Poker Legend: Johnny Moss

Born in Odessa, Texas, in 1907, Johnny Moss learned the art of gambling from a young age. He picked up the game of poker while employed by a local saloon as a teenager to make sure games remained clean.

Two years later he set off on a journey that many other poker players before and after him were to follow, when he set off around the USA looking for poker games.

In 1951 Moss faced off against the much older Nicholas Andreas Dandolos, or "Nick the Greek", a wealthy professional gambler from the Greek island of Crete, in a series of contests using almost every variation of the game that existed at the time and lasting around five months. The match-up, organized by another Texan - casino owner Benny Binion - is believed to be the inspiration for the World Series of Poker.

With Dandolos down by around $2-4 million dollars at the end of the marathon, he uttered the now famous words, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go."

While the Greek player's career was winding down, Moss was just getting started. He won the inaugural WSOP tournament at Benny Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, although he did so that year by a vote from his peers and was only given a silver cup for his efforts. He won the main event twice more, in 1971 and 1974, making him equal first with Stu Ungar for total number of main events won.

Moss played at every WSOP until his death in 1995, winning nine bracelets over the course of his career and $680,000 in prize money. His final victory came in 1988, at the ripe old age of 81.

Moss was respectfully given the nickname "the Grand Old Man" because of his old age and his dominance of the game. He was one of the inaugural members inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979, along with Dandolos, Felton McCorquodale, Red Winn, Sid Wyman, Bill Hickok and Edmond Hoyle.

The ace-ten hand in Texas Hold 'em is still widely-known as "the Johnny Moss".