The life of Johnny Moss was a unique one – both within poker as a game and purely about the man himself. The first-ever winners of the WSOP Main Event, a poker pioneer, and one of the charter inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame, Johnny Moss is a name that is and forever will be synonymous with the game of poker.  

Who was Johnny Moss really, though? Where did he come from and how close did he come to giving up before becoming a three-time world champion? The truth might surprise you.  

Old Before His Time  

Johnny Moss was nicknamed The Grand Old Man of Poker, but in truth, he was older coming to the game professionally purely because poker wasn’t a viable profession in any sense of the world. Born in 1907, his teens were spent during the era of the first World War and his thirties were spent during the Second World War.