, this time after Watabe bet 8,000.
The 10♦ river went check-check, and before Pastore could even show his cards, Watabe had mucked. Regardless, Pastore tabled A♦K♦ and was awarded the pot.
With around 20,000 in the pot, the board showed 3♣5♥7♦4♦, the big blind had bet 4,200 and Chino Rheem moved all in for 56,300. This sent the big blind deep into the tank, thinking for roughly two minutes. Eventually, he settled on a call.
Chino Rheem: A♦2♦
Big blind: 9♥9♠
Rheem had his opponent drawing only to a chop, but the Q♥ river meant Rheem had doubled up to over 120,000 chips.
