Harold Arthur "Hal" Fowler (January 12, 1927 – November 7, 2000) was an American

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player known for winning the 1979 World Series of Poker Main Event. He is considered the first amateur poker player to become poker's World Champion. Fowler was born in

Rutland (city), Vermont The city of Rutland is the seat of Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 15,807. It is located approximately north of the Massachusetts state line, west of New Hampshire state line, ...

and later lived for many years in

Tulare, California Tulare ( ) is a city in Tulare County, California. The population was 68,875 at the 2020 census. It is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, eight miles south of Visalia and sixty miles north of Bakersfield. The city is named for th ...

. Before his WSOP victory, he worked as an advertising executive.

Poker

Although he was a relative unknown amateur player, Fowler won the

1979 World Series of Poker The 1979 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, USA. Preliminary events Main Event There were 54 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter th ...

Main Event. At one point in the tournament, he was down to around 2,000 in chips (out of over 500,000 total tournament chips) at a final table that included

Johnny Moss Johnny Moss (May 14, 1907 – December 16, 1995) was a gambler and professional poker player. He was the first winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, at the time a cash game event in which he was awarded the title by the vote of ...

Bobby Baldwin Bobby Baldwin (born c. 1950)MGM Mirage's 2006 proxy statement, filed on April 30, 2006, recorded Baldwin's age as 55 is a professional poker player and casino executive. As a poker player, Baldwin is best known as the winner of the 1978 World S ...

, and other professional players. Additionally, it is believed that Fowler could not cover the entrance fee and

Benny Binion Lester Ben Binion (November 20, 1904 – December 5, 1989), better known as Benny Binion, was an American gambling icon, career criminal, and convicted murderer who established illegal gambling operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area. H ...

had to loan it to him. Fowler's 1979 win is sometimes called the greatest upset in the history of the WSOP. Fowler defeated professional

Bobby Hoff Bobby ''"The Wizard"'' Hoff (December 14, 1939 – August 25, 2013) was an American professional poker player, based in Long Beach, California. According to Hoff, his nickname "The Wizard" refers to his ability to make mountains of chips di ...

heads up to win the championship when his made a gut-shot straight and defeated Hoff's on a board reading . Fowler later faded from the poker scene because of complications from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

that hurt his

eyesight Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum reflecte ...

and his

leg A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ca ...

s. Fowler's career tournament earnings exceeded $380,000. He died at the age of 73 of hemorrhagic shock due to upper gastro-intestinal bleeding, after having been driven to the hospital by a friend on November 7, 2000. He had been living in a seniors housing complex and was experiencing symptoms of a duodenal ulcer and cirrhosis.

World Series of Poker bracelet

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Hal 1927 births 2000 deaths American poker players World Series of Poker Main Event winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners People from Rutland (city), Vermont People from Tulare, California Deaths from diabetes