The 1972 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held during early May 1972 at the Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the 3rd annual installment of the World Series of Poker, and also the 2nd one to feature the freezeout structure. In comparison with the previous year's series, the number of events was cut back and the buy-ins were raised, resulting in 1 preliminary event and the Main Event both having the same buy-in of $10K (equals about $54K in 2011 U.S. dollars). The preliminary event featured 5-card stud poker and was won by Bill Boyd, the same man who won the 1971 5-card stud preliminary event. The previous years' double champion Johnny Moss was defeated early in the main event and Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston went on to win the tournament after a series of deals. Preliminary event The preliminary event had a very small turnout, featuring only last year's 5-card stud champion Bill Boyd, and an unknown player. The event was played out on May 7, and Boyd relieved the other player of his money, cashing for $20K. Boyd went on to win 2 more 5-card stud events in 1973 and 1974 until 5-card stud was dropped from the WSOP slate due to waning popularity. Main event 12 people were slated to appear at the main event, but due to reportedly attractive side cash games only 8 of them appeared at the tables on May 11th, the date the event was scheduled to run. Half of each player's $10K buy-in was covered by Benny Binion, who was looking to gain publicity from the event and thus draw bigger crowds into Binion's Horseshoe. The winner of previous 2 WSOP main events, Johnny Moss, took an early lead in the tournament, but soon ended up eliminated. Moss hit a set of deuces with 2-2 on a 9-7-2 flop and after a 10 came on the turn, he got all-in versus Doyle Brunson's pocket aces. However, Brunson hit a 3rd A on the river to win the hand. Moss had almost no chips left and got eliminated shortly afterwards. With 4 players left on the 2nd day of the tournament, Amarillo Slim, the would-be champion, was very short-stacked with less than 2,000 chips. Beating Brunson's pocket 10 with trip 5s on a 5-5-3 flop, Slim made his way back into the game and soon