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1991 Super Bowl of Poker

The Super Bowl of Poker (also known as Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker or SBOP) was the second most prestigious poker tournament in the world during the 1980s. While the World Series of Poker was already drawing larger crowds as more and more amateurs sought it out, the SBOP "was an affair limited almost exclusively to pros and hard-core amateurs."

The 1991 Tournament was the last SBOP. After Caesar's Casino in Las Vegas closed its poker room, Amarillo Slim had to find a new location for the event and the best deal that he could find forced participants to drive two hours. This resulted in the smallest SBOP fields ever; the Main Event only had 12 participants. Because of the small size of the field, fewer people were paid than in previous tournaments and the prestige of winning the events suffered a setback that doomed the SBOP.

The winners of the tournament, however, continued to represent some of the biggest names in poker. Barbara Enright, the only woman in the Poker Hall of Fame, won the ladies event. Jack Keller, another Hall of Famer, won two events, the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha and the $10,000 Main Event. Having won the event in 1984, this was his second time to have won the $10,000 Main Event.

Prior to SBOP, the only high dollar tournament a person could enter was the WSOP. "The World Series of Poker was so successful that everybody wanted more than one tournament," Amarillo Slim said. Slim called upon his connections and friendships with poker's elite to start a new tournament in the February 1979. Before the SBOP had developed a reputation of its own, many of the most respected names in poker attended the tournament "more to support Slim and take advantage of the very fat cash games the event would obviously inspire." Slim modelled his SBOP after the WSOP with several events and a $10,000 Texas Hold'em Main Event.

One of the principal differences between the WSOP and the SBOP was the prize structure. The WSOP's prize structure was flat, ensuring more people received smaller pieces of the prize pool. The SBOP typically used a 60-30-10 payout structure. In other words, only the first three places received money and generally in the ratio of 60% to first place, 30% to second place, and 10% to third. This payment schedule dominated in the SBOP for the first 5 years of the event, but as the event grew the number of payouts increased while keeping the payout schedule top heavy.

Key

* Elected to the Poker Hall of Fame.
Denotes player who is deceased.
Place The place in which people finish.
Name The name of the player
Prize (US$) Event prize money

Event 1: $500 Limit Hold'em

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Buster Jackson $29,000
2nd Bill Nelson $14,500
3rd Dave Anderson $7,250
4th Paul Sherr $4,713
5th John Stephanian $3,625
6th Tom Fisher $2,538
7th J.C. Pearson $1,812
8th Todd Brunson $1,450
9th Ed Gar $1,087

Event 2: $500 Limit Omaha

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Marlon De Los Santos $15,800
2nd Jim Doman $9,875
3rd Joe Holmes $3,950
4th John Cernuto $2,765
5th Raymond Mancini $2,173
6th Luc Delrieu $1,778
7th Al Hauck $1,382
8th Mike Sexton $987
9th Amarillo Slim* $790

Event 3: $500 Limit Seven Card Stud

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Rich Korbin $19,800
2nd John Andiovec $12,375
3rd Chuck McCormick $4,950
4th Bob Addington $3,465
5th Tommy Hugnagle $2,970
6th Eric Drache $2,475
7th Jim Doman $1,980
8th Dave Anderson $1,485

Event 4: $1,000 Limit Ace To Five Lowball

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st John Bonetti $11,600
2nd Bruce Coons $7,250
3rd Billy Baxter* $2,900
4th Fred Sigur $2,030
5th Ed Pellegrini $1,740
6th Don Zewin $1,450
7th Bob Pendergast $1,160
8th Wayne Sharpe $870

Event 5: $1,000 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Tommy Hufnagle $22,000
2nd John Cernuto $13,700
3rd Ernie Ostreicher $5,500
4th Gene Fisher $3,850
5th Amarillo Slim* $3,025
6th Brad Nadell $2,475
7th Jim Doman $1,925
8th Bret Carter $1,375
9th Joel Cohn $1,100

Event 5: $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Ed Pellegrini $14,400
2nd Ralph Hoots $9,000
3rd K Rusi $3,600
4th David Brody $2,520
5th Brian Nadell $2,160
6th George Feher $1,800
7th Ed Clemente $1,440
8th Ed Gallant $1,080

Event 6: $ 1,000 Pot Limit Omaha

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Jack Keller* $15,200
2nd Amarillo Slim* $9,500
3rd Luc Delrieu $3,800
4th Hans Lund $2,660
5th Paul Sherr $2,090
6th Gene Fisher $1,710
7th Surinder Sunar $1,330
8th Jack Culp $950
9th Bob Ciaffone $760

Event 7: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Razz

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st John Cernuto $14,000
2nd Brian Nadell $7,000
3rd Morris Kessler $4,200
4th Richard Schwartz $2,800

Event 8: $1,000 Limit Hold'em

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Rick Riolo $22,800
2nd Ed Edmundson $14,250
3rd Hoyt Corkins $5,700
4th Mike Laing $3,990
5th Al Korsin $3,135
6th Ralph Levine $2,565
7th Susy Thunder $1,995
8th Don Williams $1,425
9th Dave Anderson $1,140

Event 9: $1,000 Limit Omaha

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Elmer Thomas $13,500
2nd Frank Henderson $7,500
3rd Gene Fisher $4,500
4th Bob Ciaffone $3,000
5th Jack Culp $1,500

Event 10: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Stud

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Mori Eskand $13,950
2nd Gail Ross $7,750
3rd Fred Sigur $4,650
4th Harvey Krendel $3,100
5th Alma McClelland $1,550

Event 11: $1,500 Limit Hold'em

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Bill O'Connor $25,800
2nd John Bonetti $16,125
3rd Todd Brunson $6,450
4th Hal Kant $4,515
5th Allan Stonum $3,548
6th Frank Henderson $2,903
7th Amarillo Slim* $2,257
8th T.J. Cloutier* $1,612
9th Dan Sargent $1,290

Event 12: $2,500 No-Limit Deuce To Seven Lowball with Rebuys

Event 13: $1,500 Limit Hold'em

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Mike Laing $22,950
2nd T.J. Cloutier* $12,750
3rd Jim Doman $7,650
4th Mike Sexton $5,100
5th Fred Sigur $2,550

Event 14: $400 Seven Card Stud (Ladies)

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Barbara Enright* $2,860
2nd Alma McClelland $1,560
3rd Patricia Puckett $780

Event 15: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Final table
Place Name Prize
1st Jack Keller* $52,250
2nd Berry Johnston* $28,500
3rd B Parrott $14,250
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